We just had our first USAS Convention planning meeting for next June's USAS/UPAC Meetings. They're typically held the third weekend in June and will likely be there again in 2007. It's a little early, but since this is the last time the Utah County chapter will host the meeting before Dr J retires, Charmaine and I are talking about putting together a session related to Dr J's contributions to archaeology in Utah Valley and to students/amateurs. Assuming we're able to pull it off without the big J himself pulling a veto, would any of you being interested or willing to give a 10 or 15 minute presentation in tribute?
Like I said, Charmaine and I will likely spearhead it and I know there are USAS folks who'll want to talk about things they've done with him, but I'd really like to see the student perspective. He'll be moved off to Washington fishing all day every day soon enough and I know his secret cream filling soft side would really love to hear what we'll take from him after when he's gone. I mean, it'll never be the same as his relationship to Jennings, I suppose...none of us has ever loaned him a shirt that I know of...but it's something.
What do you think? Also if you have any thoughts on presentations that would be interesting or valuable at a USAS convention, especially with regards to projects you've done that used USAS volunteers, let me know--we're still very much in the brainstorming stages and I'm trying to work up a preliminary idea of possible sessions and conference themes.
Thursday, November 30, 2006
Fremont Underwater Archaeology
Recently I came across an underwater archaeological investigation of Montezuma's Well, a Southern Sinagua site in Central Arizona. These investigations are not uncommon in Meso either.
It makes me want to dive down to the bottom of the Filmore hotspring and see if there might be any artifacts down there. The thing is deep (ca. 20 feet) and seems to be pretty geologically stable. What if there was a cache of Clovis points down there? Any thoughts...
It makes me want to dive down to the bottom of the Filmore hotspring and see if there might be any artifacts down there. The thing is deep (ca. 20 feet) and seems to be pretty geologically stable. What if there was a cache of Clovis points down there? Any thoughts...
The Ballad of Peter and Molly
Our good friend Molly recently contacted me asking whether I thought she might be able to sell her story to HaleStorm entertainment. Would you watch a film about Peter and Molly?
Thursday, November 23, 2006
Uncle Gardner
While sitting around the Thanksgiving dinner table, stuffed full of delicious trukey, rolls, and peanut butter pie, I was made privy to an amazing piece of information...I'm (through a few marriages) related to Gardner Dalley! Aparently my sister-in-law is his niece. She had mentioned to me perviously that her uncle "had done some archaeology" and was now retired and into antiquing (esp. collecting depression glass), but I had never really thought to ask her his name (or she told me his name three or four years ago when I had no clue who Gardner was). So, that's my intersting bit of news from this holiday that I just had to share with you all. (Also, rumor has it, he'll be in town for a family reunion in the spring and they might introduce me). I hope you all enjoyed your various festivities, especially the food!
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Dang it AJ, and other thoughts
First off, AJ, it was good to see you again. This was the first field work I've done with you since a quick back-fill near Circleville. I hope the Big Horn Mucky-Mucks let you come back and dig with us in the next few weeks.
Second, as I've been wandering wind-swept lithic scatters near Clear Creek Canyon, I wondered what type of theory/ies will it take to replace the Madsen and Simms model? Can it be replaced? Madsen and Simms have certainly made their model difficult to test, but many out there don't subscribe to it.
Can those who have different perspectives on the Fremont ever overcome academic marginalization? I've talked a little about this with Chris, and he seems to be of the opinion that publications and reasearch based on different perspectives should continue at a slow and steady pace eventually providing a foundation for a different model (correct me if I'm wrong Chris). I think Mr. Watkins has the right idea. No good will come from a combatitive approach to the M/S model without a solid foundation to rely on.
What do the rest of you think? Will we ever see a revolution?
Second, as I've been wandering wind-swept lithic scatters near Clear Creek Canyon, I wondered what type of theory/ies will it take to replace the Madsen and Simms model? Can it be replaced? Madsen and Simms have certainly made their model difficult to test, but many out there don't subscribe to it.
