Buy, Sell, Trade!!!

Thought everyone would like to know that one of the best investments right now are looted artifacts!!! So get your shovels.....

http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1693792,00.html

By the way, I've failed to publicly congratulate Aaron on his marriage to his new beautiful bride. Amie and I couldn't be happier, and we're excited to meet her.

Lay-tar

Mr. Freeman

Just a quickie. I've been cleaning out my email inbox, and found an email that Craig Freeman sent. I ran into him a few months ago. This email contains his contact information. If anyone is interested in getting into contact with him, let me know and I'll forward it. Otherwise, I'll delete it.

To the Imminent and Eminent Thesisers...

Is anyone among the BYU crew planning on attending one of the ETD Library classes that Joel forwarded to us this week? I'll be out of town the whole week, but would love to still get this information! I'll pay the note-taker in evil holiday goodies, if that's any motivation... =)

Thanks!

As an apology to those for whom this has no application, I present the latest findings at Hierakonpolis, courtesy of the Forest Service's own Tom Flanigan. Don't nobody say that ye weren't warned!

Hope everyone enjoyed their turkey!

A Lesson from Virgin Ceramicists

This weekend I attended the Virgin ceramics conference with Dr Allison at the Museum of Northern Arizona. It was pretty interesting to see archaeological decision-making that was actually productive (as opposed to arguments that persist through decades in article form). The ultimate goal of the conference was to produce a ceramics field manual for the Virgin area (or North and West of the Colorado River, as Margaret Lyneis prefers) that could also work as a guide back in the lab.

The general format of the conference was as follows:
A panel sat at the front of the room and a ware (lower case "w") was brought up as the topic (gray wares, white wares, red wares). Then the panel and audience discussed the various Wares (capital "W") and defined them as far as their paste and temper were concerned. Then, topics were brought up such as whether or not a certain brown ware was a just misfired gray ware, etc. and decisions were actually made! They were crossing out Wares and Types left and right! The most impressive part of the conference (at least to cynics like me) was when the panel and audience could not reach a consensus (usually because the data was sparse), they assigned four or five people to a subgroup who will be reporting back with more data and a recommended conclusion in less than a year.

As I sat and watched all of this, I couldn't help but think about how this needs to be done with projectile point typologies (I know you are all laughing right now thinking, "Yeah, right," but so was I when I heard about this conference, and surprisingly it is possible to get these professionals to agree on things when the end goal is mutually desired). The two additional problems that would exist with a proj point conference that didn't with this conference is that (1) the projectile points cover a much larger geographical area-and, therefore, would include many more professionals; and (2) that years ago Colton set up the MNA to be an arbitrator for such discussions and no equivalent institution exists to regulate or house such a conference.
I just wanted to let you all know about the conference this weekend and also see what you all thought about it.

Book of Mormon Stories

Hey all,

I was reading in the Daily Herald and came across this article.

To me, it feels a little like vindication for all those times I've had to tell people that Lehi and Co. could not have populated all of the Americas, and that there were other people that arrived much earlier.

Of course, we can expect a significant backlash from the Antis, but I think it's a great change.

Extra! Extra! Read All About It!!

Well hello, everybody!

Did dinosaurs ever live on earth with man?

How did ancient artists know what dinosaurs looked like?

When and where was the last dinosaur sighting?

The answers to these questions and more can be found in the following website:

http://www.discoverynews.us/

Oh, man. For those of you who have been in the office lately, you have had the pleasure of viewing some literature that I brought in from GJ that talks about this stuff. I just wanted to provide the website for those of you who have not had the opportunity to look at the articles in person. It's kinda along the same lines as a post that Aaron posted awhile back.


Enjoy.

Three Corners Conference Roll Call

The Three Corners Conference is coming up next weekend:

http://www.nvarch.org/3corners/3Corners2.pdf

Joel, Cady, and I are on the program with a paper on Fremont Exchange. Yoder and I are going, is anyone else planning on attending?

Utah Geology -- a GIS Fest

Scott and I stumbled onto the following website with a bunch of free GIS and pdf maps of the geology of Utah.

http://geology.utah.gov/maps/gis/index.htm

Check it out all of you GIS-ers.

