The Three Corners Conference is coming up next weekend:
http://www.nvarch.org/3corners/3Corners2.pdf
Joel, Cady, and I are on the program with a paper on Fremont Exchange. Yoder and I are going, is anyone else planning on attending?
Thursday, October 04, 2007
Utah Geology -- a GIS Fest
Scott and I stumbled onto the following website with a bunch of free GIS and pdf maps of the geology of Utah.
http://geology.utah.gov/maps/gis/index.htm
Check it out all of you GIS-ers.
http://geology.utah.gov/maps/gis/index.htm
Check it out all of you GIS-ers.
Monday, September 17, 2007
Southwest Symposium - 20th Anniversary
Hello all,
Just thought you may be interested in the upcoming SW Symposium held at ASU in January. All the infomation can be found at this link...
http://www.public.asu.edu/~ndwilso1/
It should be a good conference. They will be discussing foraging, mobility and migration, social power and interaction, the protohistoric, and the history of Southwest archaeology, understanding human movement, landscape change, and the connections among groups at local and pan-Southwestern scales. Check it out and I hope to see you all there. Lay-tar.
Mike
Just thought you may be interested in the upcoming SW Symposium held at ASU in January. All the infomation can be found at this link...
http://www.public.asu.edu/~ndwilso1/
It should be a good conference. They will be discussing foraging, mobility and migration, social power and interaction, the protohistoric, and the history of Southwest archaeology, understanding human movement, landscape change, and the connections among groups at local and pan-Southwestern scales. Check it out and I hope to see you all there. Lay-tar.
Mike
Monday, September 10, 2007
Thursday, August 30, 2007
A Fond Farewell to Cady Waldrom (Reinhold) Jardine
Officially, I think that Cady and fam left this morning, but she came into the museum yesterday to say goodbye. You will be missed Cady. The student office won't be the same without you. No longer will we be able to talk turquoise and exotics, nor will we be hounded for details and photos of marriages, dates, and babies:) In all seriousness, it was great having you around to bounce ideas off, to offer advice, and to share sources.
I (and I'm sure the rest of us) wish you and your family the best as you start a new life in D.C.
I'll have to add your name to those for whom we pour out a little Fresca when we're in the field.
I (and I'm sure the rest of us) wish you and your family the best as you start a new life in D.C.
I'll have to add your name to those for whom we pour out a little Fresca when we're in the field.
Friday, August 24, 2007
New BYU Anthropology Website
Dear FOF,
Just as an FYI, the new BYU Anthropology website is now live and running. It still has some minor fixes but for the most part is ready to go. Take a look here and let me know if you find any problems. Thanks!
Scott
Just as an FYI, the new BYU Anthropology website is now live and running. It still has some minor fixes but for the most part is ready to go. Take a look here and let me know if you find any problems. Thanks!
Scott
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Sand Hollow II - Take 2
Well, I'd have to agree with everything Dave mentioned. I had a blast with old friends and met some fun new people. Sand Hollow was everything Aaron said it would be...hocking sand. But, at the same time, Scott and I finally got to test the Panasonic Toughbook for digital mapping in the field and it worked great! Thanks to Scott and his persistence on the acquisition of the computer, we will likely be presenting a "product review" at the SAAs in Vancouver. Stay tuned.
As for the flooding, just look at the pics. The apartment with the most water was where two of the male crew members were staying. Some of the girls and I were able to salvage all the site maps, field notes, Topcon, and laser levels in the boss's apartment due to our quick feet and "bags-in-the-cracks-of-the-door" quick thinking. Not to mention, we saved a lot of Dave's dissertation material from the floor of his room (Just make sure to put us in your acknowledgments, Dave).
And in reference to the Andrew Johnston Collection, I was blown away. Dave and I were able to photograph sandals for his dissertation project and I photographed and did a cursory analysis of the Casas Grandes pottery. The pictures say it all. I really was waiting for Vincent Price to come out of the corner and talk in his creepy, old man voice.
