Starvation Doctrine

Hello everyone,

Well, I finally finished the film. The first screening will be next week, and we've begun submitting to festivals. Check out our website for details and to see the trailer. Later.

www.burningbuffalofilms.com

Projectile Point Quick Refernce Guide

Hey all,

I've been working on a re-analysis of the Baker Village collection and was trying to get a better idea of how to differentiate between Nawthis side-notched, Bear River side-notched, and Uinta side-notched.

I found this website. It's pretty basic but the index and references are pretty useful.

This index allows you to search nationally, regionally, or by state for different point types. I've noticed that the lists are missing a few point types, but for the most part, i really like the quick reference.

Rather than spend time searching by region, I went directly to the complete list .
I found this to be more useful, especially since i disagree with some of their regional demarcations.

I'm not sure if the site is associated with any university, but it's free and has some good information for those of you interested in typing projectile points without spending a lot of time doing lit searches.

The Fremont Master

Once again, southwestern archaeologists recognize the Fremont as well as the Master of Fremont ceramic typology. Check out the props to our very own blogging brother Chris Watkins.
http://www.public.asu.edu/~mpeeple/swceramics.html

Job Opportunity

I know this blog isn't for advertising so I apologize if this is out of place but I have a great opportunity to share and many of you probably qualify. My company is looking to fill the position of project archaeologist for our project on the test and training ranges of Nellis Air Force Base. The position is advertised on Shovelbums (the link isn't working but just type Geo-Marine in the search bar and you will see the ad). We encourage all to apply who are interested. We are looking for those interested in living in St. George or the surrounding area (or Las Vegas is you really want to). The project is already underway so this is urgent. I'm not sure how many of you would be available or interested but I figured I'd let everyone know of the opportunity. We are looking for long term, its a great salary and great benefits, if you have any questions you can email me at swenzlau@geo-marine.com

Here's the link:

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/ShovelBums/message/5914

Trading Cards and Action Figures

I stumbled on these a couple days ago. Check'em out at:

http://www.theory.org.uk/cards.htm

and

http://www.theory.org.uk/action.htm

As some point in the far distant future when we are all millionaires and have lots of free time to fritter away we should do the Great Basin Trading Cards. It would be sweet.

Professors we know or have known

I saw this list the other day whilst in the Blogosphere and thought that since we have been and will be dealing with various profs for the foreseeable future, that a quick reference guide would serve useful. It's a fun read. See if you can find your professors!

This is not the full version, I edited it for clarity and eliminated the various jokes about inappropriate professor-student relations.

Irritating Assistant Professors:

1. Professor Knows-He's-A-Fraud-And-Hopes-That-No-One-Will-Figure-It-Out,
2. Professor I'm-Above-This-Place-And-Should-Be-At-Harvard,
3. Professor Rebel-Without-A-Clue,
4. Professor Only-Teaches-His- Dissertation,
5. Professor Promising-Young-Man,
6. Professor Could-Teach-Well-But-Forced-To-Do-Submental-Things-To-Raise-Student-Evaluations.

Irritating Full Professors:

1. Professor Happy-Pills-And-Shock-Treatment-Improved-My-Personality
2. Professor Couldabeena-contenda,
3. Professor Exploits-Grad-Students-as-Cheap-Labor-in-his-Consulting-Business,
4. Professor I-Have-Five-Stories/Jokes-So-Get-Used-To-Hearing-Them-All-The-Time,
5. Professor I-Have-A-PhD-So-I-Shouldn't-Have-To-Learn-Anything-New-Ever-Again.
6. Professor I'm-THIS-Close-To-Retirement-So-I'm-Not-Even-Going-To-Try-Anymore
7. Professor Leave-Me-Alone-I'm-In-The-Middle-Of-A-Bitter-Divorce
8. Professor Midlife-Crisis
9. Professor Refuses-To-Retire-Due-To-Some-Combination-Of-Dementia-And-Never-Ending-Scheme- To-Maximize-Lucrative-Baby-Boomer-Retirement-Plan-No-Longer-Available-To-Younger-Faculty
10. Professor Tenure-Caused-My-Divorce,
11. Professor Twenty-Graduate-Students-Do-All-My-Research,
12. Professor Used-To-Be-Cool
13. Professor Uses-Tenure-To-Pursue-Hobbies-Or-Job-On-The-Side-Full-Time,

