Preservation

Protection

         Protection and preservation of Mesa Prieta is the founding theme of the entire project.  Preservation will only happen through education.  Preservation ethic is promoted in all aspects of public interaction:  docent-led tours, public presentations, training of volunteers, the Summer Youth Intern Program, the school curriculum “Discovering Mesa Prieta”, and recording and survey work.
        Particularly important to the project and to the preservation of the petroglyphs is a strong relationship with local Pueblos.  Many of the images were undoubtedly made by their ancestors.  Our educational initiatives expose youth and adults from the Pueblos of Ohkay Owingeh, Santa Clara, San Ildefonso, Taos and others to the existence of the petroglyphs and to the ethics of heritage preservation and stewardship.    
    In 2014, The Wells Petroglyph Preserve was listed among the nation's eleven most threatened and at-risk art-in-the-landscapes by the Cultural Landscape Foundation  (TCLF).  Selected from over 100 submissions, the sites recognized in 2014 are detailed through in-depth narratives and newly commissioned photography by the Landslide® 2014:  Art and the Landscape's thematic compendium.  MORE

Sustaining Cultures

       The Mesa Prieta Petroglyph Project approaches the work conducted with respect for the cultures that created the petroglyphs and artifacts.  Mesa Prieta volunteers are taught to respect the images and cultural features found on the mesa.  They are asked to demonstrate objectivity when discussing and categorizing rock images, rather than to attempt to interpret what they mean.  While the temptation may be to describe the images in context with our present

This beautifully executed, complex Ancestral Puebloan panel exhibits clearly identifiable
images.  Their relationship and
meaning are not for us to understand.

culture, this is not appropriate.  We were not present when the images were made and we have no way of knowing what they mean.  To assume that we do would be disrespectful.
       Project leaders work closely with the local Pueblos and are sensitive to their connection with the pre-historic images.  We seek cultural participation from Pueblo members and affiliates.

Recording
        As stated in the mission statement, a primary goal of the Mesa Prieta Petroglyph Project is to record what may be well over 100,000 rock images on the mesa. This effort has been underway since 2002 and is expected to take decades to complete.

Recording Protocols
        In 2002, the first of many classes was held to instruct trainees in the complex process of petroglyph recording.  Led by Helen and Jay Crotty and Jean and Jerry Brody, long established leaders in petroglyph categorization and recording, the two-day class included over two dozen volunteers, several of whom continue with the project today.

All petroglyph recording trainees are instructed
in the use of a GPS unit.

       Petroglyph Recording Training is now held once a year in the spring based on the needs of the project.  Trainee volunteers are instructed in the use of Global Positioning System (GPS) units and digital cameras.   They learn how to take metric measurements and compass readings and they become proficient in the drawing skills needed to document images.  In addition, they are instructed in the protocols of placing images into the categorical system developed by the Crottys and Brodys.  This system, called the Rio Grande Style Petroglyph Categorization System, was developed to categorize most of the rock images found in New Mexico, especially in the region of the Rio Grande, running from the Colorado border to Texas and Mexico.  Volunteers are also introduced to the dynamics of working in teams, which enhances accuracy, as well as encourages discussion of how to categorize the elements.

Each petroglyph panel is carefully documented on a Photo Data Sheet (PDS).  Recorders are taught how to assess each petroglyph and enter the appropriate documentation.  All recording guidelines adhere to the standards set by the Archaeological Society of New Mexico Rock Art Council that assures consistency for all recording groups working in New Mexico.

     The training consists of a full day of classroom instruction, followed by two field training days, before a volunteer is assigned to work with a team in the field.  Mentors then work with each trainee at least two additional days in their assigned teams, for a total of five days of training. Neat, accurate and complete recording work is emphasized.  Project mentors stress that it is unlikely the archaeological features being recorded will ever be recorded again and that the data collected becomes the permanent archival record. Currently about thirty volunteers work as petroglyph recorders and surveyors on Mesa Prieta.  Recorders must be able to hike up to a mile each way in very rugged, steep terrain to access recording areas.