Saturday, August 04, 2007
SandHollow II
Well, my time at SandHollow has come to a close; although Rich and Lane are still working down there and will be until the end of August. For those of you who have not been to Sand Hollow, it can generally be summed up as HOT, sandy, and ephemeral. Most of the time we were digging wickiups and hearths, although we did excavate a pithouse or two as well. One of these had a lot of adobe wall and roof fall, no ceramics, and a piece of corn came out of the bottom. 
So all signs point to Basketmaker, which would be really interesting. That was definitely the highlight of the season. Mike Searcy and family were also there for a good chunk of the summer, which was great. It was good to be back in the field with a Friend of the Fremont.
So all signs point to Basketmaker, which would be really interesting. That was definitely the highlight of the season. Mike Searcy and family were also there for a good chunk of the summer, which was great. It was good to be back in the field with a Friend of the Fremont. The day I was leaving St. George got flooded by a thunderstorm. Two of the apartments we were renting got a couple of feet of water in them. Mike will have to post some pictures; it was crazy. He and I also got to check out the Andrew Johnston private collection in Kanab. I'll have to post on that another time; it was a sweet/creepy experience. Now I'm down at North Creek for Dr. J's last year there. We took out the back fill (a monumental task) and have started excavating. Already we have found two new pits and two hearths on the Early Archaic use surface and some tools down at 3.30 meters below ground surface. That hole is DEEP. It's not field school though, so we are all being careful.
Monday, June 25, 2007
Mt Meadows Massacre Article
This will appear in the September Ensign. Looks to be a definitive statement...
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Type, Series, and Ware in Fremont Ceramic Classification
I already sent this to several of you. If I missed anyone that's interested, let me know. Comment away!
ABSTRACT
For nearly thirty years, Fremont ceramic analysts have primarily relied on a single seminal work – Prehistoric Ceramics of the Fremont, by Rex E. Madsen (1977). Although the value of R. Madsen’s study cannot be overstated, the intervening years of research have yielded a wealth of relevant data and refined analytical techniques. In addition, certain key observations from previous analyses were omitted from the R. Madsen typology. I review the past and current conceptions of the Fremont ceramic typology as well as the literature pertaining to variability within pottery types, specifically temper. Based on this existing research and my own observations, I propose a reclassification of Fremont pottery within the Type – Series – Ware hierarchy proposed by Colton and Hargrave (1937). Fremont pottery is surmised under a single ware, with series defined by temper and types by surface treatment. Building on the work of Lyneis (1994; Geib and Lyneis 1996), and in reference to recent developments in Hohokam ceramic studies (Abbott 2000), I further suggest ways to identify temper variability and to apply quantifiable differences to studies of pottery provenience.
ABSTRACT
For nearly thirty years, Fremont ceramic analysts have primarily relied on a single seminal work – Prehistoric Ceramics of the Fremont, by Rex E. Madsen (1977). Although the value of R. Madsen’s study cannot be overstated, the intervening years of research have yielded a wealth of relevant data and refined analytical techniques. In addition, certain key observations from previous analyses were omitted from the R. Madsen typology. I review the past and current conceptions of the Fremont ceramic typology as well as the literature pertaining to variability within pottery types, specifically temper. Based on this existing research and my own observations, I propose a reclassification of Fremont pottery within the Type – Series – Ware hierarchy proposed by Colton and Hargrave (1937). Fremont pottery is surmised under a single ware, with series defined by temper and types by surface treatment. Building on the work of Lyneis (1994; Geib and Lyneis 1996), and in reference to recent developments in Hohokam ceramic studies (Abbott 2000), I further suggest ways to identify temper variability and to apply quantifiable differences to studies of pottery provenience.
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Friday, June 01, 2007
A Craig Freeman sighting
This just in-
Lane ran into Craig Freeman in Vivian Park (Provo Canyon). Craig was on Rollerblades. Lane said that Craig is still doing construction/concrete stuff, but that he is thinking about getting back into archaeology.
So, who knows? Maybe everyone's favorite metalhead and epigrapher will return to the fold.
Lane ran into Craig Freeman in Vivian Park (Provo Canyon). Craig was on Rollerblades. Lane said that Craig is still doing construction/concrete stuff, but that he is thinking about getting back into archaeology.
