You'll be travelling to Utah and New Mexico to learn about the Native Americans who lived there thousands of years ago.

We're about to take an exciting adventure together to two southwestern states: Utah and New Mexico. Where We'll be learning about the Native Americans who lived there thousands of years ago.

Most of us are fascinated to learn about how people lived a long time ago. You've probably read books about the Ancient Egyptians and their pyramids. or the Ancient Greeks, or even the Native Americans who once lived where you live now. But did you ever wonder how we know the things we do about these people? We know about them from the work of archaeologists.

Archaeologists are a lot like detectives. They use the things that people left behind to piece together the details of their lives.

We call these things artifacts. An artifact could be a tool, a piece of pottery, or an arrowhead.

I'll be part of the Prehistoric Pueblos team, led by 2 scientists. We'll sleep in tents by night, dig during the day, and post reports of what we find on this web site. At the end of our expedition, you'll get a chance to interview me about my trip to New Mexico. I'll answer any questions you have!

The other project takes place in Utah and is led by scientist Sally Cole. Her specialty is recording and solving the mysteries of ancient rock art that may date back more than 2,000 years ago. With earthwatch teams, Sally Cole has been able to document and study over 300 rock art sites in the utah canyon lands.

Like pottery, rock art provides clues to the ways ancient peoples lived, where they lived, what they did, what was important to them, maybe even what happened to them. You'll also have the chance to interview Sally Cole about her work.

I think that one of the coolest things about being part of an archaeological expedition is getting to help archaeologists with their research. When you and I do research, we head for the library. But guess where a lot of those fascinating facts that we find in our library books and encyclopedias originally came from!

From scientists and archaeologists! These scientists and others are out in "the field" doing what we call original research. During our adventure together this week, we'll get an insiders look at how scientists make those exciting discoveries, and you'll make your own discoveries.