Homolovi project wins award

The award will be presented to the Homolovi Research Program in Tubac this weekend as part of statewide celebrations of Arizona Archaeology Awareness Month.

Each year, the commission hands out awards to a program that promotes the preservation of archaeology in Arizona and education about the field.

"We're very happy to get it," said E. Charles Adams, the Arizona State Museum's curator of archaeology and director of the Homolovi project.

The park was in danger of closing January when state legislators threatened to cut funding. Money was eventually located after funds were shifted within the state's park budget.

Adams said archaeologists have been working at Homolovi, a group of pueblo ruins near Winslow, for more than 10 years.

In 1993, the ruins became Arizona's first and only Archaeological State Park. Last year, 26,000 visitors came to the site.

Adams said the park offers educational programs, a visitor's center and interpretive signs describing what life would have been like in the ancient pueblos.

Archaeologists also educate local Hopi youth, Adams said. Many Hopi clans trace their lineage to the builders of Homolovi.

"We spend a lot of time when we are up at the site in the summer giving tours to visitors," he said.

Adams and a crew of volunteers from the Earthwatch program excavate at the pueblos each summer. The volunteers learn field techniques and Arizona prehistory during their stay, Adams said.