Recording Challenges

      Petroglyphs exist all across the mesa in varying densities.  Clusters exist around flat areas higher on the sides of the mesa that may have been used for field houses, ceremonial or agricultural purposes.  Other very dense areas are found in difficult to reach, remote areas on the mesa.   Conducting a proper archaeological survey presents challenges.

A recording team is shown working in a
boulder field on Mesa Prieta

     The side areas of the mesa consist of escarpments and scree slopes that are very steep and difficult to climb and maneuver within.   As the geology of the mesa comprises an alluvial mass covered at a later date with lava flows, the surface that volunteers work on alternates between shifting river

cobbles on coarse gravel and fields of basalt boulders.  Prickly pear cactus, an additional hazard, abounds in many areas.  All proveniences have difficult areas which must be traversed.  Road access to Mesa Prieta is also difficult.  Only one road penetrates the mesa, that road crosses private land.  A utility road extends the full length of the mesa top; however, few access points exist and much of the road requires four-wheel drive, high clearance vehicles.  Many areas to be recorded are within a fifteen to forty-five minute walk from the base or top of the mesa, but much of the recording will require several hours of difficult hiking to reach the areas to be documented.  A number of prehistoric trails have been identified; these trails often are marked with turkey track petroglyphs.

      The 6800 acres of private land on which recording volunteers are currently working is so vast and rugged that survey teams are sent into areas to assess the presence, quality and density of petroglyphs before recording teams are assigned.  The survey teams also determine the difficulty of access and terrain in a given area.  This provides the opportunity to prioritize proveniences for assignment to recording teams.  Proveniences are a determined area of land identified for a give purpose.  On Mesa Prieta, a provenience is about 20 acres.

        Obtaining accurate maps establishing borders and boundaries of both public and private land has been challenging.  Thanks to GPS and Geographic Information System (GIS), areas that have been surveyed and recorded can be designated on area maps.  GIS software loaded on GPS units has provided locational guidance for the teams as they work on the mesa.  The vast extent of the mesa that has not been surveyed or recorded far exceeds those areas already completed.

This GIS map of a large piece of private property on Mesa Prieta shows some of almost two hundred proveniences that recording teams are assigned to. 

 This image has a row of turkey tracks on one boulder, other
areas may have single turkey tracks on dozens of
separate boulders; these features often mark pre-historic trails.

One of the survey teams known as the RATs – Rock Art Trekkers – survey some
of the extremely rugged terrain on Mesa Prieta to determine priorities by which recording teams are assigned to areas.  Here are Bob McCarthy, Lay Powell, Damian Turner, John Pitts, and Bill Cella.

        Much of the mesa is privately owned;  permission must be obtained from each land owner to document the images on their land.  When a land owner is approached for permission to record on his land, the project is carefully and thoroughly described.  All volunteers have signed volunteer agreements restricting their activities while on private land.  These include agreeing not to disclose the areas in which they work, not to use photos taken for any publications, profit or social networks, not to bring guests, not to bring dogs on the land or litter, and, in general, to be respectful of the land they are working on.

       The process of recording is described, including the entry of the data into a GIS data base and ultimately into the Archaeological Records Management Section
(ARMS) for archival storage and research.  ARMS is the New Mexico agency that houses, maintains and protects all records of archaeological investigation in the State of New Mexico.   MORE  Each land owner receives copies of all documentation completed on his land with all the photographs taken placed on a CD.  In addition, a Land Owner Report is written that includes information on archaeological findings on the mesa, MPPP activities and a section that features the most unique images recorded on that person's property printed in 8X10 color photos with the accompanying PDS forms.
       In the past several years, multiple land owner on and near Mesa Prieta have requested or responded to requests that the petroglyhphs on their land be recorded.  Teams are assigned, the recording is completed at no cost to the owner. 