So, who knows? Maybe everyone's favorite metalhead and epigrapher will return to the fold.
Aaron's SIR
This semester was pretty uneventful. It comprised of me going down to Sand Hollow in January, and then spending the rest of the time in the bone room analyzing the chipped stone from PVAP. After plodding through only one box (there are 14 total), I have now analyzed 900+ tools from Summit (42IN40). Most of them are utilized flakes.
So, my previous method of "just get through all the boxes" has been foiled. No way am I gonna be able to do 13 more boxes with similar artifact counts and ever graduate. Enter sampling strategies.
For now, I am working on revising drafts of my proposal and figuring out how to sample the assemblage. I've been reading a lot of stuff on Homol'ovi (the Hopi Mesas area) and despite the obvious differences between the Hopi and the Fremont, I have gained some perspectives into how to sample a massive collection, and also gotten some ideas about studying spatial distributions of chipped stone.
This past week I was near Bliss, Idaho with Lane doing Idaho Power stuff for Mr. Baker. We documented several sites along the Snake River. Cool stuff up there. We found several points, some late prehistoric ceramics, sandstone shaft smoothers, and a few rock shelters. Apparently the week before I went up, they found a burial. Shane was all over it. Not much left, just some vertebrae and teeth.
We did find a really cool site near the banks of Salmon Falls that, according to his journal, was visited by John C. Fremont. He and his cronies traded with the Shoshone for dried Salmon and spent some time near the falls. The site was very large with lots of groundstone, shell, chipped stone, rock art, and circular features with upright slabs. There was also a historic component, stacked stone walls and a ditch. It was pretty picked over by visitors to the site (read: looters) and little has been done to preserve it. After finding several looter pits, Lane shook his head and uttered, "Bastards." He then lamented Idaho's neglect for this historically significant site. Hopefully, with some strong suggestions to put it on the register, it will get there. We could have easily spent three days recording that site due to the massive amount of stuff there.
I wish there was more to report, but I didn't take any cool classes, and I've been doing a lot of analysis so there isn't much else to say.
So, my previous method of "just get through all the boxes" has been foiled. No way am I gonna be able to do 13 more boxes with similar artifact counts and ever graduate. Enter sampling strategies.
For now, I am working on revising drafts of my proposal and figuring out how to sample the assemblage. I've been reading a lot of stuff on Homol'ovi (the Hopi Mesas area) and despite the obvious differences between the Hopi and the Fremont, I have gained some perspectives into how to sample a massive collection, and also gotten some ideas about studying spatial distributions of chipped stone.
This past week I was near Bliss, Idaho with Lane doing Idaho Power stuff for Mr. Baker. We documented several sites along the Snake River. Cool stuff up there. We found several points, some late prehistoric ceramics, sandstone shaft smoothers, and a few rock shelters. Apparently the week before I went up, they found a burial. Shane was all over it. Not much left, just some vertebrae and teeth.
We did find a really cool site near the banks of Salmon Falls that, according to his journal, was visited by John C. Fremont. He and his cronies traded with the Shoshone for dried Salmon and spent some time near the falls. The site was very large with lots of groundstone, shell, chipped stone, rock art, and circular features with upright slabs. There was also a historic component, stacked stone walls and a ditch. It was pretty picked over by visitors to the site (read: looters) and little has been done to preserve it. After finding several looter pits, Lane shook his head and uttered, "Bastards." He then lamented Idaho's neglect for this historically significant site. Hopefully, with some strong suggestions to put it on the register, it will get there. We could have easily spent three days recording that site due to the massive amount of stuff there.
I wish there was more to report, but I didn't take any cool classes, and I've been doing a lot of analysis so there isn't much else to say.
Friday, May 25, 2007
Yoder and Stats
I seem to remember a tent-mate who found a very effective use for archaeological stats. 
Yoder, I still need to send this one to Ian Robertson. I think he'd get a kick out of it.
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Yoder's SIR_Spring 2007
This semester was relatively light at the beginning but quickly took a downward spiral. As far as classes go, I only had two, one of which was a directed readings course.