Irritating Professors That Could be Assistant or Full-

1. Professor Complains-About-Working-Conditions,
2. Professor Doesn't-Read
3. Professor European-Accent
4. Professor Everyone-Is-Out-To-Get-Me
5. Professor I-Could-and-Sometimes-Do-Recite-This-Lecture-in-my-Sleep,
6. Professor I-Have-Family-Drama
7. Professor I-Want-All-The-Students-To-Like-Me,-So-I'm-Going-To-Give-Easy-Tests
8. Professor Laughs-At-His-Own-Jokes,
9. Professor My-Jokes-Aren't-Funny-But-They're-All-I-Have,
10. Professor Only-Person-At-Tiny-College-To-Have-Ever-Published-A-Book-In-A-Printing-Of-More-Than-200,
11. Professor Oops-I-Lit-My-Hand-On-Fire
12. Professor Seriously-Tardy-With-Grading-Papers
13. Professor Stared-Into-The-Void-And-The-Void-Stared-Back!
14. Professor Your-Life-Means-Less-Than-My-Research
15. Professor Your-Work-Will-Never-Be-As-Important-As-Mine,
16. Professor Wears-The-Same-Ratty-Clothes-All-The-Time
17. Professor Who-Cares-What-The-Subject-Is?-Let's-Discuss-My-Politics

North Creek/ Escalante photos

Notice the circular adobe-lined hearth in the western (left) profile

Exposing more of the shelter

Working in the dark

Some major changes at the Frosty Shop...Grammar!

John Clark's vindication: "Snail-Suckers"
The screeners were pulling tons of these out

I'll leave all the technical discussions of provenience and chronology to Dave and Brad, but I thought I'd provide some photos I took while laboring at North Creek. My apologies for the quality of some of the photos as they were taken with my phone.

Image J Plugin for Pictographs

This guy has written a really cool plugin for Image J that enhances pictographs, and can even make invisible ones appear in digital photos. Seems worth checking out. I've asked for a copy of it. I wonder how it would work on a Mesoamerican Mural like at San Bartolo...

Job in Phoenix

I asked Joel, Rich, and Jim to post this flyer on the board at OPA. The job is real, but somebody let me know what the reaction was and whether it actually makes it up.

Finally

Well, I just thought I'd post that yet another PVAP thesis is on it's way to the library shelves! The defense (which was actually more than a month ago) was rather uneventful. (Although I'm pretty sure it was quite eventful behind the closed doors) In a few days it should be available on the BYU library website, or if you're really interested let me know and I can send you a pdf.

Parowan Valley Map

I thought I would let everyone know that I have finished a map of the Parowan Valley with pretty accurate locations of the major Fremont sites. The locations were determined by old aerial photos taken during the excavations which were correlated with current aerial photography. In some cases the locations are very accurate (Parowan Site). I have a full resolution version of this map if anyone is interested in a copy for their own research. Send me a e-mail and I will send it to you.

MIA

Well, its been a long time, but I am trying to get myself back in the good graces of FOF and post something interesting. Most of you know I recently returned from Petra as a crew chief and enjoyed excavating several tombs there which were extremely well preserved, some of which contained pieces of Hellenistic glass, probably from Alexandria, Egypt. Several of the loculi also had intact textile shroud pieces with blue dye patterns which was also quite unique and are some of only a handful found in Petra to date. All in all, the archaeology was quite rewarding and one of those life altering experiences.

I recently found out that I have been accpeted to present a paper on the Seamons Mound Burial (near the shore of Utah Lake) at the GBAC in Portland, so if any of you will be there I would love to have the support. The remains have been dated to 1047 A.D. with moderate corn levels and high protein and are quite interesting inlcuding possible signs of head trauma and extreme spina bifida. This raises and interesting question about the lifespan of handicapped people in the prehistoric world, especially in a full or semi hunting and gathering family and community. Any thoughts or insight about how handicapped people have been treated ethnogrpahically would be appreciated.

Also, renew your UPAC membership becuase Utah Archaeology is getting a major face lift both inside and out and you dont want to miss the inaugural edition of the new format!

Howdy Partner!

It's almost official. I'm just putting the finishing touches an agreement to join Glen Rice as a partner in his CRM company, Rio Salado Archaeology. The deal includes a salary, benefits, and a cut of the profits, with the option to press on should I decide to go after Joel's job in earnest with Yoder in the fall of 2010.


I hope not to sound braggy, but it occurred to me today that only three years ago, I was a 9-dollar-an-hour wog suckling at the teat of Uncle OPA.
If I can do it, so can the rest of us. If anyone wants details, they can give me a buzz or grab me on email.

