Saturday, April 11, 1998 | 10:25 a.m.
Does the answer to Las Vegas' fate lie buried beneath a desert on the other side of the world?
When archeologists dig into the past they are looking for answers to many questions such as this one.
Can we see the future in the past?
Why did a community that survived for thousands of years disappear, its buildings buried beneath layers of dirt?
What lessons can those who will face environmental problems in the 21st century learn from those who may have become victims of their own environment 7,000 years ago?
Alan Simmons, professor of archeology in the UNLV Department of Anthropology, spends most of the year teaching classes in this rapidly expanding young city on the edge of the Mojave Desert.
But for a few weeks in the winter he travels to a desert in southern Jordan to unearth the ruins of one of the world's oldest cities.
Simmons compares the terrain where he and an archeological team dig to that of Red Rock Canyon.
The area, about 1 1/2 acres, is called Ghwair. It is about 7,000 years old, having thrived between the years 7,000 and 5,000 BC.
Among other things, Simmons sees some possible comparisons between what is happening in Las Vegas and what happened to the ancient city.
Both are in marginal desert regions, he noted. He thinks the Jordanian community may have, over a period of centuries, expanded beyond the ability of the area to support its population.
Water became more scarce in the area as weather conditions changed and it became drier, at a time when the population was rapidly growing beyond the ability of the land to support the people.
"This is a new project," said Simmons, who has been going back and forth to the Middle East on archeological digs for the past 25 years.
The site was discovered several years ago, but UNLV and the Jordan Department of Antiquities entered into an agreement in fall 1996 to work on the dig together.
Because of the heat, most of the digs are in the winter months, during a break in classes at the university.
With funding of $150,000 from National Geographic and the National Science Foundation, UNLV was able to stake a claim on the site in cooperation with the Jordan Department of Antiquities.
The first major effort took place last December and January and plans call for another major dig this coming December and January.
"We're very lucky to get the financial support we did," said Simmons, explaining that competition for money for projects such as this is extremely keen, considering every researcher at every university is looking for funding.
Last year Simmons took about 15 people with him to the dig, including four UNLV graduate students, two undergraduates, two students from another university and a variety of specialists.
Simmons has been on two major archeological digs in his career.
One was on the island of Cypress, where archeologists found that a population of pygmy elephants and pygmy hippos became extinct because they were slain for food by people who arrived on the island after the animals.
The other major dig was in northern Jordan and involved a site of 30 to 40 acres.
The site had been a major "urban center" that for some reason was abandoned.
"What happened to make them leave?" Simmons said is one of the questions archeologists are trying to answer.
Possibly over-exploitation of their environment, he said, a comparison that might fit Las Vegas, a city facing many urbanization dilemmas.
Simmons is excited about his latest project.
"The architecture is very elaborate for this time period," he said. "There is a ceremonial room and a ventilation shaft. It's not just a house."
He said there are walls 6 feet tall that are still standing as well as doorways and windows.
His period of research is Neolithic, a time when ancient man was ending its age of being hunters and gatherers and becoming farmers.
"It happened independently in different parts of the world, but the Near East appears to be the earliest," Simmons said.
Ultimately, a book will come out of the project.
Simmons said there is an intrinsic interest in human history. Curiosity about the past drives people such as himself to discover everything about our heritage that can be discovered.
"Some say there is nothing left to find," Simmons said. "That isn't true."
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