Southwest Symposium - 20th Anniversary

Hello all,
Just thought you may be interested in the upcoming SW Symposium held at ASU in January. All the infomation can be found at this link...
http://www.public.asu.edu/~ndwilso1/
It should be a good conference. They will be discussing foraging, mobility and migration, social power and interaction, the protohistoric, and the history of Southwest archaeology, understanding human movement, landscape change, and the connections among groups at local and pan-Southwestern scales. Check it out and I hope to see you all there. Lay-tar.
Mike

Heat-Treated Purple Obsidian!

Enjoy:

http://www.macuahuitl.com/pb/wp_98514d3c/wp_98514d3c.html

http://aztecswords.com/

A Fond Farewell to Cady Waldrom (Reinhold) Jardine

Officially, I think that Cady and fam left this morning, but she came into the museum yesterday to say goodbye. You will be missed Cady. The student office won't be the same without you. No longer will we be able to talk turquoise and exotics, nor will we be hounded for details and photos of marriages, dates, and babies:) In all seriousness, it was great having you around to bounce ideas off, to offer advice, and to share sources.

I (and I'm sure the rest of us) wish you and your family the best as you start a new life in D.C.

I'll have to add your name to those for whom we pour out a little Fresca when we're in the field.

New BYU Anthropology Website

Dear FOF,

Just as an FYI, the new BYU Anthropology website is now live and running. It still has some minor fixes but for the most part is ready to go. Take a look here and let me know if you find any problems. Thanks!

Scott

Sand Hollow II - Take 2

Well, I'd have to agree with everything Dave mentioned. I had a blast with old friends and met some fun new people. Sand Hollow was everything Aaron said it would be...hocking sand. But, at the same time, Scott and I finally got to test the Panasonic Toughbook for digital mapping in the field and it worked great! Thanks to Scott and his persistence on the acquisition of the computer, we will likely be presenting a "product review" at the SAAs in Vancouver. Stay tuned.

As for the flooding, just look at the pics. The apartment with the most water was where two of the male crew members were staying. Some of the girls and I were able to salvage all the site maps, field notes, Topcon, and laser levels in the boss's apartment due to our quick feet and "bags-in-the-cracks-of-the-door" quick thinking. Not to mention, we saved a lot of Dave's dissertation material from the floor of his room (Just make sure to put us in your acknowledgments, Dave).

And in reference to the Andrew Johnston Collection, I was blown away. Dave and I were able to photograph sandals for his dissertation project and I photographed and did a cursory analysis of the Casas Grandes pottery. The pictures say it all. I really was waiting for Vincent Price to come out of the corner and talk in his creepy, old man voice.

SandHollow II

Well, my time at SandHollow has come to a close; although Rich and Lane are still working down there and will be until the end of August. For those of you who have not been to Sand Hollow, it can generally be summed up as HOT, sandy, and ephemeral. Most of the time we were digging wickiups and hearths, although we did excavate a pithouse or two as well. One of these had a lot of adobe wall and roof fall, no ceramics, and a piece of corn came out of the bottom. So all signs point to Basketmaker, which would be really interesting. That was definitely the highlight of the season. Mike Searcy and family were also there for a good chunk of the summer, which was great. It was good to be back in the field with a Friend of the Fremont.

The day I was leaving St. George got flooded by a thunderstorm. Two of the apartments we were renting got a couple of feet of water in them. Mike will have to post some pictures; it was crazy. He and I also got to check out the Andrew Johnston private collection in Kanab. I'll have to post on that another time; it was a sweet/creepy experience. Now I'm down at North Creek for Dr. J's last year there. We took out the back fill (a monumental task) and have started excavating. Already we have found two new pits and two hearths on the Early Archaic use surface and some tools down at 3.30 meters below ground surface. That hole is DEEP. It's not field school though, so we are all being careful.

Mt Meadows Massacre Article

This will appear in the September Ensign. Looks to be a definitive statement...

Type, Series, and Ware in Fremont Ceramic Classification

I already sent this to several of you. If I missed anyone that's interested, let me know. Comment away!