I took Anthropological Statistics from Karen Harry. Why? Because I’m such a stats retard that I don’t remember anything if I’m not constantly using it. Even though it was pretty basic stats I was worried at first, but Ian’s teachings were still rattling around in the back of my head, and surprisingly, I was able to remember a lot of it once I started thinking stats again.
My directed readings course was focused on stuff for both my dissertation and for my comps. I’ve been doing a lot of reading about technological style, iconological style, isochrestic style, and the whatnot. I’m particularly a fan of the technological and isochrestic style camp and this theoretical orientation will be the basis for much of my dissertation research. And can I throw a plug in here for James Sackett. The guy knows how to write. He has a nice clean, clear, writing style that keeps you interested. Whenever I’m writing for an academic audience (article or presentation) I always feel compelled to dress it up in fancy terms. I hate doing this but feel like that as a grad student I have to do this to be taken more seriously. This is crap and I don’t want to do it anymore. I, and everyone else in archaeology, should write in clean clear language like only a few do really well.
At the end of the semester I decided to take the job with Uncle OPA and then had to cram everything to get out of Vegas and up to Utah in time. I started the job two weeks before the end of the semester which meant that I had to have others cover the Anthro 101 classes I was teaching, turn in assignments early, etc. It got very hairy near the end, but was worth it.
Now I’m keeping it real in Sand Hollow. Speaking of which, I am able to write this today because we got SANDBLASTED and had to pack up and come home early this morning. We got to the site around 6:20am, and were able to work for a couple of hours but conditions quickly turned into a full scale sand storm. So it was home for FSing and writing up notes. Grit in the teeth, good times. I am still waiting for Aaron to come down (come on dude, just for a week) and can’t wait for Mike to start. I’m also supposed to be studying for my comps at night, but so far that has failed to happen. Where does the time go?
I took Anthropological Statistics from Karen Harry. Why? Because I’m such a stats retard that I don’t remember anything if I’m not constantly using it. Even though it was pretty basic stats I was worried at first, but Ian’s teachings were still rattling around in the back of my head, and surprisingly, I was able to remember a lot of it once I started thinking stats again.
My directed readings course was focused on stuff for both my dissertation and for my comps. I’ve been doing a lot of reading about technological style, iconological style, isochrestic style, and the whatnot. I’m particularly a fan of the technological and isochrestic style camp and this theoretical orientation will be the basis for much of my dissertation research. And can I throw a plug in here for James Sackett. The guy knows how to write. He has a nice clean, clear, writing style that keeps you interested. Whenever I’m writing for an academic audience (article or presentation) I always feel compelled to dress it up in fancy terms. I hate doing this but feel like that as a grad student I have to do this to be taken more seriously. This is crap and I don’t want to do it anymore. I, and everyone else in archaeology, should write in clean clear language like only a few do really well.
At the end of the semester I decided to take the job with Uncle OPA and then had to cram everything to get out of Vegas and up to Utah in time. I started the job two weeks before the end of the semester which meant that I had to have others cover the Anthro 101 classes I was teaching, turn in assignments early, etc. It got very hairy near the end, but was worth it.
Now I’m keeping it real in Sand Hollow. Speaking of which, I am able to write this today because we got SANDBLASTED and had to pack up and come home early this morning. We got to the site around 6:20am, and were able to work for a couple of hours but conditions quickly turned into a full scale sand storm. So it was home for FSing and writing up notes. Grit in the teeth, good times. I am still waiting for Aaron to come down (come on dude, just for a week) and can’t wait for Mike to start. I’m also supposed to be studying for my comps at night, but so far that has failed to happen. Where does the time go?
Monday, May 21, 2007
Mike's SIR - Spring '07
This past semester was a little busier than the last. I don't know if my mental state will remain stable, but we'll see. Now that it is over, I can breathe a little easier. Overall, it was a good one.
