Downtown archaeological dig turns up 21 burial sites
12-15-06 - North America — , Arizona
For the past month, archaeologists have been digging up a corner of downtown Tucson, and it's turning up treasures.
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The project is located in the block bounded by Stone and Toole Avenues and Alameda Street.
You can hear the work but you can't see it. Archaeologists are excavating four acres in secret.
Roger Anyon, project manager for Pima County Cultural Resources, says a fence was put up around the dig because, "The excavation area is essentially a cemetery."
Actually, two cemeteries were located there -- one military, the other civilian.
Anyon says, "The descendant groups with whom we have burial agreements have asked us to keep the area closed off from photography and from tours."
Archaeologists say so far, they've uncovered 21 burial sites.
Most of them were emptied in the 1800s, but seven of them had complete remains.
No one knows yet their ethnicity. To find out, lots of lab work has to be done.
Scott O'Mack, principal investigator for Statistical Research Inc. Archaeologists, says that there will be "precise measurements of individual bones and examining the morphology or shape of given skeletal elements."
Anyon says that so far, the biggest surprise was "finding the foundations of two historic houses right underneath what was a modern auto dealership."
O'Mack says, "We can look at the foundations that were put into place in the 1890s and the construction methods."
O'Mack says they are details historians can't find in written records.
Anyon says he hopes the findings will provide, "a lot of information about social structure, a lot of information about how people lived and how people died."
So far, only about 15 percent of the site is exposed. Digging will last about another year, so scientists hope to find more surprises about Tucson's past
You can follow progress of the excavation on the Joint Courts Archaeological Project website. "
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