ABSTRACT

For nearly thirty years, Fremont ceramic analysts have primarily relied on a single seminal work – Prehistoric Ceramics of the Fremont, by Rex E. Madsen (1977). Although the value of R. Madsen’s study cannot be overstated, the intervening years of research have yielded a wealth of relevant data and refined analytical techniques. In addition, certain key observations from previous analyses were omitted from the R. Madsen typology. I review the past and current conceptions of the Fremont ceramic typology as well as the literature pertaining to variability within pottery types, specifically temper. Based on this existing research and my own observations, I propose a reclassification of Fremont pottery within the Type – Series – Ware hierarchy proposed by Colton and Hargrave (1937). Fremont pottery is surmised under a single ware, with series defined by temper and types by surface treatment. Building on the work of Lyneis (1994; Geib and Lyneis 1996), and in reference to recent developments in Hohokam ceramic studies (Abbott 2000), I further suggest ways to identify temper variability and to apply quantifiable differences to studies of pottery provenience.

Mormons Murder Goshute Indians...

This should be a heckuva USAS Meeting...

A Craig Freeman sighting

This just in-

Lane ran into Craig Freeman in Vivian Park (Provo Canyon). Craig was on Rollerblades. Lane said that Craig is still doing construction/concrete stuff, but that he is thinking about getting back into archaeology.

So, who knows? Maybe everyone's favorite metalhead and epigrapher will return to the fold.

Aaron's SIR

This semester was pretty uneventful. It comprised of me going down to Sand Hollow in January, and then spending the rest of the time in the bone room analyzing the chipped stone from PVAP. After plodding through only one box (there are 14 total), I have now analyzed 900+ tools from Summit (42IN40). Most of them are utilized flakes.

So, my previous method of "just get through all the boxes" has been foiled. No way am I gonna be able to do 13 more boxes with similar artifact counts and ever graduate. Enter sampling strategies.

For now, I am working on revising drafts of my proposal and figuring out how to sample the assemblage. I've been reading a lot of stuff on Homol'ovi (the Hopi Mesas area) and despite the obvious differences between the Hopi and the Fremont, I have gained some perspectives into how to sample a massive collection, and also gotten some ideas about studying spatial distributions of chipped stone.

This past week I was near Bliss, Idaho with Lane doing Idaho Power stuff for Mr. Baker. We documented several sites along the Snake River. Cool stuff up there. We found several points, some late prehistoric ceramics, sandstone shaft smoothers, and a few rock shelters. Apparently the week before I went up, they found a burial. Shane was all over it. Not much left, just some vertebrae and teeth.

We did find a really cool site near the banks of Salmon Falls that, according to his journal, was visited by John C. Fremont. He and his cronies traded with the Shoshone for dried Salmon and spent some time near the falls. The site was very large with lots of groundstone, shell, chipped stone, rock art, and circular features with upright slabs. There was also a historic component, stacked stone walls and a ditch. It was pretty picked over by visitors to the site (read: looters) and little has been done to preserve it. After finding several looter pits, Lane shook his head and uttered, "Bastards." He then lamented Idaho's neglect for this historically significant site. Hopefully, with some strong suggestions to put it on the register, it will get there. We could have easily spent three days recording that site due to the massive amount of stuff there.

I wish there was more to report, but I didn't take any cool classes, and I've been doing a lot of analysis so there isn't much else to say.

Yoder and Stats

I seem to remember a tent-mate who found a very effective use for archaeological stats.

Yoder, I still need to send this one to Ian Robertson. I think he'd get a kick out of it.

Yoder's SIR_Spring 2007

This semester was relatively light at the beginning but quickly took a downward spiral. As far as classes go, I only had two, one of which was a directed readings course.

I took Anthropological Statistics from Karen Harry. Why? Because I’m such a stats retard that I don’t remember anything if I’m not constantly using it. Even though it was pretty basic stats I was worried at first, but Ian’s teachings were still rattling around in the back of my head, and surprisingly, I was able to remember a lot of it once I started thinking stats again.

