So, what's been happening?

Last week was just that, our last week. At least for the time being.

Monday went well enough but the rain we got over Monday night royally screwed us up. The three open units we had turned into swimming pools overnight. Even though they had been covered up as best we could manage, water ran in from the edges and filled them to overflowing. A handful of us spent Tuesday morning pumping them out in the hopes that they might be salvageable.

They were not.

To compound the issue. The weather forcast called for more rain to fall every day the following (this) week. That would make for an entire week lost. So, since the plan was to call a halt by the 19th regardless of our state of completedness, the decision was made to call it quits early.

So, with just a couple of days to work with we opened up only 3 new units thinking we could manage to get at least that much done.

We tried ...

... but we did not.

Everyone had to stay most of the day on Saturday to get those units close to done. By the end of that day, 2 of them were finished but the third had a freshly uncovered feature that had to be dealt with. Myself and 2 others stayed over and worked on Sunday as well to get that taken care of. Then I packed it up and headed straight home from the site.

In spite of the work issues, we still managed to make the most of the week. We arranged another 'Mojito Monday' since the first one went over so well.


On friday night the whole crew gathered for an 'end-of-project' dinner party.

Our final night, Saturday, was spent back at the bowling alley (no pics this time around), followed by some after-hours card playing.

And, of course, the saying of our 'good-byes'. :(

So where does that put me now?

Back in Fort Wayne for the time being. I'm working with the IPFW-AS crew again until the work there runs out, or until other field projects open up, whichever comes first. And there are other projects coming down the pipeline. I just don't know when they will be scheduled to commence. The "sometime after the first of the year" is rather vague.

Anywho, the lineup has some good variety to it. Potential projects include: a hydroelectric plant survey near Cincinnati, a couple of small surveys in south-central Indiana near where I just came from, a cemetery relocation (near Evansville I think), a 20km powerline survey in Kentucky and several larger excavation projects in the vicinity of Knoxville, Tennessee. There is also the return to finish what is left of the Santa Claus project. Those are just the ones I'm aware of. There could well be more crop up in the near future. Which projects I can actually be a part of will be determined by how they are scheduled. Obviously I can't work at 2 projects if they are both running at the same time, in different parts of the country.

As soon as I have something more concrete to pass along I will.

Until then, and especially for those I won't be seeing over the holidays ... MERRY CHRISTMAS!

A Rather Rough Week

The weather has not been especially kind to us lately.

Monday was pretty much a lose because of the storm we got on Sunday. Left things far too muddy to work in. After a 4 hour delay a few of us went out for a quick inspection of the site. Fortunately everything was still relatively intact. We might have been able to go out and get a couple hours in during the late afternoon but opted, instead, to get caught up on paperwork and such back at the hotel.

Tuesday and Wednesday were much better. We tried to make up as much of the lost time as we could. Actually had a productive couple of days.

Didn't have such a great start on Thursday thanks to more rain. We cover things up as best we can directly over the units but the sloping ends of the trenches we are working in naturally collect runoff from the exposed portions outside the tents which then pools right where we're digging (the lowest part of the trench). Digging and screening went rather slowly until we were able to work below the first few waterlogged centimeters.

Working Friday just plain sucked!

Temperatures only got above freezing briefly in the mid-afternoon. Digging was not too bad but screening was a pain because the dirt was freezing in the screens faster than we could get through it! We did what we could but the day just seemed to drag on and on. By the end of the day everyone was miserable and we were feeling rather frozen ourselves. Had to keep moving to keep the circulation moving in fingers and toes. We were all more than ready for the weekend by the time the day was over.

Friday night made up for it a bit. There really aren't a lot of things to do here in Tell City but there is a bowling alley practically right across the street from the hotel so we hung out there for a while. Scores rarely broke 100 but we had a blast nonetheless. It was just a fun night out!

Afterwards we headed off to Braunies, a local pub just around the corner, to close out the evening. After a couple of games of darts we finally called it a night. It was a long night, topping off a long week.

We'd made plans to go into Louisville on Saturday but had to cancel them. Weather was fairly decent here but they were getting snow and freezing rain there. Not something we wanted to deal with so stayed in for most of the day. It was just as well. Those of us who had gone out the night before kinda needed the time to recover a bit (lol). Did go back to Braunies again later in the evening just to get out of the hotel but it was a very laid back night. Another round of darts, 3 games of euchre, and we were done.

Now its Sunday. Not much going on today. Gonna sneak in a couple loads of laundry when I can and wrap up some paperwork left over from Friday but nothing else on the schedule.

