Grand Canyon - Parashant National Monument

Archeology

Archeology, a branch of anthropology, is the scientific study of the material remains of past human life and activities. These include human artifacts from the very earliest stone tools to man-made objects that are buried or thrown away. Through the study of these artifacts, scientists seek to gain a greater understanding of the continuity, similarities and differences among human cultures.

Cultural

The cultural resources of the Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument are fragile and non-renewable. At the present time it is thought that at least 12,000 years of human occupational culture has occurred in the region. These cultures include the Paleo-Indians, the Archaic, the ceramic period, the protohistoric, the historic and the recent period. Most of this occupation of the Monument is unstudied, but impacted by wanton vandalism. The most obvious sites are those of the prehistoric ceramic (pottery) producing American Indians often referred to by Archaeologists as the "Anasazi", or "Hitsatsinom", or by the all inclusive "Puebloan Ancestors" by the advocates of political correctness. These sites are often either storage structures called cists, habitations (homes) called pueblos, and artifact scatters, or merely artifact scatters. Artifact scatters consist of one type, or any combination of types that include sherds (broken pottery fragments), chipped stone (flakes, projectile points, or other items), groundstone (mano and metate remains), and other remains of human activity.

Another site type is Rock Art both pecked (petroglyphs) and painted (pictographs) on the rock Although few on the Monument are Public Use oriented it is thought that as more research occurs more sites will be made available for public visitation and appreciation.

Historic

With the historic European invasion, and colonization of the west beginning in the Monument region around 1776 we are now realizing the Historic value of these sites as a continuation of the ongoing story of the land. The remains of farms, homesteads, lumber mills, mines, ranches, sheep camps, and other sites of importance to the region have been to a large extent allowed to disintegrate. However a few examples have survived the elements and the scavaging vandal. These sites are currently being considered for preservation efforts. It is hoped that they will eventually help educate, and instill a sense of conservation and appreciation to the general public.

One of the primary goals of the cultural resource program is to illustrate by example the depth of the human spirit now represented on the public lands. It is only with the cooperation of the general public that any of this is possible. Once our history is lost it cannot be recovered, and we all lose a bit of our identity as a species of considerable worldwide cultural diversity. The diversity of our species is what makes all of us unique and creates a sense of wonder and interest in our cumulative past.