Aztec, N.M. • A Colorado historian is leading a team to survey inscriptions left by settlers and others on the ceilings of 900-year-old ruins in northwestern New Mexico.
Fred Blackburn and his team will study the lengthy messages, or graffiti, left at the Aztec Ruins National Monument to gain insight on how others saw the engineering marvel, the Farmington Daily Times reports . Some of those who left inscriptions were white settlers who tried to make sense of the structures, Blackburn said.
Blackburn wants to know the stories of those folks and add historical context to their inscriptions in as many cases as possible.