Merry Christmas

I thought a scene of Mr. and Mrs. Fremont chopping down a Christmas tree would be fun this year. All apologies to Photoshop and Mr. Ure.

Be Cool, Stay in School

Just a friendly reminder to the academics to keep on pushing through those comps and dissertations... and a congratulations to the MA's who have found substantial employment. ; )

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705351169/Man-lives-in-Moab-cave.html

(I especially got a laugh out of the caption to the main photo.)

The Search

To all those searching for jobs, here is a report from the trenches:

I attended the AAA meetings this past week and ventured into the infamous "Placement Center." This is the room where you meet behind a curtain to sell yourself shamelessly for a position that 30 others are likely interviewing for. First, there were only 4 archaeology faculty positions for which interviews were being held. I interviewed with the one that I fit, and it is only a visiting position at a small school in Ohio. I did receive word from 2 other universities that I did not make their short lists. They indicated that each position garnered over 120 applications each. From this report, it seems safe to say that the market is saturated with PhDs. On top of that, departments are cutting funding, slashing positions (as they are being vacated, which has happened with 3 positions here at OU), and thickening the ice on job freezes (BYU included). It sounds all gloom and doom, and I admit that it is. Still have yet to hear from 11+ universities/colleges, so we'll see. I'd love to hear others' experiences, especially what Dave and Chris are seeing out there. Lay-tar.

Mike

Completing the Circuit

By way of announcement, the first North Creek Shelter manuscript--of many to come--has been accepted for publication by Kiva. (Well, there was a general article on NCS "published" in the proceedings of the 2006 GSENM Science Symposium, but that only counts on CV's.) Dr. Yoder took the lead on this one (along with Dr. J, Mark Bodily, and myself) in describing the onset of early small seed processing on the Colorado Plateau. (One of the few thing's we'll need to fix is getting our figures into Kiva's tiny hobbit format.)

The groundstone assemblage at the site was just one series of the crap-ton of artifacts we pulled out of that place over 5 seasons of work. So keep an ear out for more to come within the next year. The next one on the list is a fatty descriptive paper that we'll be submitting to American Antiquity before the end of the year, and each of us has at least 3-5 separate other articles in mind to take the lead on. Oh, and the upper levels (Archaic, Fremont, Late Prehistoric) haven't really been touched yet, so if anyone's looking for a future project let us know.

Cal Porter during Glen Canyon, 1960

Joel sent this out to various people and I was forwarded a copy (thanks, Brad). Since no one has posted it yet, I thought I would. Cal is on the far left with the glasses, beard, and dark button-down shirt. To Cal's left, I recognize Don Fowler, but the rest of them don't look familiar.

Origins of Agriculture

I've been taking a class from Alan Simmons here at UNLV about the origins of agriculture. We're finally moving into the New World origins. After several thought provoking weeks of push-pull model discussions, HBE, and several other theories, it seems like we haven't resolved anything. We have only determined that reasons for adopting agriculture are too diverse to be attributed to just one catalyst.

I agree with that on many levels, however, I'd love to hear what the rest of you think. Since this blog IS called Friends of the Fremont, and the url is fremontfarmers.blogspot.com, what elelments do you fellow FoFs think were essential to the adoption of agriculture?

The saga continues.

It's hard to care much about all of this Range Creek stuff anymore, but I lament the fact that we will not see much (or any) of the data. Visions of PVAP...

Utah to turn over fabled Range Creek canyon to U. of U. archaeologists - Salt Lake Tribune

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Props to Holly

Since Holly may not post this herself, I thought I'd let everyone know that our very own Holly Raymond-Hughes has been hired on by Geo-Marine as a full-time project archaeologist for their St. George, Utah office.

I have no other details, but just want to say congratulations, Holly!

Creationist Museum Gets Hard Dose of Reality

A few years ago we ran a story on museums catered to evangelical groups who believe that dinosaurs and humans lived together on Earth.

Well...they are back in the news again. This time, for tax fraud. Not paying your taxes sics the Feds on you and I'm pretty sure it makes Baby Jesus cry.

Apparently, there is still a museum like this in Kentucky. Here's a crazy photo set from flickr of that museum. I'm betting the museum that was shut down in Florida had similar fare.

On a related note, I found this hilarious t-shirt. Enjoy.

Do you realize.....that everyone you know someday will die?

Gentlemen (and das ladies)

It has taken 11 long years, but on Monday I had my dissertation defense. I passed with no revisions! Freakin SWEET! The only thing left to do is some minor paperwork and submit the manuscript (oh, and hide an easter egg somewhere in that 277 page beast). Once I have the final copy in PDF form maybe one of you tech savy types can post it on here for me.

It feels good my friends, it feels good.

Where's AJ?

Now that my field work for Geo-Marine is finished and I'm stuck doing lab work, I've got more time to post. While staying in Mtn. Home, Idaho I noticed this establishment next to our motel.




The food was horrible, but the name served as a catalyst to wonder where everyone's favorite mentor/idol/crack archaeologist has gone.

Dang it, AJ what are you up to?

