Preservation of Mesa Grande

The Mesa Grande project is based on a strong preservation ethic that focuses upon preserving the mound for the future. While archaeological excavation provides an important window on the past, it is also a destructive process. Once a site has been excavated, it cannot be excavated again and much of the information it holds can be removed. On all archaeological excavations, the recording and preservation of information is critical.

Today, archaeological excavations in the United States are conducted almost exclusively where sites will be destroyed by construction projects. In the case of Mesa Grande, the site can, and will be, preserved. However, if the site is to be a cultural park dedicated to public education it will be necessary to expose some of the archaeological features, such as walls, so that visitors will understand the site. How do we do this in a relatively non-destructive way?

The approach taken at Mesa Grande has been to re-excavate and stabilize areas that were disturbed by digging in the last 100 years. When first excavated, these areas began to erode and many such areas were still eroding at the beginning of the Mesa Grande archaeological project. Archaeologists re-excavated damaged areas of the mound, primarily removing soil that built up during the historic period. The archaeology team stabilized and restored portions of the mound and prepares the areas for interpretation for visitors when the park is opened. This process allows us to solve current erosional problems, create interpretive areas, avoid new damage to the site, and gather significant new information about the mound.

SWAT volunteers excavating an ancient wall at the north end of the Mesa Grande platform mound. In 1887, famed anthropologist Frank Hamilton Cushing excavated this area, which was in need of repair by the 1990s.