So I dug three burials today. Imagine that... I'd post some pictures but the local tribes don't allow photographs. I've been working at Los Canopas, a long term platform mound Hohokam community. There are about 20 people working at the site, and I'm apparently assistant project director. I'll be directing the dig Monday, as the director is going to be out of town.
The city of Phoenix and the state of Arizona have an antiquities law that requires the mitigation of ALL human remains on both private and public land. If you find a cluster of Hohokam pithouses, you've also found a cemetery, making for a ton of contract work.
We're trying to get all of the human remains out of the site, so we're monitoring backhoes until they hit a grave, where we stop them and start digging. There are about 20 exposed burials, maybe 40 more that have already been dug, and a lot of trenches yet to dig. Most of the burials are cremations, pretty much just pots full of ash and bone. The inhumations are nutty, it's like freakin' CSI in there the bones are so preserved.
We went on a survey the other day and I was getting mocked for finding groundstone and lithics. ME, finding groundstone and lithics in a world of ceramics?! I guess you can take the boy out of the basin, but not the basin out of the boy...
2 comments:
what a great way to start off a new job...here is a cremation, dig it up! Sounds like things are going great.
Great! So while Chris is digging burials, I'm stuck in a museum labeling artifacts dug by the WPA back in the 50s. Oh well, I guess Oklahoma archaeology will never be as rich as the Hohokam, but that is why I'll be studying in Casas Grandes, not Oklahoma. Have fun Chris.
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