Can those who have different perspectives on the Fremont ever overcome academic marginalization? I've talked a little about this with Chris, and he seems to be of the opinion that publications and reasearch based on different perspectives should continue at a slow and steady pace eventually providing a foundation for a different model (correct me if I'm wrong Chris). I think Mr. Watkins has the right idea. No good will come from a combatitive approach to the M/S model without a solid foundation to rely on.
What do the rest of you think? Will we ever see a revolution?
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
A GBAC Retrospective
Here's my take on the GBAC, I'll discuss a few of the papers presented, share a funny story about Steve Simms and his optimal foraging rage, and end on an inspirational note.
Now that I have been to several conferences, I find myself more and more hesitant to take notes. I still have mounds of notes from the GBAC two years ago, the SAAs in SLC, and the Southwest Seminar. For the most part, these notes have profited me nothing. So, my discussion of a few select papers will be sparse. If any of you want to jump in and add to this, please do.
Rich Talbot's paper on finding sites was very well done. He discussed the need for archaeologists to be more tech savvy and employ the use of large earth-movers to facilitate finding sites. He also suggested that archaeologists look for sites in areas of soft sand, like dunes, floodplains and alluvial fans. Use of earth movers in these areas would be especially helpful due to the large amount of deposition.
The session that Rich participated in was full of papers that promoted the use of large earth moving machines.
------------------------
Another great paper was Joel's paper on the Fremont. This paper was very reminiscent of his "100 Years of Utah Archaeology" but it was based solely on the Fremont. Joel discussed the beginnings of Great Basin Archaeology and its heavy ties to the southwest.
Then he proceeded to pimp Madsen and Simms and all that they had done for the Fremont.
Joel then provided a timeline discussing important dates in Fremont theory
1900-1930 Boasian
1970 Processual
1982 HBE
1998 Madsen and Simms
2000,2002 Janetski and Talbot
I feared that this would be yet another political paper designed to keep everyone happy, but Joel surprised me by throwing in a little barb about the genetic evidence from Steinaker Gap which illustrates that the Fremont are closer genetically to the SW than anyother group.
--------------------------
Clint Cole was a heavy hitter at this conference with a few papers and a poster.
Clint spoke on INAA and Snake Valley Corrugated ceramics. He compared three sites, Parowan, Baker Village, and surveyed sites near Pinoche, NV. Clint discovered that there are some mineral outliers found in Baker Village ceramics. He also determined that the variability in SVC is shared with all three sites, and that 1/3 of the ceramics from Baker Village match those found in Parowan. (chris, fogive the summary, it was a little over my head)
---------------------------
A student from UNR (Linsie Lafayette) did a study on use wear of Great Basin Stemmed points. Lafayette had someone make two sets of various GB stemmed points and she hafted half to spears and the other half to knife handles. She looked at impact marks on the projectiles (after spearing a dead deer) and butcher marks on the knives. Lafayette determined that some of the GB stemmed points may not have been points at all due to their inability to penetrate or stay hafted.
---------------------------
William Adrefsky spoke about using lithics to understand land use patterns. He used ethnographic data to figure out the average daily travel time of a Paiute. Then he used debitage data to deterimine that if a toolstone source was farther that 30-40 kilometers that a tool would be retouched more than a tool made out of stone that was closer. His theory being that the more rare a toolstone is, the more it is consvered and recycled. Andrefsky also discussed the problem of retouch in lithic analysis and pimped his retouch index paper that will be showing up in Am. Antiquity next month.
---------------------------
Now, for the HBE stories. The first involves O'Connell, Andrew Ugan, and a skeptical woman. Ugan had a poster on prestige and ranked hunting on display. A woman (who looked like a professor or high up mucky-muck) was arguing with Ugan and his flowing mane of hair. O'Connell was quick to jump in and Ugan, his hair, and O'Connell did all they could to convince the woman that their theory was correct.
