DENVER, May 2 (UPI) -- U.S. conservation experts are reburying historic ruins at national parks and historic sites in the Southwest to protect them from the ravages of nature.
Many of the ceilings and walls are collapsing faster than they can be repaired, the Denver Post reported Monday.
By reburying sites experts hope to put ancient structures back in a sort of suspended animation, but the process also hides the ruins from thousands of tourists each year.
Glenn Raby, a geologist at Chimney Rock Archaelogical Area near Pagosa Springs, Colo., said there is a valid argument for burial to preserve the ruins. "I guess the question you have to ask is, "Preserve it for what?" he asked.
At Aztec Ruins National Monument in New Mexico, a large National Park Service project is under way that will rebury more than 100 rooms excavated a century ago.
Todd Metzger, a Park Service archaeologist in Arizona, said backfilling is now proposed or under way at almost all federal ruins because of a "crisis situation" in stabilization.
