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Ed Yeates reports
We'll soon be able to view a priceless collection of artifacts.
More than a million dollars in federal and private funding will help build a new museum at the University of Utah.
Science Specialist Ed Yeates has more.
On makeshift tables inside what used to be the old University of Utah library, researchers carefully reassemble and preserve ancient vessels once built and used by the Anasazi from 200 to 1300 A.D.
ED YEATES, SCIENCE SPECIALIST: "THE VESSEL COLLECTION HERE IS REALLY QUITE REMARKABLE. BUT WHAT'S MORE AMAZING IS WHAT YOU SEE HERE ON THIS TABLE REPRESENTS ONLY A SMALL FRACTION OF THE TENS OF THOUSANDS OF ARTIFACTS REMOVED FROM THE GLEN CANYON AREA."
Long before the gates of the dam closed and Glen Canyon filled with water, teams of scientists retrieved artifacts from over 2,000 locations.
While histories generally talk about more dominant sites with powerful leaders, archaeologists still know little about the farmers - the larger population of Anasazi that etched out a living in the really harsh parcels of land like Glen Canyon.
Duncan Metcalfe/ Curator of Archaeology: "A FOCUS ON THE SMALL BUT FAR MORE COMMON SITES THAT WE'RE FINDING OUT WHAT EVERYDAY LIFE WAS LIKE FOR THESE FOLKS."
The government apparently agrees, and so today, Senator Robert Bennett and Barry Wirth with the Bureau of Reclamation announced a $20,000 grant to bring these vessels out of 40 years of storage and preserve them for public view.
But there's private funding as well - lots of it!
SENATOR ROBERT BENNETT: "THE BURTON FOUNDATION IS CONTRIBUTING A MILLION DOLLARS TO THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE MUSEUM AND THE PRESERVATION OF THIS COLLECTION."
Preserve all the artifacts, plus build a new museum.
So far, the museum and the University of Utah have raised more than $12.6 million. And Congress may come up with an additional $15-million for the museum's design and construction.
If all the funding comes through, the new Museum of Natural History would be built south of Red Butte Garden, overlooking the city.
You'll get of glimpse of those Anasazi vessels at the Museum of Natural History Lab this Saturday, June 8, between 11 am and 3 pm.
June 3, 2002