So where do we stand at this point?

Well, we are actually on schedule to have this project wrapped up on the 19th. As long as we don't have too much more trouble with the weather, that is. We have 15 more units to complete yet. If we don't expose a lot of featues along the way, its do-able in 2 weeks. If anything should should set us back, we'll still be shutting down on the 19th, to return and finish it up sometime soon after the New Year.

Almost everything along the westen half of the project site is completed. You can get an idea, though, of how much ground we have to cover yet in the photo below. Off in the distance is a small group of trees that the road is headed toward. We'll be done when we reach those trees.

Adventures Since My Last Babblefest

I must say, it has been a rather busy time since my last visit here.

The past Monday turned out pretty much as we expected it would; a nasty, rainy day. After a 2 hour delay we went out to give it a go. Spent 3 hours putting up silt fence before calling it quits out there for the day. As an FYI, silt fencing is that short orange barricade/wall you can see in some of the photos. It basically serves to prevent erosion. For our purposes, it keeps the infertile sand we are digging up from creeping any farther into the farmer's fields than it absolutely has to.

Some of us spent the rest of the afternoon helping out with various tasks that could be done in the hotel. For my part, I helped sort, count, and weigh FCR (fire-cracked rock). We're handling FCR differently here than has been done in previous projects I've worked on. It is not being collected and sent back to the lab. Largely because there is just tooooo much of it. The data is being collected, but the artifacts themselves are being left at the site as part of the backfill.

That evening some of got together in Marlon's room for "Mojito Monday." Here is Chris, our crew chief, entertaining us with a bunch of songs I've never heard before. All in all, though, it was a good performance. :)

The guy to the left in the next photo is Marlon, our host for the night (and who makes killer mojitos by the way!). That's Leon to the right.

Marlon comes to us from Nicaragua. How he ended up here in Indiana, I haven't a clue. Anywho, he's a great guy to work with. And talented too. He also played for us Monday. His specialty is Nicaraguan folk songs. Apparently, he has recorded a couple of CDs and has played live in concert and on NPR. After listening to him perform I have to wonder why he doesn't pursue a music career full-time. He's certainly talented enough to do well.

Tuesday was much more productive. And it should have been since we worked from sun-up to sun-down. Dee and I drew up the profiles for the unit we were working on (after first bailing out the 8 inches or so of water that was in the unit). Then we went to work on the next 1x1 in line.

Wednesday was a short day since we all wanted to start the holiday weekend early. Several of us have a long way to drive to get home and didn't want to stay any longer than necessary. We were out of there by noon (local time - which is 1:00pm Real Time). By that point we (being Dee and myself) were well into the new unit. We should have that wrapped up before the next full workday is over.

Thursday was Thanksgiving of course. Spent the day with family having a good time and pigging out as usual. Also used that time together to celebrate my grand-niece Madison's 10th birthday.

Friday and Saturday were spent making the drive back to Fort Wayne and getting caught up on things after having been away for 3 weeks. Then, too, I had to get ready for being away for a while again. Don't expect to be home again until Christmas. Anywho, nothing special to say about all that. Pretty boring stuff. Until late Staurday afternoon anyways.

Thought I'd go out and run a few errands then, only to find out I had a flat tire. Bummer. So, I swapped it out for the spare and went shopping for a new tire. Problem was, it wasn't the tire that was bad; it was the wheel itself. The rim had gotten bent in a couple of places (probably the result of way too many pot holes in our Fort Wayne streets, I'm thinking!) and the tire wouldn't hold air anymore. To complicate the issue it was, by then, too late in the day to buy a new wheel anywhere in town. All the suppliers were closed. So, I had to resign myself to the fact that I'd be driving back to Tell City on my spare. Not something I was too enthused about.

Sunday ...

Opted to leave earlier in the day than I had originally planned in case there were any problems due to my tire situation. (There weren't. I got to Tell City just fine.) But its just as well that I left when I did. This is what my apartment complex looked like as I was leaving ...

While that kind of stuff might be pretty to look at (which it actually is), its another thing to have to drive in it!

[Those last 3 images WERE taken in color. Honestly! That just goes to show you what the weather conditions were like.]

And when are people going to learn that you have to drive differently in Winter conditions than you do in the Summer?! I counted 8 accidents along the highway within the first 50 miles of the trip today. And 4 of them were even before I had gotten out of Fort Wayne. Geez!

Thankfully, conditions improved as I got further south. Heres a shot of Tell City taken from the parking lot of our hotel.

Rain, not snow, and its 10 degrees warmer. Much better. At least for today anyways.