My directed readings course was focused on stuff for both my dissertation and for my comps. I’ve been doing a lot of reading about technological style, iconological style, isochrestic style, and the whatnot. I’m particularly a fan of the technological and isochrestic style camp and this theoretical orientation will be the basis for much of my dissertation research. And can I throw a plug in here for James Sackett. The guy knows how to write. He has a nice clean, clear, writing style that keeps you interested. Whenever I’m writing for an academic audience (article or presentation) I always feel compelled to dress it up in fancy terms. I hate doing this but feel like that as a grad student I have to do this to be taken more seriously. This is crap and I don’t want to do it anymore. I, and everyone else in archaeology, should write in clean clear language like only a few do really well.

At the end of the semester I decided to take the job with Uncle OPA and then had to cram everything to get out of Vegas and up to Utah in time. I started the job two weeks before the end of the semester which meant that I had to have others cover the Anthro 101 classes I was teaching, turn in assignments early, etc. It got very hairy near the end, but was worth it.

Now I’m keeping it real in Sand Hollow. Speaking of which, I am able to write this today because we got SANDBLASTED and had to pack up and come home early this morning. We got to the site around 6:20am, and were able to work for a couple of hours but conditions quickly turned into a full scale sand storm. So it was home for FSing and writing up notes. Grit in the teeth, good times. I am still waiting for Aaron to come down (come on dude, just for a week) and can’t wait for Mike to start. I’m also supposed to be studying for my comps at night, but so far that has failed to happen. Where does the time go?

Mike's SIR - Spring '07

This past semester was a little busier than the last. I don't know if my mental state will remain stable, but we'll see. Now that it is over, I can breathe a little easier. Overall, it was a good one.

Linguistic Theory - This is a required course for all graduate students at OU. It was really good to read some classic stuff by Boas, Sapir, and Kroeber. I really enjoyed Keith Basso's book on the Western Apache. His writing style is very colloquial and frank. I think we should all write a little more like that, but then journals wouldn't publish our stuff. My project for this class was working on the Q'eqchi'- English dictionary that my friend (at SUNY Albany) and I had started about a year ago. We are using a software program by SIL that is for field linguists and is a tool used to build lexicons. The advantage of this is that we can output the lexicon to many different formats - web, text (WORD, etc.), and as a stand-alone dictionary with searchable functions. This is going to take longer than we expected, but it needs to be done.

Symbolic Anthropology - I took this as a special readings course with a Berkley-ite who allowed me to take a mock-comprehensive exam question instead of write a paper at the end. It was good practice and got me ready for at least one portion of the exam, which I will be taking next Spring. Also, I was able to read some of the classic symbolic literature from the 60s and 70s like Firth, Cohen, Turner, Levi-Strauss, Ortner, and Douglas. It was a really good baptism by fire. I may bleed archaeology, but I occasionally pee cultural anthropology and enjoy it. What can I say? They don't call me Soco for nothing.

Work - I've been a TA for a few semesters now and will be taking on my own intro to anth. class this coming fall. It should be fun; I really enjoy teaching. Also, I work for the property management company where I live and have been able to get cheap rent. I work for them 2 days out of the week and do on-call emergency maintenance at night and on weekends. In addition, there have been a lot of freelance opportunities this past semester which included English to Spanish translations, 2 websites, and 2 logo design projects. I should have passed on all of them due to time constraints.

Film - In all the hoopla of school and work, the illegal immigration film rolls on. We just interviewed our first illegal immigrant last night (although we still concealed his identity). None have been willing to appear on camera until now. A new law also just passed here in Oklahoma making it a felony to transport an illegal. I guess I won't be taking any of the Spanish Branch members anywhere, or maybe I will. The law also prevents illegals from obtaining state ID, health benefits, and jobs (employers are required to do social security number checks on all new employees). It is a hot topic everywhere, but we have been able to document the debate right here in OK.

Summer - So the rumors are true. I will be working for Uncle OPA this summer. I'm really excited to be working with all the folks at Sand Hollow. Amie and the kids will also be coming along after a fourth summer in a row of having to leave them for an extended period of time. It also looks like I may even make money for the first summer in a long time. And now that OPA has some cool techno tools, Scott and I can finally do a write-up on the Tablet PCs and handheld computers.

Lay-tar-----------------------------------

Friends of OPA Unite!

