The Tularosa Basin in the Chihuahuan Desert of New Mexico is famous for both its unique environment and its historical importance. From White Sands National Park to the Three Rivers petroglyphs, passing through the El Malpaís volcanic field, the area holds a thousand and one surprises.
The last one that has been discovered was hidden under the white sand hundreds of years ago. It is a prehistoric camp from about 8,200 years ago, home to some of the first people in North America. It has been found two meters below the surface, within the limits of a US military base.
Members of the 49th Civil Engineer Squadron (CES) made this discovery while excavating with a team of geologists at a site known as Gomolak Overlook, near a road cut that marks the boundaries of Holloman Air Force Base, which was established in 1942 260 kilometers southeast of Albuquerque.
The military zone is adjacent to White Sands National Park, known for its ivory-colored sand dunes composed of gypsum crystals and for preserving the oldest known human footprints in North America, made about 23,000 years ago.
The white dunes were formed at least 1,000 years after the air base archaeological site. "Its formation inadvertently buried the site, with windblown silt protecting the delicate remains," explains Matthew Cuba, 49th CES cultural resources manager. "This site marks a pivotal moment in shedding light on the history of the area and its early inhabitants," he adds.
The work at the site made it possible to find several artifacts that have provided valuable information about the Paleorachaic inhabitants who resided there more than 8,000 years ago. "Approximately 70 items were found, ranging from flake stones to a rare example of a ground stone, providing valuable clues to past human activities," Cuba said.
"We also discovered a series of hearths, or community camps, with remains of mesquite charcoal (a type of thorny shrub in the pea family (Fabaceae) native to the semi-arid regions of the Southwest of the United States and Mexico), which is a tremendous find in itself," he adds.
Sites like Gomolak Overlook, military sources explain in a statement, offer information about human adaptation and environmental changes, showing the first settlement patterns of these hunter-gatherer peoples and how long they have occupied the area in their seasonal travels.
This is one of up to 400 archaeological discoveries that have been made within Holloman Base – home between 1992 and 2008 of the Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk, the first “stealth” fighter aircraft – and no one believes it will be the last. "Some of the best-preserved archaeological records of the Tularosa Basin reside on Department of Defense lands," says Scott Dorton, 49th CES environmental chief.
The Paleoarchaic peoples were descendants of the first humans to set foot in the Americas and one of the first cultures on the continent to cultivate and domesticate plants. Early Archaic sites (between 8,500 and 4,000 BC) are rare. Among the few that exist, the Ventana cave stands out, where the transition from Paleoindian to Archaic is visible in the different strata.
The Tularosa region, which spans nearly 17,000 square miles, is home to some of the oldest archaeological sites in America. Excavations over the past 10 years have uncovered fossilized footprints of humans from 11,000 years ago following a giant sloth or footprints from 10,000 years ago belonging to a woman and a small child.