The other story involves Steve Simms. After Kim Carpenter of Far Western gave a paper on return rates and subsistence strategies, Simms got in her face (which was cute cause he was shorter than her) and began to blast her interpretation. She countered by saying she was confused and did not understand how Simms could invest everything in ranked strategies. Simms tried to blow her off and started to walk away two times, she asked him to come back and talk about why he was angry and explain his model better. He did, only to walk away for good the third time with a dimmisive wave of the hand. Such is the Elven rage of Steve Simms (that should be his power if we ever do GB trading cards..."ELVEN RAGE")
-------------------------
Finally, an inspirational note. This GBAC saw an entire session devoted to essays in honor of Don Fowler. Joel's paper was part of this session. During the session, I sensed a camaraderie between Fowler, his colleages, and students that I do not always sense around Joel. I thought this was interesting. I wonder if it's just due to the fact that Fowler was everybody's drinking buddy...
In the final paper of the session, Dave Thomas (founder of Wendy's) brought up an excellent point. DT shared an experience about Fowler that I really liked. In the past, Fowler has written several glowing letters of rec for Dave Thomas. Once, as Dave was thanking Fowler for helping him so often, Fowler told him that it was his pleasure, and that "Archaeology is a team sport."
Out of all the papers, that concept, however optimistic, was one of the most important shared at the conference. We're all on the same team.
Now that I have been to several conferences, I find myself more and more hesitant to take notes. I still have mounds of notes from the GBAC two years ago, the SAAs in SLC, and the Southwest Seminar. For the most part, these notes have profited me nothing. So, my discussion of a few select papers will be sparse. If any of you want to jump in and add to this, please do.
Rich Talbot's paper on finding sites was very well done. He discussed the need for archaeologists to be more tech savvy and employ the use of large earth-movers to facilitate finding sites. He also suggested that archaeologists look for sites in areas of soft sand, like dunes, floodplains and alluvial fans. Use of earth movers in these areas would be especially helpful due to the large amount of deposition.
The session that Rich participated in was full of papers that promoted the use of large earth moving machines.
------------------------
Another great paper was Joel's paper on the Fremont. This paper was very reminiscent of his "100 Years of Utah Archaeology" but it was based solely on the Fremont. Joel discussed the beginnings of Great Basin Archaeology and its heavy ties to the southwest.
Then he proceeded to pimp Madsen and Simms and all that they had done for the Fremont.
Joel then provided a timeline discussing important dates in Fremont theory
1900-1930 Boasian
1970 Processual
1982 HBE
1998 Madsen and Simms
2000,2002 Janetski and Talbot
I feared that this would be yet another political paper designed to keep everyone happy, but Joel surprised me by throwing in a little barb about the genetic evidence from Steinaker Gap which illustrates that the Fremont are closer genetically to the SW than anyother group.
--------------------------
Clint Cole was a heavy hitter at this conference with a few papers and a poster.
Clint spoke on INAA and Snake Valley Corrugated ceramics. He compared three sites, Parowan, Baker Village, and surveyed sites near Pinoche, NV. Clint discovered that there are some mineral outliers found in Baker Village ceramics. He also determined that the variability in SVC is shared with all three sites, and that 1/3 of the ceramics from Baker Village match those found in Parowan. (chris, fogive the summary, it was a little over my head)
---------------------------
A student from UNR (Linsie Lafayette) did a study on use wear of Great Basin Stemmed points. Lafayette had someone make two sets of various GB stemmed points and she hafted half to spears and the other half to knife handles. She looked at impact marks on the projectiles (after spearing a dead deer) and butcher marks on the knives. Lafayette determined that some of the GB stemmed points may not have been points at all due to their inability to penetrate or stay hafted.