Now that Dave and probably Mike have joined the rest of the crew with Uncle OPA, I wonder if the time is ripe to talk to the bosses about organizing a "Friends of OPA" alumni group to support Rich and co. It could start, and possibly stay, small, existing primarily as an email list. It would be easy to put together on google groups.

Basically, we could send out an "OPA Update" to the listserv two or three times a year to let people know how OPA was doing, and have the list ready for people to send in their letters of support to the Dean and Crandall the next time the ship starts sinking. This would also serve as the basis for future group activities, such as the occasional get-together to excavate Wolf Village, or a forum to get the money together for endowed fellowships in support of graduate students studying Fremont subsistence, architecture, and ceramics (Joel, Rich, and Lane's primary research interests).

I can think of the following people other than the FOF:

Sarah Baer
Jake Sauer
Megan Schaub
Jamie Bartlett
Aubrey Baasgaard
Shane Baker
Mery Ann Clements
Jan Wickel
Wade and Jessica Arden
The Big Horn Archaeology dudes
Kenny Winch
Charmaine Thompson
Byron Loosle
The Dude from Baseline Data
Jim Wilde
Debbie Newman
Emily Wise
and many more!

What does everyone think? Maybe some of you guys in St. George can talk to Rich about it, and I'll email Joel. We can start putting together an email list and ask people if they want to be on the google group, and then see what we can do to support Uncle OPA!

Watkins SIR Spring 2007

Not really an eventful term, but my highlights were:

Classes -- Beyond Chiefdoms with Ben Nelson and Kate Spielmann. In this class, we reviewed the chiefdom literature and pretty much decided that the classically defined chiefdom only ever existed in Polynesia, but that there are societies that are neither states nor tribes that the chiefdom label could be applied to, for lack of a better term. Also, we decided that chiefdoms do not necessarily preceed states, and in fact, there are no historical or archaeological cases where a chiefdom turned into a state. I wrote a paper for this class in which I compared mortuary assemblages from the Southwest (including the Fremont, Hohokam, PIV, and Casas Grandes) to a Southeastern Chiefdom. Surprisingly, the Fremont assemblage was a lot like the chiefdom, and the pure Southwestern groups were very similar. Go figure!? I only used one metric to compare them though, the diversity index, which is a count of the number of artifact classes in a burial, which supposedly is related to the number of roles a person held in life.

Dissertation -- I continue to collect and analyze sherds from the Southern Sinagua area, putting together a temper typology for the region. As part of my analysis, I'm developing a new method to analyze ceramic thin sections by digitally photographing the slides and using computer software to quantify the amount of each temper particle present. The team includes people from Geology, Archaeology, Electrical Engineering, and Photography. If it works, and I'm pretty sure it will, we will reduce the cost of thin section analysis by 1/10th. Exciting times!

Work -- I'm currently finishing up a chapter describing Hohokam mortuary ritual on Canal System 7 based on a dataset of nearly 1,000 burials excavated over the last year or two. I've identified several roles, including household ritual specialists, group ritual specialists, hunt/war leaders, and ceramic entrepreneurs. We'll see if any of it holds up.

This summer -- I'll be working on my dissertation 2 days a week, and doing excavations here in the Phoenix Basin the rest of the week. Good times, my friends, good times.

Herod's Tomb Found?

Could this be? Somebody get Holly on the horn to assess this. And let's get those SIRs in. I'll try to have mine up today.

And by the way, Mr. Yoder joins OPA

You like that....by the way...OPA. I'm good.

So those positions that Scott posted about a one-year contract with OPA.....yours truely will be filling one of those positions. Hurrah! I'll be helping run the Sand Hollow excavation during the summer and analysis and write up in the fall and winter. I'm looking forward to working with the bosses again and can't wait to get into the dirt (or sand in this case). I start on Monday. Pretty quick, but I'm way excited. Aaron might even be around.

Now if I could just sell my house. Not to worry, I hear the market is great! http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18289082/

SAA's and graduate students

Is anyone going to the SAA's this year? My professors keep asking me this. This is understandable. But when I answer no, one or two of them kinda look at me odd like "really, why not? What are you doing instead?"

