An archaeologist who worked on the site of the planned Wal-Mart Supercenter in southwest Santa Fe says the developers didn't want to hear about him finding 2,000-year-old artifacts there.
Tom McIntosh, who was hired to examine the vacant 65 acres earlier this year, said the developers seemed to have their minds made up that there was no significant archaeology there.
It's not terribly clear whether the archaeologist in question really did find anything "significant":
Other archaeologists agreed with McIntosh's definition of archaeologic significance but said almost any site has the potential to yield more information. They said lithic sites are common in the Santa Fe area and are considered significant only when found in a context that allows the sites to be dated through scientific methods, such as the presence of hearths with charcoal that yields carbon-14.
Tough to call. W-M has had both good and bad press regarding archaeology (see here for e.g.,) and there was one article in the SAA Bulletin/Archaeological Record a while back (I'm just full of half-remembered references today. . . .) about a good working relationship between W-M and archaeologists.