Arizona State University - Sun Devil Spark / Sahuaro Yearbook (Tempe, AZ)

Page 13 text:

fore-runners l i l 'JPY 'mir Q? :riff A, -'C- ., .. .L ' ,fw-,,, -,J - -.J . X492- tween their working area and a trash heap of mangled modern construction material where Arizona State University trucks are parked, with Anthropolo- gy Department stenciled on the doors. The trucks look more like prospector's mules than trucks. They come every Saturday. Bikers occasionally come down from the mound in small groups to ask the people in the northeast corner what 'lu -47' g'5Wf4?f a:.ff ' X 5, .L K 'iii I they're doing. The bikers are informed that Indian ruins are being explored by ASU stu- dents in AN231, a course in archaeological field methods. The site, Mesa Grande, is similar in style and time period to the famous 1000-year-old ruins of Casa Grande on the Gila River, which historians believe was one of the exag- gerated Seven Cities of Gold that Spanish explorer Coron- ado sought vainly inthe South- FN A 1,1 1' .- g i:,.I: 'f lf- 4. , , fx Al, 'Viv , . 4 ,i' in ii -i ' Mesa Grande Site-7 1 'I , - ' 7 A-' :si

Page 12 text:

Two dozen people work methodically in the northeast corner, dismantling blocks of white ashen earth with paint brushes and dustpans. 6-Mesa Grande Site Mesa Grande messy and by Richard Howland There is a time warp in the city of Mesa. lt can be seen any Spring afternoon. Between a sprawling hospital and a row of antiseptic white apartments is a service road which ends at the burial place of time itself. With hands and faces white from fine chalky dust, like French actors in a surrealistic play, two dozen people work methodically in the northeast corner, dismantling blocks of earth with paint dustpans. Clouds dry fog, hover in much of the near- absorbed in the white ashen brushes and of dust, like the air while by noise is haze of heat. The muted scraping sounds of shovels and brooms are sporadically drowned out by the engines of motorcycles and minibikes, which falter in concert. Erratic heat waves wash the air with broken images that chase the motor- cycles over an acre-large mound rising irregularly from the ground. The mound is pillow-marked by ridges and dirt piles, laced by rain gutters and bike paths, and littered with drink cans and candy wrappers. ltseems hardly portentous of anything more than dust. However, some people in the northeast corner walk dutifully back and forth be-

Page 14 text:

With torn shorts and visible underwear, they have to slap the dust off themselves everytime they climb out of the trenches. west. Speculation by com- petent observers suggested that Mesa Grande could be an Indian temple, unique in the Southwest. Questions answered, the motorcyclists and minibikers wander away, but not before their names are recorded in a visitors book which keeps track of all the people who make an appearance at the place during excavation. This makes everyone who comes feel important, as though you've signed up for an inter- view at the gates of time. The visitors book is typical of the meticulous records kept by the gatekeepers of the Mesa Grande time zone, as the archaeologists try to preserve on paper what they inevitably 'fixing ry H qt, destroy in the ground by dig- ging. ln case the need for some unforseen kind of information arises later, after the time warp closes permanently, the visitors may be able to provide their impressions and recollections for a later investigation. Hardly a speck of dust is permitted to escape the area without being recorded. Note- books are scattered all over among the wheelbarrows, wooden sand sifters, shovels, and half-empty Coke bottles that the diggers drink from now and then as they bend under the hot sun sweeping loose sand into dustpans like neurotic housekeepers. The students, dressed in their bluejean cut-offs and white T-shirts, are assigned to I1 .. Y-.f ' a trench in groups of two or three. With torn shorts and visible underwear, they have to slap the dust off themselves everytime they climb out of the trenches, which so far have yielded a few soil types, pot- tery shards, slough from adobe walls, some actual walls, and a possible burial pit. Their early an-A - s . ,W , , v's ' ,- 5 I . V159 ' T . jf .gr f-f , , 'if , Z, W ' -fu, 'I' ' F' I 1 V . D .- 9 ' I Y. J ,J . ,- . - -- ' Y ,r . V U 4,7 Je' J. avi 'Y'-if. r:j13swl,, I . .U 9... , , Hp: Ur-' E:-'5'15'4..sg V- -vga. , :wg 'l Z ',-' ' -3212 .f .Jw fn. 5 - .ff.-Qidsugi ' f I - - ww ,fm ! -mi i.v - 3, .ig nm 1 ,ii'm , ' 'L ii, x Cffi -. A 1 A