Call for references/pdf's

Hey all -

Here's my third and final post of the afternoon. (I'm binging.) In relation to my dissertation work and in helping out Tim Kohler for a side project on modeling population fluctuations in the SW, I'm going to be trying to create some kind of an individual-body-based Fremont census database (niner). Basically, I'm looking for records of Fremont burials/skeletal remains along with associated demographic info (sex, age, etc.), date(s), and provenience.

Over the past few years, I've been compiling a good-sized library of Fremont articles and publications. Basically, I've got everything that's freely available and accessible online from Malouf (1940) to present (~150 individual articles plus the Antiquities Section pubs and the Utah Archaeology's), as well as whole or partial inventories of the actual specimens from BYU, USU, UMNH, Antiquities, and Joan Coltrain. So, I'm good with all that, but it's the gray lit and other not-easily-accessible venues where I'm lacking. The next time I'm down in the area, I'll try to get my hands on some of the MPC publications, but if anybody knows of any reports mentioning Fremont remains off the top of their heads, pass that info on this way. You don't have to actually go and dig through them page by page (although I might be able to pay you in hugs and candy), just a reference would suffice. I could take it from there.

Thanks again for the help -


BRAD

This just in

Ran across this by accident today. Looks like a probable Fremont burial was found in a front yard just west of the UofU campus. Good to see Derinna Kopp still in action. Tough to see her without Kevin and Ron.

Get the story here.

Who's in charge, here, anyway?

Jack Broughton came up last week for a seminar presentation, and I went out to dinner with him, Karen Lupo, Dave Schmitt, Tim Kohler, and others. They were quizzing me on the situation surrounding the Antiquities Section firings, and I was doing pretty well until they asked, "So, without a state archaeologist, who's overseeing the work in Utah?" I was stumped.

I asked this of Dr. Yoder in an email the other day, but I'd like to get everybody's thoughts. With all the crap that's gone down surrounding archaeology in the state of Utah over the past while, who really is in charge now? Everything is so fractured and fragmented now. (Kudos to the powers that be. Your plan to trivialize Utah's cultural resources even further has worked beautifully.)

My top three archaeologists in descending order of influence/authority/etc: Dave Yoder--Chief PLPCO Archaeologist, Lori Hunsaker--Deputy SHPO, Jim Allison--UPAC President and actual practicing archaeologist (no offense, Dave).

Am I missing anyone? I know there are others with more tenure and experience in the state. In any case, we all know it's a pretty screwed up time right now. (Our own department isn't flying the flag that high, either, from what I've been hearing.) But, for as low-key and laid-back as I am (I might have one lonely activist bone in my body), these kinds of problems actually make me want to work in Utah to try and fix what appears to be a really messed-up situation.

Thoughts?

Another publication from our FoFs!

Hi All,

This moring, Cady Jardine posted a link on Facebook notifying us of the publication of a book chapter. I hope I'm not stealing her and Chris' thunder, but I felt like this was blog worthy. Especially since we're struggling for content these days.

The chapter, co-authored by Joel C. Janetski, Cady B. Jardine, and Christopher N. Watkins is titled:

Interaction and Exchange in Fremont Society

Here's the link

Their chapter joins a collection of other chapters written by some heavy hitters of Great Basin archaeology. Nice job, guys. I'm excited to read it (free .pdf proofs, anyone?)

I remember sitting in the same office at OPA while some of the drafts were being written. I'm glad to see this come to fruition.

An update finally and random musing

I had been planning to post this for a long time (even before Aaron suggestsed back in March that we post updates, and my intentions of posting this were the reason I ignored his comment back in May!)

So, as most of you know Geoff and I moved to Texas last September so he can go to UT, Arlington for his Masters in Landscape Architecture. So far, my only impression of Texas is that it is hot and flat (I might just be keeping track of how many months until Geoff graduates!)

After a rough 8 months (let's just say I'm grateful for food storage), I finally got hired on at a CRM firm in Dallas! It's been interesting learning a new region's methods. If any of you end up or know anyone who ends up in TX, tell them to contact me...we're a small company (six permanent employees) but can barely keep up with all the work we've been getting recently. Additionally, I've been keeping PVAP alive by working on some of the report chapters in hotel rooms across north Texas and Oklahoma.

Now a random musing...
Since I started my new job I've been spending a lot of time with cable tv in motel rooms. From this I learned that there is a Cash Cab Chicago and that I cannot handle watching it (hang in there, this will end up being pertinent to you). Not only is it just not the same without Ben Bailey, but the new host/driver looks just like our very own Jenny! I know it's silly, but I can't even focus on the questions she is asking because of the resemblance!

Anyway, I don't have anything exciting to report (yet), but wanted to let you all know what I'm up to and request that you all do the same.

Life-Giving Stone

I know this is a little late, but we've all been busy.

I just wanted to congratulate Dr. Searcy on his monograph. If only all our theses were good enough to become books! Mine sure isn't!

Here's a link to a summary of Mike's book.

Privacy settings and a new member of FoF

Hi Everyone,

Hope you're all well. I recently noticed that when I wanted to view our blog that google/blogger was making me sign in. After checking the settings, somehow (by default?) blogger had adjusted the access settings so that only authors of the blog could read the blog.

It's not like we're a hot blog out there, but the hope is that some could stumble upon the blog and talk Fremont stuff if they wanted.

So, that's been tweaked and it's an all access blog again.

Now, after her stellar post on the Wolf Village excavations, I'd like to welcome Katie Richards to the blog. She is currently earning he MA from BYU. What's your thesis on, Katie?

While it is not Fremont, I'll be posting a New Mexico fieldwork summary in the next few days. Gotta keep the blog rolling.