---------------------------
William Adrefsky spoke about using lithics to understand land use patterns. He used ethnographic data to figure out the average daily travel time of a Paiute. Then he used debitage data to deterimine that if a toolstone source was farther that 30-40 kilometers that a tool would be retouched more than a tool made out of stone that was closer. His theory being that the more rare a toolstone is, the more it is consvered and recycled. Andrefsky also discussed the problem of retouch in lithic analysis and pimped his retouch index paper that will be showing up in Am. Antiquity next month.
---------------------------
Now, for the HBE stories. The first involves O'Connell, Andrew Ugan, and a skeptical woman. Ugan had a poster on prestige and ranked hunting on display. A woman (who looked like a professor or high up mucky-muck) was arguing with Ugan and his flowing mane of hair. O'Connell was quick to jump in and Ugan, his hair, and O'Connell did all they could to convince the woman that their theory was correct.
The other story involves Steve Simms. After Kim Carpenter of Far Western gave a paper on return rates and subsistence strategies, Simms got in her face (which was cute cause he was shorter than her) and began to blast her interpretation. She countered by saying she was confused and did not understand how Simms could invest everything in ranked strategies. Simms tried to blow her off and started to walk away two times, she asked him to come back and talk about why he was angry and explain his model better. He did, only to walk away for good the third time with a dimmisive wave of the hand. Such is the Elven rage of Steve Simms (that should be his power if we ever do GB trading cards..."ELVEN RAGE")
-------------------------
Finally, an inspirational note. This GBAC saw an entire session devoted to essays in honor of Don Fowler. Joel's paper was part of this session. During the session, I sensed a camaraderie between Fowler, his colleages, and students that I do not always sense around Joel. I thought this was interesting. I wonder if it's just due to the fact that Fowler was everybody's drinking buddy...
In the final paper of the session, Dave Thomas (founder of Wendy's) brought up an excellent point. DT shared an experience about Fowler that I really liked. In the past, Fowler has written several glowing letters of rec for Dave Thomas. Once, as Dave was thanking Fowler for helping him so often, Fowler told him that it was his pleasure, and that "Archaeology is a team sport."
Out of all the papers, that concept, however optimistic, was one of the most important shared at the conference. We're all on the same team.
Thursday, October 19, 2006
Fremont Annotated Bibliography
I have officially started our open source project on Google Docs, and by open source I mean open source. If you didn't get an invitation, it's because I don't have your email. Catch me (waktins dot chris at gmail dot com) or anyone else who has access to get involved. Let's publicize this bad boy and see if we can't get something cool going.
Happy editing!
Happy editing!
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Haiku for Waldo Wilcox
Mouthpiece of wisdomPhilosopher and poet
How you enlighten
Add your Haiku about W.W.
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
More About Archaeology and Less of Waldo
I know we all saw the National geographic article about Range Creek, but my mom just mailed me a copy of an article from the March issue of Smithsonian Magazine which is also about Range Creek. I think we'd all enjoy this one a bit more than teh National Geographic's spotlight on Waldo. Though the Smithsonian article is not without unique quips from Waldo (such as "I think these Indians were so damn poor that when they died they went to the happy hunting ground and there was no need to take what little they had") it is actually a realatively good article about the Fremont for a lay magazine.
For those of you still at OPA, I'm posting a copy on the board.
For those of you still at OPA, I'm posting a copy on the board.
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
A FOF Project
The other day it occurred to me that people don't know anything about the Fremont and that we may be able to help. What say you about getting together an annotated bibliography of the Fremont? We could do an alphabetic and a topical version, as well an abridged one with the critical references.
The problem would be making it so all of us could edit it, and then where to host it. I was thinking we could maybe create a new blog and make the references the post, and then we could all work on the annotations in the comments section. I was also wondering if OPA might host the finished bib. Any thoughts?
The problem would be making it so all of us could edit it, and then where to host it. I was thinking we could maybe create a new blog and make the references the post, and then we could all work on the annotations in the comments section. I was also wondering if OPA might host the finished bib. Any thoughts?
