Cerrillos Turquoise Mines
![A color picture of some foothills with mountains in the background](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5a/NM_Route_14%2C_Looking_North_%285350113906%29.jpg/220px-NM_Route_14%2C_Looking_North_%285350113906%29.jpg)
The Cerrillos Hills (foreground), with the Sangre de Cristo Mountains (background)
The Cerrillos Turquoise Mines are Ancestral Puebloan turquoise mines located in the Cerrillos Hills, 20 miles (32 km) southwest of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Archeologists believe that most of the turquoise found at Chaco Canyon was mined in the Cerrillos Hills. Many modern Pueblo people claim to have ancient rights to these mines.[1] In 1977, neutron activation analysis linked an artifact from Chetro Ketl to the Cerrillos mines.[2]
References[]
- ^ Vivian & Hilpert 2012, pp. 82–83.
- ^ Mathien 2005, p. 18.
- Bibliography
- Mathien, Frances Joan (2005), Culture and Ecology of Chaco Canyon and the San Juan Basin, National Park Service, U. S. Department of the Interior
- Vivian, R. Gwinn; Hilpert, Bruce (2012), The Chaco Handbook: An Encyclopedic Guide (2 ed.), University of Utah Press, ISBN 978-1-60781-195-4
Categories:
- Colorado Plateau
- Ancestral Puebloans
- Archaeological sites in New Mexico
- New Mexico geography stubs