
Nearly 9,000 Artifacts Uncovered in CA Desert, Spanning 11,500 Years of History - diodorus
http://westerndigs.org/nearly-9000-artifacts-uncovered-in-california-desert-spanning-11500-years-of-history/
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JoeAltmaier
Still there because mostly undisturbed I imagine. Any sites near human
habitation get messed with pretty badly.

My wife grew up on a mesa in New Mexico - White Rock, near Los Alamos. She
reports exploring as a child with neighbor kids. They found stone houses with
intact pottery inside, wooden frames and tools. The kids messed with them,
then the boys knocked everything down and threw the pots over the side of the
mesa. Nothing left but a few broken fragments today.

We'll be running out of places for archaeologist to explore one day.

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knowaveragejoe
FWIW, there's no way of knowing those houses are actually ancient artifacts.

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JoeAltmaier
I know of no modern population in the American Southwest that produced pottery
and stone houses on mesas. It seems a pretty safe bet. The other preserved
sites in the area are estimated at 500 years old. Not terribly ancient; but
worth preserving.

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kragen
Acoma Pueblo is currently producing pottery and stone houses on a mesa, as
they've been doing for 900 years, although like everybody else, they buy a lot
of their pottery at Wal-Mart. But they also make some to sell to tourists. And
more of their construction is adobe than stone at the moment, but a lot of it
(especially the older parts) is adobe-grouted masonry.

Wouldn't be surprising at all if those houses were 50, or 100, or 150 years
old, rather than ancient artifacts.

