Ancient Pit House Discovered at Chaco

Photo © 2009 Gallup Independent / Adron Gardner

Chaco's latest archaeological discovery has now made the news. It's a big deal.

An ancient pit house was discovered in the maintenance area when they began to do the sewer upgrade work that has closed the campground.

Unfortunately, this also means the campground will likely be closed for quite a while. Work on the upgrade can't continue til the excavation is completed.

Even so, this is very exciting!

I heard about it soon after they discovered it, but it wasn't yet appropriate to publicize it. It is in an area off limits to visitors, so not sure if you can see it.

I'll keep you posted as I hear more!

Here's a portion of an article in the Gallup Independent; you need to subscribe or be in Gallup to get the paper yourself to read the rest of it.

(Photo caption) Park archaeologist Roger Moore points out some of the excavated area of a recently discovered pit house at Chaco Culture National Historical Park on Tuesday. Moore believes the uncovered area dates to around 500 B.C. Carbon dating from corn recovered in the fire pit will confirm the actual age of the discovery.

Copyright © 2009 Gallup Independent
By Helen Davis, Cibola County Bureau

CHACO CANYON NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK — New discoveries have a knack for coming about in unusual ways, as archaeologists at Chaco Canyon National Historical Park found out this summer.

It is not very romantic, but archaeologists monitoring work in progress on a sewer upgrade stopped work when signs of ancient human activity showed up at the proposed site of a lift station.

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Has anyone else heard more that they can share with us? Please comment below!