Friends of Wolf Village

Hello all you Friend of the Fremont. As most of you probably know, and some of you have firsthand knowledge of, the BYU archaeology field school has been excavating at Wolf Village for the past two and a half seasons. Wolf Village is in Goshen Utah near Current Creek and spreads across a series of ridges near the mouth of Goshen Canyon. The site is a large Fremont village with adobe surface and pit structures. Most of the C14 dates from the site (all taken from corn samples as far as I know) date the site to around 1050 A.D. One structure, a ramada excavated in 2009, has a much earlier date in the 900s A.D.

The first documented adobe structure in Utah Valley was found at Wolf Village in 2009. This turned out to be a two room structure approximately 6x4 m. The main room was about 4x4 m with a hearth and a meter deep storage pit in the southwest corner. It looks very similar to a two room adobe structure found at Nephi Mounds.

Less than half a meter west of this structure is what was once thought to be a deep storage pit, and is now thought to be a deep tunnel leading into one of the largest Fremont pit structures ever discovered. Near the end of the 2010 season we discovered what we thought was a small pithouse, but further excavation in 2011 revealed that it is more likely a giant subrectangular central pit structure (71 m²). The main room of the structure is 8x7.5 m with tunnels on both the east and west sides (though the one on the west might be an antechamber of some kind, we’re not sure). The eastern tunnel is about two meters below modern ground surface and a meter below prehistoric ground surface.

The structure was burned and the pattern of the burnt beams on the floor looked awesome (there is a picture below). There is also a very rich thick midden layer right above the roof fall. We found lots of proj points, a figurine head, over 30 gaming pieces, an incised crystal, an unusual number of handles, and lots of other really interesting artifacts.

We have found at least three other pit structures over the past three years, most of which have been in pretty poor condition due to erosion. One of the pit structures we excavated this year had a deep vent shaft to the east with multiple openings into the structure.

We have also excavated two ramadas up on the top of the ridges at Wolf Village. We thought that one of them was an adobe structure for a while, but later decided that it was a pit structure and upon further investigation have concluded that it is likely a ramada.

The last structure that we have excavated is another unique structure. It is a large adobe walled surface structure near the top of one of the ridges. The structure is large (5.5x at least 4.5 m), and has a long deep vent shaft extending to the east. The vent shaft contained many artifacts including multiple deer mandibles. The southern end of the structure had eroded. Surrounding the outside of the extant walls were diagonal beams sloping into the structure at a steep angle. We are not entirely sure of their purpose because the point where they would have intersected the structure would not have been far off of the prehistoric ground surface. One of the other really cool things about this structure was the two figurines that were found just north of the north wall on either side of the center lines of the structure.

I know that this is a really brief overview, but I need to stop myself or else I’d go on all day. Hopefully there will be actual publications on it soon. We are trying to get a preliminary report together right now, and Lindsay and I are trying to find time to put together an article about the architecture. There will also, hopefully, be something about it at the SAAs, and Dr. Allison is going to present a poster that Lindsay and I made about architecture at Wolf Village at the Pecos Conference this week. We haven't taken artifact photos for this year yet. I'll post some once we have taken them. Here are some structure photos and drawings and some pictures of artifacts that Ren Thomas took:

This is the large central structure. We only had time to trench it and find the edges, we will fully excavate it next year.

Beam pattern in the trench of the large central structure.

The two roomed adobe structure facing west.

The adobe structure near the ridge top with the ventilation shaft on the eastern side, facing east.

Figurine found in the central structure

Knife found in the central structure
Incised crystal found at in the tunnel into the central structure.

Not the most diplomatic...

Hi All,

It's been a while since any of us have posted. Two days ago, I got an email from Dean Magleby (or at least an automated email from his office) asking for donations to FHSS.

This was my reply:

Dear Dean Magleby,

I will consider donating to the FHSS College when you decide to end your aggressive campaign against the Department of Anthropology, the Museum of Peoples and Cultures, and the Office of Public Archaeology.

These three institutions played a vital role in my professional development and their chronic under-funding and often outright neglect by the "powers that be" instills no desire in my heart to give back to my Alma Mater.

Sincerely,

Aaron Woods

Experimental Archaeology Conference

Hey all,

I know it's been a loooong time since anything has been posted on the blog. No doubt we've all been busy. I would love to hear some updates and will provide some on myself as soon as Spring Break starts next week.

In the interim, I wanted to share some details about an upcoming experimental archaeology conference taking place in North Carolina (near Charlotte) October 14 – 16.

The call for papers was issued a few weeks ago and I probably will be going. Depends on travel costs, etc.

Here are a few more details:

Call For Papers and Posters for the 2nd Annual RE-ARC Conference:
Designing Experiments: Effective, Practical Applications for Meaningful Experimental Projects
Where: The Schiele Museum of Natural History, Gastonia, NC USA
When: October 14 – 16, 2011
RE-ARC is designed for anyone interested in the scientific application of reconstructive and experimental archaeology.

Deadline for submissions: August 30, 2011
Send paper titles, abstracts and full contact information to:
Attention: Mark Butler, 1110 McCrae Dr., Moncks Corner, SC 29461, USA.
Entries can also be emailed to: rearc@gmx.com
More information will soon be available at: http://www.rearc.us/

This may be out of many of your areas of interest, but it's a cause I still believe in and wanted to pass it along.

Another reason to push this conference is that I have been appointed to the editorial board of the journal Ethnoarchaeology and the journal is trying to establish a presence at the conference to attract submissions. For those of you unfamiliar with Ethnoarchaeology, I'd suggest you check it out and/or submit some stuff. There have been some great articles published recently and I'm excited to see it grow.


So, please feel free to pass these details on to friends and colleagues as you see fit. Good luck with the balance of the semester!