I know they just want to be nice and are interested in my academic welfare, BUT, I feel like saying "I have a wife, three kids with one on the way*, and make a whopping $12,000 a year" Are you serious?!@#% No I'm not going to the freakin SAA's. You want to know what I 'm doing instead, I'm buying diapers; and then I'll probably drop by the welfare office and pick up my foodstamps. After that I'll spend another 12-15 hour day at my office working on assigments, publications, and research. THAT'S what I'm doing instead of going to the SAA's!


*Sally is now 4 or 5 months pregnant with our last one. Please O Pleeease let it be a little girl or I will be facing a discontent wife who reminds me that the sex of the child is entirely dependent on the male (i.e. Mr. Yoder).

I want to kill myself

By: Phyllis Gunderson

Archaeologist Mathilda Howard believes in solid scientific fact, not mythical advanced civilizations or stones that shine. But when an old Tibetan monk shares his experience of the "lights that do not die," Matt knows she had to learn more. From a sacred mountain in China to a lost civilization in Brazil, Matt finds that she is digging up more than simple artifacts. Her questions lead her to a new religion, but it may cost her all that she values in life: her career, her prestige, and even her family. As evidence of the shining stones mounts, she finds herself faced with decisions she never thought she'd have to make. How much is Matt willing to sacrifice for the lost stones of the Jaradites?

Continuing BYU's Parowan Synthesis...

Just wanted to send a Congrats and Well Done to Molly for her thesis proposal defense on Monday. She'll have to supply the details, but the worked bone gaming pieces of PVAP are looking like they'll tell us some interesting things when compared to the ethnographic evidence. Molly stood up to our favorite trio of committee members (the 3 J's) very confidently and made some interesting points about our favorite neighborhood Fremont.

Kudos!

anti-evolution museum

Hey all, it's been a little quiet around here so I decided to post a link to a story about an anti-evolution museum that some Christian Fundies are building in Kentucky.

http://www.kentucky.com/158/story/26286.html

If the link doesn't work, just google "anti-evolution museum, kentucky" It should show up.

Due to all of our religious backgrounds, I think this story is worth a read. It's not Fremont related, but the main content of the story could hit home with archaeologists/other scientists with religious convictions.

I think that we should be quick to point out pseudo-science like this museum. I know that I have dealt with many a Mormon Fundie who has told me that dinosaur bones were put on the earth by Satan to deceive men, that C-14 is a flawed method, and that the age of Earth is in the 4-5000s.

A nod to Mr. Ure

I figured that you all should know that Mr. Ure has been accepted to our auspicious graduate studies program at BYU. I think this news is worth its own post due to the fact that Scott's "Joining the Fray" post is down at the bottom of the page.

Congrats Scott, if only you knew what you were getting into...just kidding.

I guess someone considers the Fremont part of the SW

Props out to our very own Chris Watkins whose thesis abstract showed up in Pottery Southwest.

http://www.unm.edu/~psw/PDFs/current.pdf

Excavation Blog

I got this email forwarded to me today. Maybe we should set up a blog for Sand Hollow...

Prof. Michael Smith and his research team are blogging from their excavation project at Calixtlahuaca, Mexico!

Calixtlahuaca was a large urban center of the Matlatzinco culture, closely related to the Aztecs (A.D. 1100-1520).

n Hear about their latest discoveries,
n Learn about the history of the site, and
n Experience the day-to-day life at an archaeological dig as it is happening!

The blog contains the team’s informal reports and is geared toward the general public, with pictures, links and illustrations. The project began this month and will go through July 2007. Check back regularly and follow their progress!

Links:
Calixtlahuaca Blog
Professor Michael Smith’s Homepage
Calixtlahuaca Archaeological Project Website
School of Human Evolution & Social Change

Announcing the USAS/UPAC Convention 2007

June 8-10th at UVSC. Registration starts Thursday afternoon.

This year's theme will be The Archaeology of Utah Valley: The Late Prehistoric Period and Contributions to Archaeology by USAS members.

Dr. J will be our keynote speaker at a catered dinner Saturday night. Charmaine will likely introduce him and then, to his surprise, we'll hopefully have some sort of presentation afterward in honor of his contributions to USAS as well as to archaeology in Utah Valley and in the Late Prehistoric.

