Click below for answers to these frequently asked questions.
What is The Archaeological Conservancy?
Why save archaeological sites?
What sites does the Conservancy own?
How does the Conservancy raise funds?
What is The Archaeological
The Archaeological Conservancy, established in 1980, is the
only national non-profit organization dedicated to acquiring
and preserving the best of our nation's remaining archaeological
sites. Based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the Conservancy also
operates regional offices in Mississippi, Maryland, Ohio, and
Every day, prehistoric and historic archaeological sites in
the United States are lost forever--along with the precious information
they contain. Modern-day looters use backhoes and bulldozers
to recover artifacts for the international market. Urban development
and agricultural methods such as land leveling and topsoil mining
destroy ancient sites. The Conservancy protects these sites by
acquiring the land on which they rest, preserving them for posterity.
Conservancy Board Member Bios
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Why save archaeological
The ancient people of North America made no written records
of their cultures. For us to gain an understanding of what happened
here before Columbus, Coronado, and Raleigh, we rely on clues
left behind by these early Americans in the remains of their
villages, monuments, and artifacts.
Over the past few decades, the knowledge and methods of modern
archaeologists have advanced tremendously. Today researchers
use technologies such as tree-ring dating, radiocarbon dating,
archaeomagnetic dating, obsidian hydration dating, pollen analysis,
and trace-element analysis to glean information from the archaeological
record. Few of these technologies existed 50 years ago. For this
reason, it's important that we keep a significant portion of
raw data in the ground, where future archaeologists with even
more advanced knowledge and technologies will have access to
Archaeologists still lack the clues that might someday solve
the mysteries of the early Americans. By permanently preserving
important cultural sites, the Conservancy makes sure they will
be available for our children and grandchildren to study and
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What sites does the Conservancy
Since its beginning in 1980, the Conservancy has acquired
more than 400 endangered sites in 41 states across America. These
preserves range in size from a few acres to more than 1,000 acres.
They include the earliest habitation sites in North America,
a 19th-century frontier army post, and nearly every major cultural
period in between.
Examples of Conservancy preserves include California's Borax
Lake site, which encompasses 11,000 years of human occupation;
the first mission of Father Kino, as well as several important
Sinagua and Hohokam ruins in Arizona; important Caddo Indian
sites in Texas and Oklahoma; and in Georgia, key cultural locales
of the region's first Indians.
And the list goes on: several ancient Indian villages in Florida;
Mississippian sites in Arkansas and Missouri, at least two of
which Hernando de Soto visited in 1541; villages of the eastern
lakeshore peoples in Michigan; ancestral sites of New Mexico's
Pueblo people; in Colorado, Yellowjacket and Mud Springs Pueblos--the
two largest ruins of the Mesa Verde culture; and in the Northeast,
two Paleo-Indian sites and a Seneca Iroquois village.
Some Conservancy sites have been incorporated into public
parks such as Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona, Chaco
Culture National Historical Park in New Mexico, Parkin Archeological
State Park in Arkansas, and Hopewell Culture National Historical
Park in Ohio.
about the Conservancy's latest acquisitions
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How does the Conservancy raise
Major funding for the Conservancy comes from its more than
23,000 members, as well as special individual contributions,
corporations, and foundations. Income from a permanent Endowment
Fund supplements regular fundraising. Often we raise money locally
to purchase specific ruins in a certain community. In emergency
situations, we borrow from our revolving Preservation Fund.