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Earth Notes: The Very Old Perishables of Cedar Mesa

The high plateau of Cedar Mesa in southern Utah is a stunning bit of scenery and archaeology. Early Puebloan farmers grew crops there and built stunning dwellings inside snug, dry sandstone alcoves. When they departed, they left behind tantalizing traces of their lives.

Among those traces were baskets, textiles, wood implements, and hide and feather goods. A huge number were removed in the late nineteenth century from Grand Gulch and other canyons of Cedar Mesa. Nearly 4,000 perishable artifacts, some around 2,000 years old, were deposited in museums mostly back East and in the Midwest.

Now, a small group of researchers is going back to those museums to study the pieces. The Cedar Mesa Perishables Project has been digging into the collections, documenting and photographing as many of the artifacts as they can. It’s been dubbed a kind of “reverse archaeology.”

An archaeologist, textile specialist, wildlife biologist, and weaver have been traveling to the Smithsonian, the Field Museum, the American Museum of Natural History, and three other institutions. They spend weeks examining yucca sandals; beaver-skin bags; bone awls; wood crutches; and even a hair ornament of bluebird, sapsucker, and junco feathers. Most are exquisitely made and in pristine condition.

The perishables project plans to make the photos and data available online and in a book for archaeologists, Native communities, and the public. It will give a rare glimpse into how people once lived on the Colorado Plateau, taking time to make goods both useful and beautiful.

For more on the Cedar Mesa Perishables Project as well as a slideshow, see  www.friendsofcedarmesa.org/perishablesproject.

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