Update on Wolf Village

Most of you know (because we are excited about it and shameless about self-promoting with the newspapers here) that the BYU archaeology field school spent another season at Wolf Village in Goshen, Utah. We had an awesome season there and got a lot done and will be heading back there for the 2013 field season (which is once again supposed to be the final season at Wolf Village... we'll see if it actually is).

This year we focused on finishing up excavating the large pitstructure (Structure 2) that we barely managed to trace the edges of the 2012 season. Last season it looked like this:

And by the end of this season, it looked like this (not the best photo, but it's surprisingly awkward to photograph giant structures):

Just for a little bit of scale, here's the entire field school just sitting around inside Structure 2:

And here's a plan map of the structure, including all the beams we recovered this year and the hundreds of postholes: 

Last year, we reported on here that Structure 2 was 71m2, but now it's even bigger and measures 75.6 m2! We're just a little excited about how gigantic it is. We're also really excited about the two antechambers/tunnels on the eastern and western sides. They're pretty much right in line with one another and almost exactly aligned east-to-west. Also, around the junctions with the main structure and the antechambers there are lines of postholes that we think might have formed part of deflector shields or screens of some kind to separate the areas. Dr. Allison thinks that the antechambers might have been used as entrances and/or exits from the structure. At the very end of the season (because that's how it always is, isn't it?) we found what we think might be an additional antechamber to the south. That's one of the things they'll be looking at next year.

Like Katie reported last season (for info on past seasons at Wolf Village see Katie's awesome summary at: http://fremontfarmers.blogspot.com/2011/08/friends-of-wolf-village.html), the midden above this structure was really interesting and totally packed with artifacts. We found at least 20 clay pipes, tons of olivella shell, gaming pieces, jar handles, and proj. points. Here's one of the really cool artifacts, it's a pair of cute little anthropomorph (we think) slate figurine things that fit back-to-back:

I don't have pictures of any of the other artifacts right now. This season we also tested at a few areas and found at least one more pithouse, but we didn't fully excavate anything and focused the majority of our efforts on getting Structure 2 done so we wouldn't have to un-backfill the entire structure. 

As of right now, our interpretation of this structure is that it's a large communal structure (because really, what else would something this large and weird be?) but we don't really have that many ideas about it's function. At GBAC next week, Dr. Allison, Scott, and I are presenting a paper talking about communal architecture and we've found out that oversized pithouses like this occur at a lot more sites than we thought (okay... only at like 5 sites, but before excavating this one we didn't even think there were any) and we're proposing that, along with the central structures which Rich defines and talks about in the Clear Creek report (aka the bible), oversized pithouses are another type of communal structure used by the Fremont. 

Sorry, I know this is a really quick gloss over what we did this season but if anyone has questions or needs clarifications on things let either me or Katie know. The preliminary report should be finished by Christmas and we've finally gotten a paper on Wolf Village architecture written (we're presenting a shortened version at GBAC if anyone is interested in hearing it) so more Wolf Village publications should be out soon, making it easier to get information on it. Yay for Fremont archaeology!

New work in Nine Mile Canyon. Light on archaeology information, but still- progress in the canyon.
Nine Mile Canyon Work

Good News Everyone!

Saw this story about a missing Fremont figurine. For those out of the Utah loop, thought you'd like to see the story. Lost Figurine Returned

Fremont Fighting and Insights into JCJ via Barb Frank

Hi all,

I heard a funny story about JCJ and thought I should pass it on. Last Friday, I went up to SUU to look at some Fremont remains. My friend Ryan Harrod (a physical anthropologist PhD candidate and expert on non-lethal violence) and I are interested in looking at Fremont remains to see if they were participating in violent behavior. Ryan and his chair, Deb Martin have been accumulating databases on violence throughout the SW. I thought it only fitting to lump the Fremont into that database. Subversive labeling as a SW culture!

In December, we went to the MPC in Provo to have a look at a few Fremont skeletons as well. Our current sample is only 16, but I guess by bioarchaeology standards, that's pretty good.  Preliminary findings show that of the eight we looked at in Provo, only two demonstrated evidence of healed cranial depression fractures (this is not counting Seamons Mound). The eight we looked at in Cedar City ALL had some form of cranial trauma. Six of the eight had healed cranial depression fractures occurring in a range of areas on the skull: parietal, occipital, and frontal. The other two had severely broken/healed noses. So, that's pretty interesting. Seems like Parowan Valley Fremont liked to rumble. I'll keep you all posted about these developments.

Now, onto the fun part! While at SUU, Barb Frank and I got to talking about Joel. She once again mentioned his "beautiful, brown beard" (remember that, Cady?) and that it was "like a beaver pelt hanging from his chin". I then proceeded to tell her the Wendover story. Since she did field school with Joel and Dave Madsen, this was a great story for her. Then, she shared a good one about Joel. She asked me if Joel had ever mentioned his field school roommate, Dave. I said he had not. This was new to me. Here goes:

At the beginning of one of the field schools (I don't know which one), Jennings had all the students line up. For some reason, Joel was running late or could not be there for this line-up. Jennings had all of the women choose their roommates and then all the men. Among the group of guys, there was one named Dave. Dave was (as Barb put it) "flaming". He was a dance major, but somehow got into the Archy fieldschool. Barb said she thinks Jennings allowed the kid to come along because he needed the field school fee money. Dave wore his hair in a samurai top-knot and dressed in saffron robes (ala Buddhist Monks). When it came time for the men to choose their roommates, they all chose each other and left Dave the odd man out (HA!). Jennings said, "Well, Dave, I guess you'll be rooming with Joel. He's not here, but you'll meet him later."

Joel shows up, realizes what's happened, and resigns himself to dealing with Dave as his roommate. Apparently, Dave was a practitioner of yoga but preferred to do it in the nude. Each morning, Dave would strip and begin his yoga in the room. Barb said that Joel was up and out of his room before anyone else was awake just to avoid the site of Dave in all of his glory. It sounds like Joel got up earlier and earlier each morning just to avoid the possibility of interacting with Dave in the mornings.

This story cracked me up. I can just picture Joel shuddering in disgust as this guy, Dave, began his morning exercises. I wanted to pass it on to all of you.

Utah's in trouble

Despite the main stream media's attempt to cover up the story, Brad has uncovered the truth; that clearly, this guy is the person currently in charge of all archaeology in Utah.

A possible new format for this blog/community

Hey all,

I've recently been sucked into the online community of Reddit. I'm not sure if any of you have heard of it, but it's very similar to digg or stumble upon.

In my mind, one of the difficulties with the blog format is the lack of message board capabilities. Blog posts are made, comments are posted, and in order to read those comments, one has to open the post.

The Reddit format allows the original post to be displayed and then shows all subsequent comments directly beneath the post. I have taken the liberty of creating a subreddit: reddit.com/r/fremontfarmers.

It may not get off the ground, but it's worth a shot. Just trying to keep this thing alive and maybe a new format would be helpful.