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.

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!

A Call to Action

Hi everyone,

This morning, I received an email from Joel asking for me to write a few words regarding the role OPA played in my academic and professional development.

Apparently Dean Magelby and his cronies at the FHSS college are twirling their bowties in scrutiny of Uncle OPA.

Joel asked for a paragraph, but I ended up writing a letter. I'm sure many of you were also asked to write something about OPA, but I thought I'd post this in case Joel missed you. I'm sure he'd take unsolicited letters (paragraphs) regarding your esteem of OPA and a description of its value to you.

Here's a copy of my letter. Apologies for the length.

September 26th, 2010


Aaron R. Woods
Ph.D. Student
4505 S. Maryland Pkwy Mailstop 455003
Department of Anthropology, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Las Vegas NV 89154-5003


College of Family, Home, and Social Sciences
990 Spencer W. Kimball Tower
Brigham Young University
Provo, Utah 84604


To Whom It May Concern,

It has been brought to my attention that once again, the Office of Public Archaeology (OPA) is being scrutinized by your college in regards to its contributions to student training and experience. I am writing this letter on behalf of OPA to provide some insight into the vital role this organization played in providing me with valuable, real-world skills. These skills have allowed me to find gainful employment and experience success in my current Ph.D. studies.

By way of introduction, my name is Aaron R. Woods. I received my BA (2005) and MA (2009) in anthropology with an emphasis in archaeology from Brigham Young University. I am currently in my second year of Ph.D studies at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. While attending BYU, I was an employee of OPA for six years.

In 2003, I became acquainted with Richard Talbot and Lane Richens at a BYU archaeological field school held in the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument under the direction of Dr. Joel C. Janetski. During this field school, I was able to work closely with both Richard and Lane. This close working relationship helped me learn many things that contributed to my fledgling capabilities as an archaeologist. At field school, I received a mere introduction to the requisite knowledge and abilities necessary to function in an archaeological career. Therefore, I was very excited to be hired to work for OPA at the end of the 2003 field school.

During my time with OPA, I acquired key abilities that have enabled me to serve as a professional consultant, student supervisor, and contributing member of the anthropological community in recent years. For those unfamiliar with the world of archaeology, there are several skills needed in order to function in a professional capacity. Two of the most important are field research methods and report writing. OPA excels in both of these areas. Richard Talbot and Lane Richens are experts in current archaeological excavation and survey methods. The time I spent with them doing field research provided a vital foundation for subsequent archaeological investigations with other professors, institutions, and contract companies.

OPA is also to be commended for their excellent, well-researched, and visually stimulating field reports. The standards of research, prose, presentation, and delivery present in the reports and literature produced by OPA continue to surpass industry standards. As a student employee, I had numerous occasions to contribute to these reports. A significant portion of my curriculum vitae consists of reports and research performed while working for OPA. I am especially grateful for the time that OPA invested in teaching me valuable and marketable report writing skills. These abilities have facilitated and cemented many relationships with peers, professors, and potential employers outside of BYU.

Finally, it is necessary to mention the key role that OPA played in facilitating the research and writing of my Master’s thesis. Were it not for the financial support (student salary), generous access to archaeological collections, access to reports, and the use of OPA resources, my thesis would have never gotten off the ground. In addition, the numerous discussions I had with Richard Talbot and Lane Richens, both in and out of the office had significant impact on the theoretical perspectives present in my thesis and that I continue to utilize.

The Office of Public Archaeology is a vital institution that has contributed significantly to my career and the careers of numerous professional archaeologists. Dissolution and continued or amplified neglect of OPA by the College of Family, Home, and Social Sciences would be/is a great a disservice to anthropology/archaeology students studying at BYU, professional archaeologists working the Great Basin, and the general scope of archaeological research concerning prehistoric and historic cultures present in the Great Basin and American Southwest. In addition, it is my opinion, that without an OPA-type organization present at BYU, the Department of Anthropology (and by default, the college of FHSS) will produce less skilled archaeology students that will experience a greater struggle to find employment in State, Federal, Private, or Academic positions. It is my hope that this letter and additional words and examples by my peers and colleagues will reiterate the important role that OPA has played in our education and preparation for life beyond the university setting.

