“It's a strange thing that I haven't seen before,” she said. “Other archaeologists that I've spoken with have not seen before. It's going to be we have all of these puzzle pieces — what makes the most sense?”
Courtesy of Anne Stattelman
It also turns out it was the only spot in the area that had anything besides dirt in it, according to Millward.
“Which is fascinating, given the (site’s) long history of occupation,” she said. “That's the part I think is the coolest is they ended up with the needle in the haystack…when they opened up this trench, they got lucky enough to find the only area within that courtyard that had something cultural within it.”
The museum administration had to close up the trench last year until funding was in place to do an archeological investigation. Millward says when they returned recently they found more items, like an arrowhead and an old military uniform button. They’ll try to determine if the artifacts are related to each other or if they just got tossed into the same heap at some time.
“There's historic artifacts. There's Indigenous artifacts,” she said. “Whether or not it's related to a specific time period, like if it's related directly to the occupation of the fort or not, we don't know (yet).”
Courtesy of Anne Stattelman
She said she believes the button’s manufacture date was in the late 1800s or early 1900s, so they know it was discarded or lost sometime after that by the person who wore the uniform or by someone who got the uniform or button at a later time.
“A lot of what we find is people's trash. It's stuff that they dropped and couldn't find again, or stuff that got thrown away,” she said. “That's what archaeologists do as we look at people's trash.”
Now they’ll clean, test and analyze the artifacts to see how these diverse objects might have ended up in the same place. They'll use techniques like radiocarbon dating and soil sampling to look for evidence of biological material like grains or other foods. They also plan to collaborate with other archaeologists in the region. She expects a report of their findings to be finished next spring.
Related coverage
A previous version of this story incorrectly referred to La Veta's location in relation to Pueblo.
"behind" - Google News
July 17, 2023 at 05:00PM
https://ift.tt/teAni4L
Work is now underway to piece together the story behind surprise archeological find in La Veta - Colorado Public Radio
"behind" - Google News
https://ift.tt/QUAfINR
https://ift.tt/IZ3rG1O
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Work is now underway to piece together the story behind surprise archeological find in La Veta - Colorado Public Radio"
Post a Comment