Linguistic Theory - This is a required course for all graduate students at OU. It was really good to read some classic stuff by Boas, Sapir, and Kroeber. I really enjoyed Keith Basso's book on the Western Apache. His writing style is very colloquial and frank. I think we should all write a little more like that, but then journals wouldn't publish our stuff. My project for this class was working on the Q'eqchi'- English dictionary that my friend (at SUNY Albany) and I had started about a year ago. We are using a software program by SIL that is for field linguists and is a tool used to build lexicons. The advantage of this is that we can output the lexicon to many different formats - web, text (WORD, etc.), and as a stand-alone dictionary with searchable functions. This is going to take longer than we expected, but it needs to be done.
Symbolic Anthropology - I took this as a special readings course with a Berkley-ite who allowed me to take a mock-comprehensive exam question instead of write a paper at the end. It was good practice and got me ready for at least one portion of the exam, which I will be taking next Spring. Also, I was able to read some of the classic symbolic literature from the 60s and 70s like Firth, Cohen, Turner, Levi-Strauss, Ortner, and Douglas. It was a really good baptism by fire. I may bleed archaeology, but I occasionally pee cultural anthropology and enjoy it. What can I say? They don't call me Soco for nothing.
Work - I've been a TA for a few semesters now and will be taking on my own intro to anth. class this coming fall. It should be fun; I really enjoy teaching. Also, I work for the property management company where I live and have been able to get cheap rent. I work for them 2 days out of the week and do on-call emergency maintenance at night and on weekends. In addition, there have been a lot of freelance opportunities this past semester which included English to Spanish translations, 2 websites, and 2 logo design projects. I should have passed on all of them due to time constraints.
Film - In all the hoopla of school and work, the illegal immigration film rolls on. We just interviewed our first illegal immigrant last night (although we still concealed his identity). None have been willing to appear on camera until now. A new law also just passed here in Oklahoma making it a felony to transport an illegal. I guess I won't be taking any of the Spanish Branch members anywhere, or maybe I will. The law also prevents illegals from obtaining state ID, health benefits, and jobs (employers are required to do social security number checks on all new employees). It is a hot topic everywhere, but we have been able to document the debate right here in OK.
Summer - So the rumors are true. I will be working for Uncle OPA this summer. I'm really excited to be working with all the folks at Sand Hollow. Amie and the kids will also be coming along after a fourth summer in a row of having to leave them for an extended period of time. It also looks like I may even make money for the first summer in a long time. And now that OPA has some cool techno tools, Scott and I can finally do a write-up on the Tablet PCs and handheld computers.
Lay-tar-----------------------------------
Linguistic Theory - This is a required course for all graduate students at OU. It was really good to read some classic stuff by Boas, Sapir, and Kroeber. I really enjoyed Keith Basso's book on the Western Apache. His writing style is very colloquial and frank. I think we should all write a little more like that, but then journals wouldn't publish our stuff. My project for this class was working on the Q'eqchi'- English dictionary that my friend (at SUNY Albany) and I had started about a year ago. We are using a software program by SIL that is for field linguists and is a tool used to build lexicons. The advantage of this is that we can output the lexicon to many different formats - web, text (WORD, etc.), and as a stand-alone dictionary with searchable functions. This is going to take longer than we expected, but it needs to be done.
Symbolic Anthropology - I took this as a special readings course with a Berkley-ite who allowed me to take a mock-comprehensive exam question instead of write a paper at the end. It was good practice and got me ready for at least one portion of the exam, which I will be taking next Spring. Also, I was able to read some of the classic symbolic literature from the 60s and 70s like Firth, Cohen, Turner, Levi-Strauss, Ortner, and Douglas. It was a really good baptism by fire. I may bleed archaeology, but I occasionally pee cultural anthropology and enjoy it. What can I say? They don't call me Soco for nothing.
Work - I've been a TA for a few semesters now and will be taking on my own intro to anth. class this coming fall. It should be fun; I really enjoy teaching. Also, I work for the property management company where I live and have been able to get cheap rent. I work for them 2 days out of the week and do on-call emergency maintenance at night and on weekends. In addition, there have been a lot of freelance opportunities this past semester which included English to Spanish translations, 2 websites, and 2 logo design projects. I should have passed on all of them due to time constraints.