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
Brad is Famous
To all those who have received their SAA Archaeological Record, look at the article about CRM being taught in universities. Brad is all crouched into the pits at North Creek. Props are given to Dr. J and Yoder for the photo. My question is "why does the article mention nothing about BYU, but features a photo of our very own Brad Newbold?" Lay-tar.
Friday, October 06, 2006
A Warm Welcome to AJ
I want to extend a welcome to AJ, an OPA alumni and original founder of the famous "filfoul". This Man from Moroni and Senior OPA employee needs little introduction for those who have had the opportunity to work with him. He has been on several clandestine mission for OPA as a team leader of the secretive and elusive Shadow Company (many of you will now have to be shot after reading this post). We look forward to having his insight here on Friends of the Fremont and hope he will bring to bear some of this expertise in our discussion. Without further ado, everyone welcome the one and only AJ. . . filfoul!
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
GBAC in Vegas
So the GBAC is quickly approaching, and I need to get a head count of who is going to be crashing at my place. Sally also wants some kinda of idea of when people will be getting here and when you will be going home. As I've said before, anyone who wants to is invited, just bring your own pillows and towels. And ear plugs....my kids are up every morning around 6:30, 7:00 at the latest. Enjoy!
Sunday, September 17, 2006
Well done ASASES!
To all involved with the ASAS conference, thank you. I think it was a great success and that all papers presented have potential to be published. I was a little scared at the start of the session when there were only three people there (sorry Mike), but we made it through.
Thanks to all those who contributed to the session, I hope it pads the CV nicely.
Special mention to Mike Searcy for driving 16 hours to Tucson and Mr. Yoder for starting his day off at 3:30 am and ending it (hopefully alive) in Vegas much later that evening. Also, props to Beau Schreiver for enduring his first Clarktastic Crucifixion.
It was good to see you guys.
Thanks to all those who contributed to the session, I hope it pads the CV nicely.
Special mention to Mike Searcy for driving 16 hours to Tucson and Mr. Yoder for starting his day off at 3:30 am and ending it (hopefully alive) in Vegas much later that evening. Also, props to Beau Schreiver for enduring his first Clarktastic Crucifixion.
It was good to see you guys.
Thursday, September 07, 2006
OPA Reunion Project
I was thinking over the weekend that fieldwork with Uncle OPA was actually pretty fun, even when it sucked. What do people think of getting together every couple of years or something for an OPA Reunion project? Everybody could show up in Provo for a few days or maybe a week to volunteer on a dig or maybe analyze some artifacts or whatever Uncle OPA needs at the time. We could even lower the cost of some more research type projects this way. It seems to me that we could get a pretty good test of Wolf Village done in a week with enough OPA alumni in the house. Of course, Uncle OPA would have to come up with some dough for the analysis or whatever, but it could be cool.
Thursday, August 31, 2006
Email Alert
I have figured out a way to send email updates to people whenever a new post or comment has been added to FoF. Leave your name in the comments section of this post if you would like to get an update.
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Continued Salvation of OPA?
In the latest wave of good fortune for OPA, we currently have six student employees. If you count Molly who is an off and on OPA employee, then that makes seven. That's pretty good, since it got pretty dire for a while with cut wages and when Holly and I were the only hold outs.
In addition to this, we now have a new AP2
It's kind of a beige color, almost a "Gold Mist Metallic" (see "colors" on the web page)
It's nice to have a new vehicle, but the ground clearance will be an issue. I think we should get it tricked out with a lift and big tires. It needs to lose some of that "fresh from the factory" look.
In addition to this, we now have a new AP2
It's kind of a beige color, almost a "Gold Mist Metallic" (see "colors" on the web page)
It's nice to have a new vehicle, but the ground clearance will be an issue. I think we should get it tricked out with a lift and big tires. It needs to lose some of that "fresh from the factory" look.