Data Management
       As volunteers complete field recording, all data and photos undergo two quality checks for accuracy and completeness.  Photos are cropped, filtered and sharpened to provide excellent visual information.  Camera-designated file names are replaced with new names which identify the Laboratory of Anthropology LA and NMCRIS numbers, recording group (MPPP is  Archaeological Society of New Mexico - Rock Art Council group 07) the land owner property (project), the provenience and the photo number unique to each locus.  Suffixes are added to indicate a primary photo, a close-up or a context view.  For example, 3942_134843_07_001_023_110PHO.png would be the file name of MPPP’s principal photo 110 in provenience 23 of the Wells Petroglyph Preserve.  This complex nomenclature ensures that each photo is unique and can be retrieved from the database without confusion, even if all the petroglyph recording data collected in New Mexico were combined into one huge database as, indeed, they will be in the future. 
        All paperwork, including Photo Data Sheets, Mapper’s Notes, sketches and in-house management forms such as Field and Design Element tallies are scanned, and the resulting images given file names which match those of the photos.  Smaller versions of all these images are created and given the suffix “TH”, for thumbnail.  These are the versions which will be referenced by the petroglyph database.

Retired Northern New Mexico University instructor and GIS Analyst Jeff Toomey has
volunteered with the project for many
years with the Summer Youth Program and database development.

Artifacts discovered during recording
and survey work are documented
by recorders and left where
they are found. 
Their data are entered into a
Cultural Landscape data base.

        Since volunteers are working in areas of private land that may never be visited again, the project also records whatever Cultural Landscape features they discover, such as structures, artifacts, water management elements and other significant historic and prehistoric findings.  Collection of these data in a separate Cultural Landscape database assists in understanding the usage of the mesa by the various cultures that have occupied the area over thousands of years.  In that trails, recent and ancient, help to tell this story, they are also recorded and those data are kept in a separate trails database.
     Completed data are stored in the Mesa Prieta Petroglyph Project office in fire-proof files.  The thousands of photos taken are stored in original and edited formats and protected by multiple backups on DVDs and external hard drives.  Starting in 2015, all digital data will be stored on three national, geographically separated professionally staffed servers; MPPP is the first non-profit archaeological group in New Mexico to have this level of protection for its data.

The data are entered into a Microsoft Access® data base that mimics the petroglyph recording sheet used by the Mesa Prieta Project and other recording groups in the state.
         This data base is integrated with a multi-layer relational Geographical Information System (GIS)
data base for use by researchers, students, archivists, planners and others.

Project Director Janet MacKenzie works
at the database station.

       Locations and information about petroglyphs and other archaeological features from both data bases, with photos and scans of paperwork, can be shown in relation to their geo-cultural contexts, such as topography, drainage, vegetation, property ownership, land grants, etc.
       In 2015, thanks to a grant from the New Mexico Historical Records Advisory Board, project recording data is being uploaded into DuraCloud - a national, professionally staffed server for permanent archival status.
        Petroglyph recording techniques, documentation and protocols meet the standards required by the New Mexico Archaeological Records Management Section (ARMS), the ultimate repository for all the data.  Mesa Prieta participates as a member of the Archaeological Society of New Mexico Rock Art Council, which seeks to ensure consistency in petroglyph recording across the state.

MPPP partners with the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs.  Chief Conservator Mark
MacKenzie, with Katherine
Wells, examines lichen encroachment on a powerful petroglyph on the
Wells Petroglyph Preserve.

 New Mexico Site Watch
     In 2007, Mesa Prieta Petroglyph Project joined New Mexico Site Watch to start a site steward program on the Wells Petroglyph Preserve.  Ten volunteer stewards were trained to monitor their assigned areas for both natural and human-made damage to the archaeological resources.  Each of the six tour routes on the Preserve is monitored by a steward who is also a tour docent, increasing the frequency of monitoring for those highly used areas.  It is hoped the program will expand to other private and public lands on the mesa.