Attn: Looters

Check out who the BLM and FBI just arrested...24 of Utah's finest looters!

http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_12561194

Is that a microphone in your shirt, or some strange growth?

Props to the undercover agents involved!

SIRs, General Updates?

Since some of you are finished with school for the rest of your lives, and others are merely done with another semester, what's going on in your lives?

Where are you working? How is your research going? How are things in general?

I'll start:

Winter 2009 semester went well. I finished up my thesis after a rough defense and some edits that should have been suggested during the editing process. My thesis is not yet available (online) since I don't technically graduate until August.

I got a sweet job offer from Geo-Marine Inc. I'm working up in Mt. Home, Idaho on the Saylor Creek Range portion of the Air Force Range. We are testing certain sites on the range for buried deposits. We're working with late Paleo and early Archaic sites. Lots of Haskett, Cascade, and Northern Side-notched points.

Holly Raymond-Hughes is also working with GMI on this same project.

After the testing on the AFB is finished, GMI has subcontracted me to do the analysis of the chipped stone assemblage and write up the results for the final report.

In August, I'll be moving to Las Vegas to pursue a PhD at UNLV. I'll be working with Barb Roth and, to a lesser degree, Karen Harry. Most likely, I'll end up doing something in the Mimbres/Mogollon area regarding foraging to farming transitions.

That's about it for me. I'd love to hear what the rest of the FoF are doing.

Save yourself some time and money with Google Books

Hey all,

I was doing a search for some projectile point books and came across a beta of Google Books

It's pretty amazing and I found the entire version of the book online for free! Many books are limited previews, meaning that some of the portions of the book are unavailable, but most of the books I've searched for have had the complete or mostly complete text online.

Some books of note:

Stone Age Spear and Arrow Points of California and the Great Basin

Same Style, but for the SW

Stone Age Economics

Fundamentals of Ceramics

Archaeology of Regional Interaction (Fremont Farmers article)
(Rich's article not available though)

Archaeology in General

I hope this is useful, it may be old news for some, but I am pretty excited to find this. Take it for a spin!

Brad Newbold, MA, Aaron Woods, MA

In shameless self-promotion, I wanted to let you all know that Brad and I submitted our theses today. We're all done! Speaking for myself, it feels pretty good.

When the ETDs are available from BYU, I'll post links to both theses.

I'd like to thank Scott for all of his help with figures, formatting, and patience.

Just a review of our topics:

My thesis discussed the distributions, quantities, and value of projectile points from Parowan Valley.

Brad's thesis discussed paleoindian and paleoarchaic subsistence, specifically faunal remains at North Creek Shelter. Brad identified some turkey bones and may have identified an extinct species of deer. He can fill you in for more details.

A side note, come August, Brad will be heading to Washington State and I will be heading to UNLV.

Please see the related link:

PhD Placements

(the pictures are kind of fuzzy now, a few days ago they were smaller and clearer)

Happy Four Years!

I just noticed that as of April 6th, 2009, this blog has been around for four years!

Thanks for making this blog, Chris! Also, thanks to all of you for continuing to post and making this blog a success.

Blatant Thesis/Dissertation Promotion Opp.

Just a little opportunity to promote your hard work! This page is an in-progress annotated bibliography of theses and dissertations that utilized or emphasized public archaeology. Since many of your theses, like mine, utilized public archaeology in a very real since thanks to hours of volunteer work in the field, I thought I'd pass it on so that I'm not the only BYU alum to make the list.

Granted...I was sorely tempted to keep it secret in the hopes that it'd result in more etd hits on my lowly historic treatise. Or am I the only one arrogantly watching the count periodically?!

I just emailed the compiler and she basically asked me to put similar researchers in touch with her--it's not just for those with "public archaeology" in the title. I'm working on my shortened abstract, emphasizing the volunteer work that went into gathering the data for my research. A whole bunch of us have pulled our work from similar sources, particularly since North Creek has dragged in bunches of folks and Dr J has really used it as an opportunity to get USAS out there, hands-on with the students. Thank goodness for all their hours hauling buckets, eh?

Anyway, just passing this along to all of you, in case it's of interest.

FoF on FB

Many of you will receive a Facebook invite to join the official FoF Facebook group. I thought that since many of us are on Facebook, we could have something over there as well. I think we need to maintain this blog, but the photo album capabilities of Facebook impress me more than those of blogger.

It'd be cool to see some great Fremont photos and figures posted to the group since the majority of us have had to, at one time or another, generate Fremont-related images.

Also, Facebook may have a longer reach than our little blog.

This is also a way that we can invite mucky-mucks like JCJ and others. This way they don't have to read the blog.

Just a thought. Join up! or don't. Whatever.

USAS 2009: Fremont on the Fringe

Greetings from USAS,

So I know you guys don't traditionally go in for USAS Convention (June 5-7), but this year's in Ogden and will be fully focused on the Fremont. They're bringing in a good handful of big (to biggish) names:

• Steve Simms(Keynote)--Great Salt Lake Fremont
• Joel Janetski (Keynote)--The Promontory Question
• Shawn Carlyle--DNA and Fremont Origins
• Craig Smith--Fremont in SW Wyoming
• Brooke Arkush--Fremont in Idaho

There's no kitchy workshops this year--just professional presentations by the big names. This is being organized by Mark Stuart who was just recognized by UPAC for his outstanding work in Utah archaeology.