Film - In all the hoopla of school and work, the illegal immigration film rolls on. We just interviewed our first illegal immigrant last night (although we still concealed his identity). None have been willing to appear on camera until now. A new law also just passed here in Oklahoma making it a felony to transport an illegal. I guess I won't be taking any of the Spanish Branch members anywhere, or maybe I will. The law also prevents illegals from obtaining state ID, health benefits, and jobs (employers are required to do social security number checks on all new employees). It is a hot topic everywhere, but we have been able to document the debate right here in OK.
Summer - So the rumors are true. I will be working for Uncle OPA this summer. I'm really excited to be working with all the folks at Sand Hollow. Amie and the kids will also be coming along after a fourth summer in a row of having to leave them for an extended period of time. It also looks like I may even make money for the first summer in a long time. And now that OPA has some cool techno tools, Scott and I can finally do a write-up on the Tablet PCs and handheld computers.
Lay-tar-----------------------------------
Friday, May 11, 2007
Friends of OPA Unite!
Now that Dave and probably Mike have joined the rest of the crew with Uncle OPA, I wonder if the time is ripe to talk to the bosses about organizing a "Friends of OPA" alumni group to support Rich and co. It could start, and possibly stay, small, existing primarily as an email list. It would be easy to put together on google groups.
Basically, we could send out an "OPA Update" to the listserv two or three times a year to let people know how OPA was doing, and have the list ready for people to send in their letters of support to the Dean and Crandall the next time the ship starts sinking. This would also serve as the basis for future group activities, such as the occasional get-together to excavate Wolf Village, or a forum to get the money together for endowed fellowships in support of graduate students studying Fremont subsistence, architecture, and ceramics (Joel, Rich, and Lane's primary research interests).
I can think of the following people other than the FOF:
Sarah Baer
Jake Sauer
Megan Schaub
Jamie Bartlett
Aubrey Baasgaard
Shane Baker
Mery Ann Clements
Jan Wickel
Wade and Jessica Arden
The Big Horn Archaeology dudes
Kenny Winch
Charmaine Thompson
Byron Loosle
The Dude from Baseline Data
Jim Wilde
Debbie Newman
Emily Wise
and many more!
What does everyone think? Maybe some of you guys in St. George can talk to Rich about it, and I'll email Joel. We can start putting together an email list and ask people if they want to be on the google group, and then see what we can do to support Uncle OPA!
Basically, we could send out an "OPA Update" to the listserv two or three times a year to let people know how OPA was doing, and have the list ready for people to send in their letters of support to the Dean and Crandall the next time the ship starts sinking. This would also serve as the basis for future group activities, such as the occasional get-together to excavate Wolf Village, or a forum to get the money together for endowed fellowships in support of graduate students studying Fremont subsistence, architecture, and ceramics (Joel, Rich, and Lane's primary research interests).
I can think of the following people other than the FOF:
Sarah Baer
Jake Sauer
Megan Schaub
Jamie Bartlett
Aubrey Baasgaard
Shane Baker
Mery Ann Clements
Jan Wickel
Wade and Jessica Arden
The Big Horn Archaeology dudes
Kenny Winch
Charmaine Thompson
Byron Loosle
The Dude from Baseline Data
Jim Wilde
Debbie Newman
Emily Wise
and many more!
What does everyone think? Maybe some of you guys in St. George can talk to Rich about it, and I'll email Joel. We can start putting together an email list and ask people if they want to be on the google group, and then see what we can do to support Uncle OPA!
Watkins SIR Spring 2007
Not really an eventful term, but my highlights were:
Classes -- Beyond Chiefdoms with Ben Nelson and Kate Spielmann. In this class, we reviewed the chiefdom literature and pretty much decided that the classically defined chiefdom only ever existed in Polynesia, but that there are societies that are neither states nor tribes that the chiefdom label could be applied to, for lack of a better term. Also, we decided that chiefdoms do not necessarily preceed states, and in fact, there are no historical or archaeological cases where a chiefdom turned into a state. I wrote a paper for this class in which I compared mortuary assemblages from the Southwest (including the Fremont, Hohokam, PIV, and Casas Grandes) to a Southeastern Chiefdom. Surprisingly, the Fremont assemblage was a lot like the chiefdom, and the pure Southwestern groups were very similar. Go figure!? I only used one metric to compare them though, the diversity index, which is a count of the number of artifact classes in a burial, which supposedly is related to the number of roles a person held in life.