Any ideas or personal experiences you can share are much appreciated. We'd love to have you guys come do presentations--Friday and Saturday--or lead workshops. Obviously this is a small venue and most of the audience is comprised of amateurs over 60, but Utah Valley is central enough that we expect a fairly good UPAC attendance this year. Any subject is welcome, though obviously the closer to the theme the better. Aaron--Spotten Cave would be particularly applicable and we may have several field trips that will pass by and be able to point it out beforehand. Hint...

I know everyone's spread out, especially that time of year, but new blood and new ideas could really breathe life into this. And hey, free presentation opportunity. Registration forms won't be out until the end of March, but the fee is only like $10 and you get a groovy t-shirt. =)

Let me know if you guys want to participate. If for no other reason, for those of you still at BYU, you know Dr J loves to see us participate in this stuff. Thanks!

Woods and Yoder (2004)

Hey all,

dropping a quickie while I have some time away for St. Geo. This past week, the 2004 issue of Utah Archaeology finally made it to press. It is now available and features an article by Mr. Yoder(CRM stuff), and one by me(Spotten Cave, what else?)...then there are a few others. I can't remember what they are about.

Anyway, Mr. Bright grudingly admitted that I should get a free copy, so if he follows through, those of you in the office may get to see it. Those of you out of the office can let me know if you want to take a look.

Unfortunatley, the formatting is less than stellar. Many of the figures are fuzzy, and a little too small to really show what they are supposed to show, but whatever. It's out and the Great Basin Seminar paper no longer hangs over my head.

Note to self: never submit anything to Utah Archaeology again.

Congrats Cady and Jeff!!

Had a call from one Jeff Jardine. Baby Jardine was born today at approximately 8:00 PM, after an extended labor. Mother and child are doing fine. Baby weighing in at 7 lbs 2 oz and 19 inches(?).

Can't wait to meet little Joel Clark Jardine, a future friend of the Fremont.

Good Luck Cady

Cady is likely winding down her thesis defense at this moment. Full respect, and let's get the report ASAP.

New Blogger

Today, I was prompted to abandon my blogger account for my google account when I tried to get into the blog. It looks like everyone will also have to make this change.

Joining the Fray and Do You want to Work at OPA?

I just thought I would let everyone know that I am applying to the Masters program here at BYU and plan to start classes this coming fall. I will probably take some intro classes this summer to get up to speed. I am really looking forward to becoming legit and able to really know what I am talking about though that remains to be seen...

On a side note, I have been asked by Rich Talbot, Director of OPA to make everyone on FOF aware that OPA plans is offering two full-time 1 year positions as operating archaeologists. This is a big deal and an amazing opportunity for anyone wanting some major responsibilities and time working with two of the best field archaeologists in the state of Utah. Those interested need to contact Debbie Silversmith at 801.422.0024 or apply online at yjobs.byu.edu.

Practice Archaeology

Anybody tuned in much to the developing theory and such on Practice in archaeology? I'm looking for a good general summary definition, and maybe recommendations on texts or articles that spell things out pretty basically.

It's been pretty quiet on here--this as much a hell semester for everyone else as it's looking for me? Or are there other Sand Hollow II's taking people away from civilization as we know it in 'good ol' Provo?

For those who are interested...

Hey guys, this was brought to my attention by one of my professors. World Archaeology is doing an issue on Experimental Archaeology.

Vol. 40 No. 1: Experimental Archaeology Editor: Alan Outram
Most archaeologists have some understanding of what is meant by'experimental archaeology', but it is not always clear what the term means.Most would agree that experimental archaeology involves 'actualistic'investigation of archaeological questions employing authentic materials and'primitive technologies', rather than being purely lab-based. Suchexperiments might address processes of artefact manufacture and use,taphonomy or (re)construction, however, actualistic experiments are alsoemployed to develop or valid laboratory techniques.

This call is for papers that employ experimental archaeology as a seriousresearch method. Papers that illustrate how experimental archaeology isintegrated into wider archaeological investigations are particularlywelcome.

(http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/cfp/rwarcfp.asp)

Lay-tar.

Way to go, Nabataeans!!