Forecast is calling for a mix of rain & snow all day tomorrow. That may keep us out of the field for a day or two. Not necessarily a bad thing. That would give me the chance to get my tire replaced without eating into my weekend. The sooner I'm fully road-worthy, the better. I have places to go!!! :D

Project In Full Swing

Everything has finally come together so now we are at work full time on the new project.

We are working along a stretch of dirt road that parallels the Ohio River. This is part of the route that will be taken by a new water line that will extend for many miles. We are only concerned about a short chunk of that route; a little over a mile or so of it. Within that area we have to excavate around 30 1x4-meter tenches and another 130 1x1-meter units down to a maximum depth of 1.3 meters. So far we have 4 trenches and 2 units started, but none finished. It is quite doubtful that we will have all of these done by Christmas as the current schedule calls for.

Anywho ... here is a shot of a small portion of the dirt road along which we are working.

And here is part of the crew hard at work in the trenches.

Haven't really taken many photos of the job so far but we are going to be here a while so lots of time for more as the work progresses.

And, of course, it hasn't all been just work. Some of us took a short road trip to Ferdinand, IN last Saturday. They were having a smallish German Festival and Christmas craft show there. We didn't stick around too late so missed more of the live festival stuff but did check out all the craft booths. We also took a little tour of the St Benedict Monastery which was hosting part of the activities. What a huge place that is!

Moving Along Now

For all intensive purposes we finished up with the cemetery on schedule. A couple of the guys were to go back this week for some last minute details and to wrap things up but I'm not involved with that. I've moved on.

I'm now sitting in Tell City, Indiana waiting for a new project to begin. It would have started today except for the rain which kept us out of the field. Maybe tomorrow. Regardless, I'm still getting paid for the waiting. :D

What we'll be working on (once we get started) will be a mile-long stretch of road along which a new water line is to placed. Of course, this line is going right through multiple prehistoric sites. We are being tasked with going in and removing all artifacts, and collecting other relevent data, prior to its destruction by the the water line placement. We are supposed to be done by Christmas but, given the weather at this time of year, that probably won't happen. In that case, the project will likely be shut down until spring. Either way, I'll need to have a new gig lined up to start right around the holiday season. Ideally it will be somewhere further south but a return to Fort Wayne is always a possibility. I've already started looking at the options a bit.

But for the duration southern Indiana will keep me busy. Except for plans already made, I'll most likely be staying here over the weekends as well. The company I'm working for will pay for weekend lodging and provide per diem so why not take advantage of it. Saves driving time, wear and tear on the car, and puts a little more cash in my pocket.

I'll be back once this job actually gets going.

The latest ...

Our cemetery project is now in its final week. We have 2 days left with 2 burials to finish. We do have a reduced crew now but maybe we can still get done on schedule. Hopefully.

It may be tricky though. I've just finished the 4th day of work on my assigned burial and it is far from done. Its proving to be rather confusing. I've already expanded the unit twice trying to locate the actual burial and will have to do that for the third time again tomorrow. There is evidence that there once was a burial there but we just can't define its exact location, let alone find the burial itself. Its become rather frustrating.

Anywho, I did get a few photos that I can pass along after all. Permission was given to take pictures from a distance so at least I can share enough to show how the overall site has changed since we first started here. Here is what the cemetery looks like presently.

Looks quite a bit different from the last images I posted.

We are working in the tents you see primarily because of privacy concerns. The excavation of the burials is not open to public viewing. But they also helped us a great deal last week when it was cold and windy.

Also, the local Greenwood newspaper printed an article about the project last week. I can't post a link to the actual article because a subscription is required but the photos they took are available online for free. You can see some of what we are doing inside the tents by going to these images ... Image 1 ... Image 2 .

So that is the current state of affairs; Trying to get this project wrapped up in the next 2 days.

As far as I know presently, I'm off to Santa Claus next week. That project was supposed to have begun today but was postponed until Monday. Still waiting for confirmation on that though. If it should get moved back again, well, I suppose I'll be back working in Fort Wayne for the duration. Not necessarily a bad thing.

Impromptu Update

Actually have a few spare minutes so thought I'd pop in here.

Making good progress on the cemetery this week after all. Have some new faces helping us out. And, thanks to the efforts of those who came down over last weekend, we now have 7 completed burials with 5 more underway. This project might be done on schedule after all.

Which is a good thing because my departure date for Santa Claus may be moved up to the middle of next week instead of the week after. I should get the details tomorrow. In fact, there are several members of our current crew who will be leaving for that project; not just myself. So, we really do need to get the bulk of the work here done before this week is over.

