Not sure where this goes, but I did a weekend trip to the Taos area as well as Bandelier. I stopped at Puya cliff dwellings and wanted to share this picture of some turquoise that some ants on the Mesa top had excavated at the site (1st picture). The ants had also excavated some pottery pieces too. The entire Mesa top was covered with artifacts, it was unbelievable.
This is really cool; so glad you posted it! I remember reading somewhere about ants and turquoise, but completely forgot till your thread.
We were out in Bandelier literally 6 weeks ago today, but apparently I didn’t look close enough at the ground. I chuckled when we were in the museum, because they had exhibits on the volcanic tuff that the cliffs are made of. Of course that made me think of all the beautiful tufacast jewelry. Maybe that’s why I buy so much of it
We have never been to Puye, but now I think I definitely need to visit next time we are out there.
It’s funny that you said this. That was my big dream up until high school.
I wanted to go to Egypt or Central America and dig artifacts! Howard Carter! Lord Carnarvon! Louie Leakey!
Or maybe live among the natives like Margaret Mead.
But alas and alack, it didn’t work out.
When I was young, maybe five or six, I was sitting on my father’s lap and we were watching Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. Apparently, I asked him “when someone discovers something, does that mean it was dis-covered? Like they removed the covering or it was dug up?”
For as long as I can remember, I’ve been infatuated with the idea. Thinking about trader Sam Day’s 1903 exploration of Massacre Cave in Canyon del Muerto and his finding of the earliest known examples of Navajo weaving, or all of the work that the Wetherill’s and Earl and Ann Axtell Morris performed in the Southwest just makes me…
Amazing the work these tiny creatures and accomplish. I have always been fascinated by them. As a kid I used to follow them to their sand mounds. Missed the turquoise in Ohio.
Many years ago, I gathered a few pieces of obsidian from Tent Rocks. It was all over the place, including in the dirt on the trails where these came from.
On Maui, there’s a steep hike down to Nakalele Blowhole. Bits of volcanic olivine, (or peridot) are scattered everywhere. Beautiful little green nodules. I didn’t take any, because Madame Pele wouldn’t be pleased.
That’s really cool! A number of years ago we were visiting an Apache friend, and she took us out to some of the volcanic areas of the San Carlos Reservation, and she showed us how to look for peridots. I had never seen any in the raw before.