Hello New Worlders! Now for some news from the Old World:

Yes folks, Petra was named as a candidate for one the new seven wonders of the world. Read about it here. Petra is one of 21 sites from around the world competing for the title as one of the world's 7 wonders. Aww yeah!

Stay tuned on 07/07/07 for results!!

Molly SIR (Thanks for the motivation, Chris)

Geographic Information Systems

Though this was technically a Grad level class it was combined with the general intro to GIS undergrad class, so it was incredibly easy (I'm talking about major assignments consisteing of one 2-3 page paper). But, it was very useful, especially since I don't learn well from just exploring computer programs on my own. Basically, we just completed the ESRI on-line lessons to learn how to push the buttons while we did one extensive project broken into a dozen little pieces to learn the applications. Finally, for the Grad students, we came up with an idea of how to use GIS in conjunction with our thesis. Originally, I wanted to show the distribution of gamming pieces over the Paragonah site, but it would have taken way too long to prep all the data, so I ended up showing the distribution of gamming pieces over the Fremont area.

Readings/Thesis
I took one credit of readings simply so I could get my student loan, but it was extreemly helpful towards my thesis. I read the abundant (sarcasm) liturature on Fremont worked bone, mostly consisting of site summaries. There were a few other more helpful pieces including, of course, the Clear Creek Report. I ended up getitng into areas outside of the Fremont as well. The worked bone section of "The Durango South Project" (APUA No.34) was interesting because John Gooding attenpted to analyze worked bone (esp. awls) using functional characteristics rather than simply morphological attributes. I also actually started on the PVAP worked bone analysis, which has been challenging, but very useful, since I have to identify the element (faunal analysis is a major weekness of mine) as well as any modification/wear.

Field School Lab Class
I was the sole TA (though I had much needed help from Aaron, Brad, and Jenny) for the Field School Lab class. This was most useful for comedic relief in my otherwise busy life. I think my favorite story about the students was the follwoing: One student (Let's call him, M) made a comment about how few scales we had and another (let's call him, D) replied, "Oh, you don't really need to use one. What you do is at the beginning of the day you weight one sherd and then use that one to help you estimate on the rest that you do." The best part is that this converstion was held right infront of Dr. Allsion! Through the grapevine I also heard that D found out that M (who was working with sherds from the same site as D) finished analysis and had found 100% greyware with sand temper, so D decided his must all be greyware with sand temper as well...he finnished his analysis really quickly after that.

GB Paper
Finally, I finished by Great Basin Seminar paper (on Fremont Architecture in the Utah Valley...basically reporting the uncommon structrures as Jay's Place) at least to get a grade. I'm sure it'll need a few more drafts before publication, but it's nice to be at a good resting point.

Watkins SIR (Fall 2006)

I get the impression that people are not posting these because they don't have time to write a big long entry. In that spirit, I am posting an abbreviated SIR as an example.

-=Courses=-
Only one course this year:

Comparative Southwestern Ceramics - In this course, we learned to type ceramics from across the southwest, and compared them to one another. Interesting note - most people agreed that Fremont painted pottery is in the Red Mesa style, so much so that some of the Crow Canyon folks wondered whether some of the displaced Mesa Verdeans landed in the Fremont area around AD 900. Check this website for some really cool lab manuals and type descriptions, including one for the Fremont by yours truly.

-=Research=-
Finishing:
1. A paper on the Fremont Ceramic typology
2. A paper on structure contemporeneity at Five Finger Ridge

Dissertation:
Analyzed a bunch of sherds for my D.
Am working on an automated method to digitally analyze petrographic thin sections.

-=Next Term=-
Taking Chiefdoms from Spielmann (the incoming Shallit lecturer) and Ben Nelson
More D research
More Fremont papers

News Flash: Dateline - Rupert Idaho.

Extra, Extra! Read all about it!

Mel Gibson's Apocalyto is full of embellishments, inaccuracies, and racist undertones. The archaeological advisor on the film, one Richard Hansen, responds in this interview with Archaeology Magazine.

Maya "expert", former BYU student, and current UC Riversider Zach Hruby gives his two bits in this National Geographic Newsletter article.

ASU graduate students ask BYU alumni Chris Watkins why the H Hansen let Mel get away with his theatrics. A puzzled Watkins knows not what to say...