The other great news about this year's convention is that registration is only $10 at the door, and they're looking to keep the banquet before/during Joel's presentation to under $20.

On a side note, Arkush is in talks with the Forest Service to bring field school out to Vernon to test the adobe and figurine sites, which may prove interesting...we're just trying to get him funded.

Anyway, if you're interested, drop me an email or just look on utaharchaeology.org for registration. The website should have them up by the end of March. We only have a few more chances to see ol' Joel in action before he high-tails it to the salmon runs, so come up for Saturday night if nothing else. (And I can't believe I'm plugging for him, but if you don't have Simms' book yet, he'll have copies for less than retail)

A couple of template changes

Hey all,

I made a few changes to the blog template after noticing that a few FoF theses are not listed in the publications section.

I added the work of Molly Hall, Cady Jardine and Holly Raymond-Hughes.
Not that Holly's counts, at least Mike's is New World.

I also included a brief description of the thesis topics.

I removed links to the articles on rabbit skin robes and Watkins' condensed thesis, because those links (formerly hosted by OU bandwidth) were dead.

Let me know what you all think, I'm hardly a wizard in HTML so if you want to make any changes, go ahead.

Rock Mr. Richens

Mr. Richens Mr. Richens, Mr. Richens
Mr. Richens Mr. Richens, Mr. Richens
Mr. Richens Mr. Richens, oh oh oh Mr. Richens
Ooo rock me Mr. Richens

Ah, archaeologists just can't throw anything away

So, I was flipping through some books on the history of various Utah counties and came across this picture:


First of all, I thought it interesting that Lane doesn't look too much different (just some gray hairs and no more mustache!). Even more intriguing was how familiar I was (and am sure you all are) with the equipment in the background! I think it's funny how archaeologists just can't get rid of anything!

More Arrowhead Spam From Aaron

Sorry everyone,

In my quest to get all these GB projectile point typologies described in my thesis, I've been looking at all the sources I can get my hands on. For the most part they are consistent (I have a pretty good discussion of that in my thesis) and I have found some great resources.

A few months ago, I posted that online projectile point reference guide. I've found another. Idaho State University, in conjunction with the Idaho Museum of Natural History has an exceptional online reference called Digital Atlas of Idaho.

The archaeology section is very comprehensive for the northern portion of the GB. Like all websites, there are some problems. Many sections are still under construction, and probably have been that way for several years. I was, however, impressed with their projectile point index. There are some great photos with brief discussions on chronology and geographic distributions (just click on the link "projectile points").

If you need a quick online reference for GB projectile points, this is probably as good as any on the web. At least until someone finds or makes a better one.

I thought farmers with guns were a problem, now we have to worry about speed freaks, too?

I was reading in the latest issue of Archaeology Magazine about the spread of looting by Meth addicts and producers. Apparently, cultural resources are gaining a lot of value in the drug market.

The story is focused on the SW, but states that "tweakers" or "twiggers" (a combination of tweakers and diggers) are looting sites throughout the nation.

Users have so much excess energy, that they tend to "hoover" a site and remove everything they find.

Check it out.

The full article will most likely be available at your library. I know that BYU carries this magazine.

Fun With Artifacts

I know that I've shown many of you these ground points from Parowan Valley, but some of you may not have seen them. Here is a photo I'm working on to include in the thesis. It's still not finished (scale, lettering, etc), but you get the basic idea.

I included the profiles of two of the points because they are ground on the sides. The other edges, while ground, do not show up very well in the photos.

The point on the far left exhibits very light grinding exclusively on the edge.

The distal end of point second from left has not been broken off from use or wear and tear. It has been ground down to a smooth and rounded finish.

The reason I am including these in my thesis, and showing them off to you, is that due to the grinding, they are clearly not tools used in hunting. Due to their smooth edges, it would be difficult to penetrate the hide of animals.

Enjoy!

Chocolate and Chile in the Southwest

As many of you may know, Patricia Crown along with the help of a researcher at Hershey have identified the chemical theobromine, exclusive to chocolate, in residue of a sherd from the trash mound next to Pueblo Bonito at Chaco. So we have pretty good evidence that chocolate made it to the Southwest much earlier than has been thought. You can read about it here:

http://www.santafenewmexican.com/Local%20News/Study-pinpoints-earliest-chocolate-use-in-U-S--to-N-M--pueblo

Well, a little insider info for you. At the excavation of site 315, a Medio Period site located about 1 km from Paquime, we found what is likely the evidence of the first chile seed ever found in the Southwest. Paul Minnis recently identified the seed during the analysis of some float samples that yours truly excavated from beneath a floor in one of the rooms. Minnis has recently written an article about it, so hopefully we'll see that surface soon.

So I say there was likely some pretty tasty mole being made long before the Spanish arrived. Dig on!