Part of archaeological site destroyed in Albuquerque

KFDA Ch 10 Amarillo TX ^ | not listed | not listed

[ApplegateRanch]

Part of archaeological site destroyed in Albuquerque

ALBUQUERQUE Crews working on a waterline for a new high school on Albuquerque's west side have destroyed part of an archaeological site.

A University of New Mexico archaeologist, Bruce Huckell, says the site is possibly up to ten-thousand-900 years old.

He says the site was the first proof the presence of the Folsom culture in the Albuquerque basin.

Pieces of tools, teeth and bone fragments have been found at the site, which was discovered by Huckell eight years ago.

He says Albuquerque's public school district realized part of the site was damaged in August when the waterline work started.

Huckell says the district had carefully located the school around the site.

But he says the district didn't think about the location of the utilities for the school.

[ApplegateRanch]

According to my sister in Albuquerque:

"Someone" put an unauthorized dirt road over Site A. They put a water pipe-line through Site B. These sites were clearly marked, notification made, professors marked them, and yet these ~10,000 year old sites are ruined and the artifacts, destroyed.

Alb Public Schools denies making the dirt road. Contractors won't admit to it either. But....APS says it's a 'wonderful opportunity' to put the knowledge that the site WAS there in the curriculum for the future students!

Maxwell Museum of Anthropology on the UNM campus had given APS maps of the sites. These sites were clearly marked, notification made, professors marked them.

[ApplegateRanch]

Here's one for you.

[IronJack]

Dig a deep enough hole and you'll find evidence of something "archeological." If we are to stop progress every time we find a bone fragment, we might as well move back into mud huts.

Bottom line? Turn Mesa Verde into condos for all I care.

[Michael.SF.]

which was discovered by Huckell eight years ago.

They have had eight years to excavate the site, what was he on the 50 year plan?

[Jet Jaguar]

Okay, long story short.

Growing up in NW Albuquerque, I had a chance to see UNM archaeologists in work. They stopped by my friends house, we were 13, and talked to his father about the adobe ruins he had in the lot behind his backyard. They described them as an important find and worth preserving and investigating.

The property owner laughed his butt off. He told them they could poke around, but the adobe bricks they saw were the leftovers from when they had put up the wall around their backyard.

The aspiring archaeologist were a bit embarrassed.

[sine_nomine]

I agree. If we preserve all of the past, there is no present or future.

Excavation for new sites will always turn up these things. They found Peter's tomb, they think, under the Vatican. The pope said, "He really was here. Wow."

I suggest digging under all the prominent buildings in America. People have a way of building over older cities.

[FreePaul]

...the site is possibly up to ten-thousand-900 years old.

Which means that it is also possibly ten years old.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks ApplegateRanch.

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[3AngelaD]

"Cave condos at Mesa Verde" What a concept.