Sincerely,

Aaron R. Woods
Ph.D. Student
University of Nevada, Las Vegas

A template change and call for content

Hi all, I've been pretty busy with excavations down in Mimbres, NM and I'm sure all of you have been pretty busy too.

I hope all of you are doing well.

I changed the format of the blog a little. Blogger has recently provided all sorts of new format/layout options that are pretty cool. I hope you like the new design. If not, please let me know.

Here's an update from me:

For the entire month of June, I worked in the little town of Mimbres, NM excavating a the Harris Site, a Late Pithouse Period (AD 500-1000) site. The Harris Site is located on a large, flat terrace overlooking the Mimbres River and a large flood plain. In the 1920s, Emil Haury excavated several pithouses, but was mainly worried about the architecture and distinguishing Mimbres/Mogollon from the Anasazi. To his credit, Haury left several unexcavated pithouses on the site and Henry Stewart, the current land owner, has allowed Barb Roth to perform excavations there for the past few years.

This season, we excavated four pithouses and a few extra-mural areas. I was also lucky enough to go down slope and test a Classic Period (AD 1000-1250) pueblo! The pithouses all yielded some great stuff including numerous shell bracelets, a chunk of smelted and worked copper, a figurine, some turquoise and shell beads, and many, many ceramics. Also, we uncovered about 10 burials.

One of the cool phenomena that Barb has discovered in the past three years is the presence of pots that have been plastered into the floor near the hearth. This practice of plastered pots in floors has been found in three different pithouses. All of the pithouses are from different time periods. Barb suspects that this may be a familial tradition that is being passed on.

The pueblo was fun to dig, but since I only dug two 1x2 m trenches, we did not collect much data. We did however, get a good map and a better idea of where I will be digging next year.

This is only a brief blurb, if you have any questions, let me know.



Harris Site Overview



Final Photo of a pithouse



Another pithouse



Final photo of a pithouse, is that a possible deflector stone by the photo board/hearth?



Pithouse with pot in floor (its that little black circle just right of center)



Removal of pot



Barb holding removed pot


Shell pendant



Bone Awl



Animal Figurine



Turquoise bead/ polished frag.



Axe head found on pithouse floor



Remember when you all took your BYU MA comps and wrote about fish on Mimbres pots? Here's one just for fun. Found at a museum. Not our site, unfortunately.

Back with Uncle OPA

So after a long and difficult job search, I was hired for a year by OPA. I guess it is time for me to put in my time and pay my dues. We are in Kanab in southern Utah working on the Jackson Flats Reservoir project, which should last until at least the end of August. The archaeology so far is predominantly Basketmaker and is really fascinating. It's great to be working with good people and to be back in the dirt for a change.

As for the dissertation, I finished just two days before our family moved out to Utah. I'll try to get a link to the pdf up soon for those interested. Nothing like getting that monkey off your back. Well, I hope everyone is doing well.

Mike

Fremont Book, SAAs, and what are you doing for your summer vacation?

Hi everyone,

I was sorry to have missed you all at the SAAs, so I'm looking forward to next year in Sacramento. Also, GBAC in Layton? Anyone? Anyone?

Today, I was perusing the shelves of the Lied Library here at UNLV and noticed a shiny new book called The Fremont Culture. At least, I thought it was new (October 2009). Turns out its a reprint of Gunnerson's 1967 book on the Fremont. This may be old news to some, but I thought it was pretty cool and it can be yours for the price of $19.95. One word of caution, it does contain a new forward by our favorite archaeological elf, Steve Simms but it's pretty harmless.

So, how were the SAAs? Any great papers? I keep hearing about a pre-clovis paper involving mammoth bones and bulbs of percussion. What else was of interest?

Finally, what are all of your spring/summer plans? I will be heading to Mimbres, New Mexico to work on some pithouse excavations with Barb Roth. After that, I may do some work for Geo-Marine Inc. as a sub-contractor (if they decide to hire me again) and hang out in the labs at UNLV analyzing groundstone for Barb.

Hope all of you are well.