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Ancient Village Found In Petrified Forest

An ancient village has been discovered in Arizona’s Petrified Forest National Park. It’s the second type of village found in the area in one year.

The village is more than 1,000 years old. Archeologists date it between 200 and 700 AD, an era that experts identify as the Basketmaker period, which predates pottery. Archaeologists found pit houses in sand dunes made of stone slabs in the shape of a ring.

“We don’t know exactly how many people would’ve lived there, but it was a few dozen people perhaps would have lived at each of these places," said Brad Traver with the Petrified Forest Park.

Traver said the park doubled in size following an expansion enacted by Congress in 2004. He said 42,000 acres of land were acquired and only about 2,500 acres have been surveyed. That leads the agency to believe there’s more to be discovered.

Nadine Arroyo Rodriguez was a reporter at KJZZ from 2008 to 2015.