Leaving the Pieces In Place

An untouched archaeology site holds valuable evidence about the past, and even broken pottery pieces called potsherds can help estimate a site's age. Painted pottery sherds on the ground surface are often used to date a site, but collecting them makes dating difficult, less accurate, or impossible. Scientific excavation is a controlled and documented destruction of an archaeological feature, because once soil, rock, and artifacts are removed, they cannot be put back in exactly the same way. Out of respect for the people who once lived in these places and their descendants, many sites have been left unexcavated. Researchers can date an undisturbed site from pottery sherds on the surface to within 25 years of its use. At Turkey Pen Pueblo on Cedar Mesa, artifacts have been removed for over 130 years, so surface artifacts can no longer reliably reveal the story of the people who lived there. Near Bullet Canyon on Cedar Mesa, undisturbed pottery fragments in a midden of sherds, stone flakes, hearth ash, and charcoal allow archaeologists to assess when a site was occupied, how it functioned, and what long-distance relationships its occupants had with other communities.

Blanding, Utah · United States