Revisiting the Sentinels: An Analysis of Data Recovery Potential from the Razed Manhattan Project Built Environment, Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Twenty years ago, cultural resource managers produced a multiple-property evaluation of extant Manhattan Project properties at Los Alamos National Laboratory titled “Sentinels of the Atomic Dawn.” “Sentinels” recorded 49 standing buildings and two archaeological sites. Since that initial evaluation, 29 of the 49 buildings have been demolished and the two archaeological sites have experienced significant deterioration. The 29 razed buildings now make up a scattering of archaeological sites, seven of which have been inventoried and evaluated for eligibility for listing in the National Register of Historic Places, leaving a considerable number of former building locations to investigate. Cultural resource managers with Los Alamos National Laboratory performed archaeological surveys at several razed Manhattan Project–era building sites. These investigations aimed to examine research potential for razed building sites and showed that artifacts associated with Manhattan Project activities are still present. While the integrity of these sites is greatly diminished, detectable archaeological data verifies historical significance and adds to our understanding of Los Alamos during World War II and the early Cold War. This poster will describe the results of these preliminary investigations into the research potential of a razed built environment at a secret wartime laboratory in northern New Mexico.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36728.0