Dissertation -- I continue to collect and analyze sherds from the Southern Sinagua area, putting together a temper typology for the region. As part of my analysis, I'm developing a new method to analyze ceramic thin sections by digitally photographing the slides and using computer software to quantify the amount of each temper particle present. The team includes people from Geology, Archaeology, Electrical Engineering, and Photography. If it works, and I'm pretty sure it will, we will reduce the cost of thin section analysis by 1/10th. Exciting times!
Work -- I'm currently finishing up a chapter describing Hohokam mortuary ritual on Canal System 7 based on a dataset of nearly 1,000 burials excavated over the last year or two. I've identified several roles, including household ritual specialists, group ritual specialists, hunt/war leaders, and ceramic entrepreneurs. We'll see if any of it holds up.
This summer -- I'll be working on my dissertation 2 days a week, and doing excavations here in the Phoenix Basin the rest of the week. Good times, my friends, good times.
Classes -- Beyond Chiefdoms with Ben Nelson and Kate Spielmann. In this class, we reviewed the chiefdom literature and pretty much decided that the classically defined chiefdom only ever existed in Polynesia, but that there are societies that are neither states nor tribes that the chiefdom label could be applied to, for lack of a better term. Also, we decided that chiefdoms do not necessarily preceed states, and in fact, there are no historical or archaeological cases where a chiefdom turned into a state. I wrote a paper for this class in which I compared mortuary assemblages from the Southwest (including the Fremont, Hohokam, PIV, and Casas Grandes) to a Southeastern Chiefdom. Surprisingly, the Fremont assemblage was a lot like the chiefdom, and the pure Southwestern groups were very similar. Go figure!? I only used one metric to compare them though, the diversity index, which is a count of the number of artifact classes in a burial, which supposedly is related to the number of roles a person held in life.
Dissertation -- I continue to collect and analyze sherds from the Southern Sinagua area, putting together a temper typology for the region. As part of my analysis, I'm developing a new method to analyze ceramic thin sections by digitally photographing the slides and using computer software to quantify the amount of each temper particle present. The team includes people from Geology, Archaeology, Electrical Engineering, and Photography. If it works, and I'm pretty sure it will, we will reduce the cost of thin section analysis by 1/10th. Exciting times!
Work -- I'm currently finishing up a chapter describing Hohokam mortuary ritual on Canal System 7 based on a dataset of nearly 1,000 burials excavated over the last year or two. I've identified several roles, including household ritual specialists, group ritual specialists, hunt/war leaders, and ceramic entrepreneurs. We'll see if any of it holds up.
This summer -- I'll be working on my dissertation 2 days a week, and doing excavations here in the Phoenix Basin the rest of the week. Good times, my friends, good times.
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
Herod's Tomb Found?
Could this be? Somebody get Holly on the horn to assess this. And let's get those SIRs in. I'll try to have mine up today.
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
And by the way, Mr. Yoder joins OPA
You like that....by the way...OPA. I'm good.
So those positions that Scott posted about a one-year contract with OPA.....yours truely will be filling one of those positions. Hurrah! I'll be helping run the Sand Hollow excavation during the summer and analysis and write up in the fall and winter. I'm looking forward to working with the bosses again and can't wait to get into the dirt (or sand in this case). I start on Monday. Pretty quick, but I'm way excited. Aaron might even be around.
Now if I could just sell my house. Not to worry, I hear the market is great! http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18289082/
So those positions that Scott posted about a one-year contract with OPA.....yours truely will be filling one of those positions. Hurrah! I'll be helping run the Sand Hollow excavation during the summer and analysis and write up in the fall and winter. I'm looking forward to working with the bosses again and can't wait to get into the dirt (or sand in this case). I start on Monday. Pretty quick, but I'm way excited. Aaron might even be around.
Now if I could just sell my house. Not to worry, I hear the market is great! http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18289082/
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