BACKGROUND INFORMATION Archaeological Wonders of Grand Staircase Anasazi granary, Grand Staircase area.  Hidden Anasazi granary, Grand Staircase area. Can you find the entrance? ...A closer look: note the mud wall and open doorway, center of photo. A free-standing granary built in a protected location. Note the excellent state of preseravtion; with a couple buckets of mud plaster and an hour's worth of work this granary would be as functional as it was 800 years ago. These structures were the food and seed storage sites, and had to be both weather and rodent proof. A natural rock shelter walled up for use as a granary. A cliff-side residential site.  Note the roof beams are still in place over the largest structure, evidence of the great preservation found at some of these protected sites.  Some of these sites are inaccessible today, and probably would have been accessed by ladders in the past.  This photo was taken from a helicopter while traveling to sites on the top of the plateau.  As an archaeologist for Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument (GSENM) and surrounding BLM lands, Matt Zweifel's duties include all aspects of what specialists call "cultural resource management" (CRM). Within most Federal agencies, including BLM, CRM usually means working on various projects to ensure that archaeological and historic sites won't be damaged in the process of activities such as road building, logging, mining and drilling operations, and other ground-disturbing undertakings. Luckily for Matt, the Monument was set aside with preservation and scientific investigation as its primary goals. What this means for Matt and other Monument field scientists is that they have less project-driven work than most BLM specialists. At the same time, though, they are responsible for promoting and coordinating all CRM-related research on almost 2 million acres of land. That's a big job in itself. What kinds of research might be included in Matt's job description? To understand the kind of archaeological research that goes on at the Monument, one must first know something about the local history and prehistory. People have lived in the GSENM area for at least the past 11,000 years. For most of that time, they were hunter-gatherers, moving across the landscape in seasonal patterns, following plant and animal resources as they became available in different ecological settings or zones. Then, somewhere around the year zero, agriculture was introduced, and by about 400 AD, it was well established. For the next 800 years, the Anasazi and the Fremont practiced their own forms of horticulture, made pottery, and built permanent houses and other structures, until both cultures mysteriously vanished from the area in about 1200 AD. Following their disappearance, the area was occupied by the Paiute Indians, who also followed a hunter-gatherer life style. Europeans then began exploring and settling the American southwest, and the historic period began. The original non-Indian settlers in southern Utah were predominantly Mormon, and their patterns of settlement are interesting in their own right. Looking at the brief synopsis above, what kinds of questions might come to mind? How would one go about answering those questions? There are several ongoing cultural resource research projects at GSENM. These include projects that Matt and his colleagues initiate and investigate themselves, as well as projects that are launched by outside parties, such as universities. One of the outstanding features of GSENM prehistory is that several different prehistoric cultures came together right there. The Virgin Anasazi, the Kayenta Anasazi, and the Fremont cultures all met at a narrow front along the eastern edge of the Kaiparowits Plateau. Current research topics centering on this confluence include questions such as: What kinds of interactions were there between the two different Anasazi groups? How about between the Fremont and Anasazi? Why did the Anasazi store their surplus food at their farmsteads, while the Fremont hid their surpluses in small, concealed, cliff-side granaries? Why did all of these cultures disappear from one area at about the same time, while the Kayenta Anasazi continued living just a few miles away, on the opposite side of the Colorado River? The Paiutes arrived on the heels of the departing Anasazi and Fremont; what kinds of interactions were there between the Paiutes and the other groups? Did the Paiutes play a role in the Anasazi and Fremont disappearances from the area? How did agriculture arrive in this part of the southwest? Was it an idea that diffused from another area to here, or was it brought in by people moving into this area from further south? There are also research projects examining the differences between Fremont and Anasazi architectures, as well as changes in architectural styles over time. Some research projects are very location-specific. For example, one might study the archaeological history of a certain canyon or plateau. Others cover a much broader area. In GSENM, one such wide-ranging project focuses on the distribution of obsidian in the area. Obsidian—volcanic glass—was occasionally used by prehistoric peoples of the GSENM area to make stone tools. The mystery is: since obsidian does not occur here naturally, where did it come from? Who brought it in, and when did it arrive here? Answering questions like this can shed light on trade and land-use patterns that covered huge areas, as well as the ways in which those patterns may have changed over time. Another larger topic is the abandonment of this area by the prehistoric horticulturalists. What forces conspired to bring a halt to local farming lifestyles that had continued, uninterrupted, for more than 800 years? Research can be as broad as the landscape, or as narrowly focused as the identification of materials in specific pottery types. It can involve a short span in time, such as the Mormon settlement period, or it can take a longer look at land-use patterns that operated for thousands of years. Investigation can involve ancient artifacts observed through a microscope, excavation of a threatened site, or interviews with long-term local residents concerning lifeways that are all but gone from modern American culture. Research topics are easy to come by in Matt's line of work. The hard part is framing research questions around these topics, and then looking for ways in which these questions can be answered. That's when the fun really starts: with the field work and laboratory work required to address the questions. And the best part about finding answers? The fact that they generate still more questions for Matt and his colleagues to explore! Even after questions are answered, one of the most important aspects of any scientific work is making the results available to other researchers and the general public. Matt and his colleagues accomplish this through professional publications, presentations to school classes, public programs, and direct involvement of citizens in what they do. They make use of volunteers whenever practical, and also hire seasonal interns from local school systems. This makes it possible for the public to learn by actually doing—not just by hearing or looking. The area around GSENM features five visitor centers, each of which emphasizes a different science or set of topics; but all are focused on education, interpretation, and public involvement. The centers help Matt and other GSENM specialists to share what's "special" to them: their professions, their science, and most of all, their dedication to GSENM. The public is most definitely invited!