Dissertation data collection....DONE

Well, probably. I just got back from a two week trip back east analyzing sandal collections at the Peabody Museum, the National Museum of Natural History, the National Museum of the American Indian, and the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology at Penn. It was quite the trip, with many an exciting moment. Well, exciting is a pretty strong word, since all I was doing was measuring and photographing sandals all day. All of the curators that I worked with at the museums were very nice, although some museums allowed for much more, both in terms of scientific testing and handling, than others. I stayed at Cady and Jeff’s apartment for a week and got to catch up with Cady and hang out with their little boy Jarrit (sp?) (Sorry Cady, I have no idea how to spell names). I also got a chance to just peruse the PVAP collections that the National Museum of Natural History have. I know Cady has already talked about them, but holy artifacts batman, they’ve got some cool stuff. While in D.C. I also had two days to check out all the museums and monuments which was pretty cool, as I haven’t been back there since I was a teenager.

Although there are probably a few more sandals out there, I’ve got over 200 in my database right now so will probably start data cleanup, analysis, and crunching numbers soon. Leaving tonight for North Creek and will be there for the next 6 weeks. Oh, and the 2006 issue of Utah Archaeology (edited by yours truly, Chris Watkins, and Scott Ure as Technical editor) should be coming out in about a month (if all goes as planned). So renew your UPAC dues if you haven’t done so; everyone is going to want one of these newly formatted sweet sweet Ure creations

Dr Horrible

You guys, this is totally off-topic, but fairly entertaining...

Yesterday the first of three web-isodes was released on doctorhorrible.net.

Particularly for the closet Serenity fans, it's a fun laugh. I dunno if this is anybody's style, but I think it's pretty darn fun and wanted to share.

The next episode releases tomorrow and they're only free on the site until Sunday night. Sorry in advance to any interested down at North Creek who'll miss it.

Indian Jones

Let me begin by saying that I will not give anything away, so if you have not yet seen the new Indiana Jones movie, it is safe to continue reading this! May I begin by saying that I went into the theater expecting utter crap. This was my way of taking 311's advice "You can't be let down if you don't expect the world." I love the first three movies (well, I at least consider the second one a good 'Indy on vacation' type flick), and really was skeptical of the making of a fourth, a ridiculous 19 years after the last one.
My biggest concerns were as follows: Harrison Ford is old and, therefore, Indy will be old; Shia LaBeouf (who I think had his best role and did his best acting in Holes, and honestly just annoys me) was not only to play Indy's son but his greaser son; Sean Connery, who nearly eight years ago when talks were in full swing for this fourth installment was involved, is not back for this flick.
All I have to say after viewing the film last night is that each of those possible problems was handled extremely well and should have been the very least of my concerns! (The following is the closest I will get to a spoiler, just in case any of you really want to have no idea about the movie). All I will say is that during the first 1/2 or 3/4 of the movie I was pleasantly surprised and then I had to pinch myself b/c I thought I was back in Idaho with Aaron and Lane watching the 2 hour SciFi network "documentary" on the crystal skulls.

It's over.

Just wanted to announce the successful completion of my comprehensive exams. It really was an endurance test, and the oral defense proved to me that I can sweat from places on my body that I did not deem possible before. Minnis really gave it to me, and it made me have Clark flashbacks, minus the flying chalkboard erasers or karate kicks to the back of my chair. Hope you all finished up well. Lay-tar.


mike

Irrigation Agriculture and Fieldhouses?

I've finished a draft of the presentation I gave on campus earlier this semester. If anyone wants to read it and comment, I'd be glad to send it along.

AGRICULTURAL LABOR AMONG SMALL-SCALE IRRIGATION AGRICULTURALISTS:
INVESTIGATING FIELD HOUSE OCCUPATION IN THE PHOENIX BASIN HOHOKAM

Abstract

While Hohokam researchers have been primarily interested in large village sites, investigations have periodically been undertaken at field house and farmstead sites asking why the Hohokam built field houses when large villages were located nearby. We propose four possible answers to this question; households holding tenure to the land from adjacent villages were marking ownership of the land, pioneers lived in field houses prior to the establishment of more permanent villages, migratory laborers from outside the canal system lived in the structures seasonally, and field houses were utilized by land inheritors who held a primary residence in a distant village on the same canal system. These hypotheses are evaluated for two recently excavated field houses. Evidence is given supporting the idea that some Hohokam field houses were occupied by migrant laborers. We conclude with a discussion of agricultural labor among the Hohokam and the implications for small-scale irrigation agriculture.

If only he had the beard....

What the .....? Oh yeah, I just blew your mind.

Building Stonehenge

So I found this YouTube video pretty interesting-even though it relates to Old World stuff. Basically, a former construction worker from Michigan has figured out a few ways to move multi-ton blocks without using any modern technology-not even pullies or metal levers. And here's the interesting part-it only takes one person! Personally, I love when "complex" processes can be explained in an incredibly simple manner, so I thought I'd share it.
Enjoy:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=lRRDzFROMx0