El Norta Creeko
Ahhhh yes, waking up knowing that in less than an hour you will be completely covered, nay, saturated, in cow feces. Could you be anywhere else than North Creek Shelter? So I just got back from there last weekend, as did Brad, Holly, Molly, Mike, and Mark; all BYUers. A good time was had by all. We dug a lot, yet still did not hit sterile. At 3 meters below ground surface it eludes us. But from the very bottom we did pull the base of a point (looks like a Pinto), so that was great. What was not so great was that the feature that looked oh so much like a pithouse in profile turned out not to be….probably. Which does not bode well for my dissertation. Instead it looks like it was a heavily used use surface. It was chock full of pits. Which was cool and still salvageable, but all the fill above and probably on parts of the surface and in some of the pits was heavily rodent burrowed so that data coming out of there will be suspect. Not good. I am currently completely ignoring this problem and not thinking about what to do, but eventually (probably this weekend) I will have to evaluate things and decide if I can still do my dissertation on the Early Holocene on the Northern Colorado Plateau using data primarily from North Creek. I wouldn’t be extremely bummed if not for the amount of time and energy I have all ready expended in doing background research and writing grants. I don't have the official photos from the dig yet but will try to post one or two when I get them.
UNLV has me teaching two Cultural Anthropology 101 classes this semester. I have the afternoon and evening classes which means that they are smaller, only around 30 or 40 kids a piece. I didn’t know I was going to be teaching them until two weeks ago, and I was in the field so I couldn’t do any preparation. So this week I have been struggling to get things together. So far so good, no one has dropped anyway. A couple of other things going on but I’ll save them for another post; I’ve got to get back to work. It was good to see all the BYU folks again. Aaron, Chris, Cady, Scott, Mike….we were wishing you could have been there, it would have been a good time to have everyone together. Frescas all around!
Sunday, August 27, 2006
Skeletons in the display case
Hey all,
I got back from the UK last night. It was a fun trip and I spent some time in museums looking at various Roman and Celtic displays.
One thing that impressed me about the various displays was the presence of human remains. There were Roman skeletons and Celtic skeletons on display. It was refreshing to see the various displays and to read about the data gathered due to unfettered access to human remains.
This led me to wonder why there aren't any widespread repatriation movements by Italians or Celtic descendants. In other words, why did we get hit with repatriation issues that have not affected archaeologists in other countries?
I suppose that depth of time is an issue. In some cases, Italians and Brits are more temporally removed from the displayed human remains than Native Americans; but what about Kennewick Man?
So, ultimately, what brought on the revolution that got the NAGPRA ball rolling? Unhealed wounds from colonial attrocities? Native American religious beliefs? Or a combination of the two coupled with a desire to stick it to the white man?
Anyway, I'm sure there is not a definitive answer to any of these questions, and I know that NAGPRA is here to stay, but seeing those skeletons on display made me feel like I was missing out on a piece of archaeology that became unreachable with the implementation of NAGPRA.
I got back from the UK last night. It was a fun trip and I spent some time in museums looking at various Roman and Celtic displays.
One thing that impressed me about the various displays was the presence of human remains. There were Roman skeletons and Celtic skeletons on display. It was refreshing to see the various displays and to read about the data gathered due to unfettered access to human remains.
This led me to wonder why there aren't any widespread repatriation movements by Italians or Celtic descendants. In other words, why did we get hit with repatriation issues that have not affected archaeologists in other countries?
I suppose that depth of time is an issue. In some cases, Italians and Brits are more temporally removed from the displayed human remains than Native Americans; but what about Kennewick Man?
So, ultimately, what brought on the revolution that got the NAGPRA ball rolling? Unhealed wounds from colonial attrocities? Native American religious beliefs? Or a combination of the two coupled with a desire to stick it to the white man?
Anyway, I'm sure there is not a definitive answer to any of these questions, and I know that NAGPRA is here to stay, but seeing those skeletons on display made me feel like I was missing out on a piece of archaeology that became unreachable with the implementation of NAGPRA.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)