Departmental News

Posted:  Mar 05, 2025 - 12:00pm

The March 2025 issue of the Smithsonian Magazine features research at Mummy Cave, Tsé Yaa Kin, at Canyon de Chelly where the UNM Anthropology Department is leading a grant-funded archaeological-site conservation project. Angelyn Bass, principal investigator and Research Assistant Professor in UNM Anthropology since 2013, is featured in the article along with her colleagues from the University of Vermont.  

"Bass and her colleague Douglas Porter, an architectural conservator at the University of Vermont, say they feel their own urgency to map this holy ground. “Part of the work we’re doing is documenting these places against the threat of loss,” Porter says. Bass adds, “The structures are fragile.” They are especially vulnerable to wind abrasion and water running off the sheer cliffs, where overhangs are eroding. Given the likely damage to Tse Yaa Kin in the future, Porter says, the question becomes: “What do we want to preserve about the site, should something terrible happen and we lose it?” Thanks to comprehensive mapping and lidar imaging, the physical topography will be recorded for posterity."

Read the full article on the Smithsonian Website

Learn more about their research here: