USU lab helps archaeologists at Glen Canyon
Last month, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation awarded $2.3 million to study archaeological sites below Glen Canyon Dam, including at least one that may have been in danger of further erosion during the recent high-flow experiment.
In the test, bureau officials released about 41,500 cubic feet of water per second for 60 hours. The experiment is to check whether spring flooding, curtailed since construction of Glen Canyon Dam began in 1963, would benefit native fish, rebuild sandbars and return fine sediment to the Colorado River system.
But one concern is that the release could further erode riverbanks that preserve archaeological evidence. The grant was awarded to USU and the Zuni Cultural Resources Enterprise, fielded by the Zuni Pueblo. USU does geology while Zuni scientists carry out the archaeology. Over the next five years, they are to document and study ancient sites that may be in danger of eroding away.
Recently they worked near Nine Mile Draw, about five miles downstream from Glen Canyon Dam, notes USU. There, an eroded riverbank showed the presence of scientifically valuable information.
Four USU specialists are working on the project: Pederson, grad student Erin Tainer, project manager Gary O'Brien, and Tammy Rittenour, who oversees the luminescence laboratory operations.
The laboratory, the only one of its kind in Utah, can date sand sediments up to about 300,000 years old, Pederson noted last year when it opened. Grains of quartz in sand and pottery retain information about how long ago they were exposed to sunlight. The lab can test these and calculate when that was.
The teams think archaeological sites exist in both Glen Canyon and the Grand Canyon that are older than previously been believed. "There's the potential for finding archaeological sites that are many thousands of years old," he said. Evidence for an Anasazi presence is well-known, but the archaeologists are "very excited" about earlier material lower in the sediments.
They would like to learn whether people in the region were farming or following a hunter-gatherer lifestyle. If farming — and "there have been some indications" of farming, he said — archaeologists want to discover "when they might have started farming."
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