There are more than 3 million artifacts in the Anasazi Heritage Center museum, but only a fraction of the pre-historic pieces are on display.
To see more, the museum encourages the public to sign up for behind-the-scene curation tours, now being offered on a regular basis.
Every Thursday from May 7 through October, tour guide Marty Costos will lead explorations into the catacombs of the sprawling BLM museum, one of the largest repositories of Ancestral Puebloan artifacts.
The basement collection ranges from domestic items such as cooking pots and farm tools, to truly amazing sculptures, ceremonial artwork, and modern weaponry of ancient times.
Each tour is a surprise and offers a more intimate look at human settlement and culture dating from around 500 AD to the 1300s.
"During the one-hour tour, we can have a more personalized conversation about the lives of those who lived here before us," Costos says. "Who were these people, how did they thrive? A lot of the items are up for interpretation, so it makes for an interesting discussion."
The special tour focuses on the science of curation techniques as well, said museum director Marietta Eaton.
"We're getting more people in touch with what curation is," Eaton said. "Our conservation labs are used by researchers from all over the world interested in studying our collections."
There are 17 tribes with connections to the Ancestral Puebloans. The museum continually consults with them about how the items of their relatives were used, the meaning of designs, and appropriate conservation.
"Collections have ongoing significance to modern day tribes," said Bridget Ambler, supervisory curator for the museum. "They are more than just interesting, they have meaning behind them. What native tribes tell us adds to the human story of the piece."
For example, the Sunflower Bowl design was confirmed as such through consultation with the Hopi Tribe, whose ancestors once lived and farmed in local canyons and on mesas.
The Heritage Center's collection holds important clues about the "Neolithic Transition," Ambler said, an ancient cultural shift recently documented locally by Crow Canyon. Archaeologists have unveiled the pinnacle period when migrating bands began to establish permanent agricultural communities 1500 years ago.
On a recent media tour of the archives, back doors open to reveal researchers deep in concentration, cataloguing and scrutinizing artifacts. Posters of different pottery styles and arrowheads cover the walls, and rows of file cabinets are presumably full of ancient mysteries.
Tour participants ride an elevator to the basement collection, made up of meticulously organized rows of shelves packed with painted bowls, mugs, seed jars, fetishes, metates, manos, jewelry, and much more.
The cloud blower collection is impressive, ancient pipe-like devices apparently used for smoking kinikinick, or tobacco, or used for healing purposes.
Other items are more special and are heavily guarded due to cultural significance or exceptional artistry.
"Here viewers can get a close look at a very rare item such as this piece," said Costos, vowing this reporter to secrecy.
In another vast room, endless rows of shelves are full of artifact boxes stacked to the ceiling, conjuring up a popular movie scene.
"It is the Indiana Jones moment for people," quips Ambler, referring to the final scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark.
The tours are free. Contact the Heritage Center at (970) 882-5600 to sign up.
