Las Vegas—Some 12,000 years of human history and prehistory at Yucca Mountain are brought to life in a report prepared by archaeologists at the Desert Research Institute and now available to the public.

Written for non-technical audiences, the publication summarizes archaeological investigations at Yucca Mountain in southern Nye County conducted during the past two decades. Helpful to teachers, students, community groups, government officials and the public at large, the report also serves as an informative introduction to the technologies archaeologists use in their studies.

“Reading the stones: The archaeology of Yucca Mountain,” by William T. Hartwell and David Valentine, is available to schools, universities, libraries and the public by request courtesy of the U.S. Department of Energy, sponsors of the study.

Copies of the glossy, four-color 78-page publication or a CD-ROM are available through the DRI library at 702-862-5431 or via email at library@dri.edu.

Thanks to the humble packrat, collections of desert materials that crystallize and endure for thousands of years—“nature’s time capsules,” as DRI scientists call them—are the keys to unlocking clues to past climate changes. Chipped-stone tools also tell stories about how and where people lived and hunted.

With an eye toward preserving historic properties in compliance with federal law, DOE has spent more than 20 years conducting archaeological investigations and other scientific studies following Yucca Mountain’s 1979 designation as a potential repository for long-term storage of spent nuclear fuel.

Researchers looked to answer wide-ranging questions about the archaeology of the area. Chief among them were:

• What plants and animals did people in the Yucca Mountain region use?
• How did changes in the availability of these resources and others—such as water—affect settlement location, distribution, and
  content?
• How does the distribution of natural sources of rock used for making tools affect the nature of artifacts found at archeological sites?

A nonprofit, statewide division of the University and Community College System of Nevada, DRI pursues a full-time program of basic and applied environmental research on a local, national, and international scale. Nearly 500 full- and part-time scientists, technicians, and support staff conduct some 150 research projects at DRI annually. More than 85 percent of DRI’s annual $37 million operating budget consists of research grants and contracts obtained by its scientists. The balance is received from the state of Nevada for administrative costs.