BLM-NM Rockshelter Site and Artifact Preservation, Protection and Study

The Rio Puerco Field Office (RPFO) has the opportunity to work with a partner to assist in proactive documentation and information gathering on cultural resources on the public lands. The first planned project focuses on a rockshelter site in Sandoval County, New Mexico, and involves detailed mapping and recording of features and artifacts. Artifacts have been identified as dating to the Late Archaic/Basketmaker II time period (2000 BC to AD 500). Other artifacts in the shelter may date to the Ancestral Pueblo time period. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) archaeologists have collected some unique artifacts when the site was first reported, and detailed analysis of existing collections would be included. This provides participants the opportunity to generate archaeological data and to summarize and synthesize it into a final report, which is a critical component of professional archaeological practice that is the goal of their training. Currently, the RPFO has funding to support in-field educational experiences in archaeological method and theory at a recently discovered rockshelter. This dry rockshelter has perishable artifacts and is the only such site known on public land within the field office.