The Week's Roundup ....

Headed back down to Greenwood to continue working on our cemetery project this week. Have a lot to get done down there and not a lot of time to do it in. And we didn't get as much done this week as was hoped for. But, gonna back up to last weekend before getting into that.

Spent some time last Saturday hanging out with the geek squad (as some of us often refer to ourselves) for a while. Figured it might be the last chance I'd get to do that for a while since I'm gonna be out on the road quite a bit over the next few months. Took my camera along to mark the occasion. You've seen most of these people before already but what the hey ... since I have the photos I might as well post some of them.

Here's Misty dutifully (Or should that be "excessively anally" since we were supposed to be relaxing that night?!) prepping for her GRE exam (one of the many requirements needed for graduate school).

And, of course, there's Adrienne, whose home we were hanging out at ...

And then there was Sharon and my roommate Shelley (on the right) ...

And introducing Sara, our resident geneticist-to-be, who I don't believe I've posted a photo of here before ...

At one point in the night Sara commandeered my camera and snuck in this shot of myself and Shelley ...

... and she also created this wonderful self-portrait which I promised would find its way onto the internet. So here ya go Sara, so at least a small portion of the World Wide Web can see you at your best ... lol

Okay, enuff of that ... back to Greenwood.

First of all, let me reiterate that there will be no photos posted (or taken for that matter) regarding the rest of this project. Given its sensitive nature, photos have been prohibited.

Here's the situation as it stands right now. Out of 18 burials which need to be removed for relocation we have completed only 2 with another 2 in progress. Kinda puts us behind schedule since we are to have this done in another 2 weeks. So, either we're going to have to pick up the pace somehow, call in more people to help, or extend the deadline. I suspect it'll be a combination of all the above. A few of the students went down over this weekend so maybe they made some headway. And I know 2 more are gonna put in a couple of days next week which will also help. Don't know if that'll be enough though. Essentially we have 16 burials yet to complete with only 10 working days to get them done in. Its possible, maybe, that we'll need to work straight through next weekend to make up some time. Which would be kinda cool actually (to me at least) since that would have us working in the cemetery for Halloween!

Regardless, in 3 weeks I'll be moving on to the Santa Claus project. That is scheduled to last for the following 4-6 weeks. Supposedly there will be a couple of smaller projects for Gray & Pape immediately following that but don't have any details yet.

Will need to start looking at options again around mid-November, in order to keep my calendar full. Lacking other alternatives, there is a project starting up soon in Virginia; a 17,000-acre survey project slated to last 8 months. Will keep that one mind as a possibility ...

And, as a teaser to end this post with, I may be offered a permanent position managing an archaeology lab; a position which I would move into next fall. The current lab manager may be leaving then and I'm told I'm being viewed as his replacement if/when that happens. Lots of pros and cons to taking that position but there is plenty of time yet to mull it over. And a lot can (and probably will) happen between now and then. We shall see ...

Later!

Self-explanatory!

HOO-WAH!

Upcoming Attractions

First of all, I'm all moved into my new apartment. With that minor headache behind me I can move onward more easily with other issues.

Things have progressed considerably faster than I ever would have suspected just a couple of months ago. I've already passed along that I won't be doing the ShovelBum thing afterall since I've been offered a full-time position on the IPFW Archaeological Survey staff.

Though relatively temporary, that position was to have lasted me until well into winter.

Well, not any more ...

My first weekend in Strawtown saw another twist thrown into the mix. The latest development is as follows ...

Starting Monday I will be back down in Greenwood working with the IPFW-AS crew on the Mt Auburn cemetery project. Not sure how long that is going to last at this point. Current speculation has it at 3 weeks but that is quite subject to change. INDOT still has issues to resolve and questions to answer before the final determination can be made.

But, once that project is complete, the IPFW-AS staff is cutting me loose to pursue other prospects. Prospects that they, themselves, have put into place for me.

My new home, immediately following completion of the cemetery project will be with Gray and Pape Cultural Resource Consultants. This is a regional CRM (Cultural Resource Management) firm that does a lot of work in Indiana, Ohio, and Kentucky. I will be working out of their Bloomington, Indiana Office for the time being.

The first project I will be working on with them is a major water pipeline project that will have me staying in the vicinity of Santa Claus, Indiana for the rest of the year; maybe longer. After that, I'm told, there will be a couple of smaller projects that I can take part in as well.

Beyond that, it is far too early to say. I may be able to continue on with G & P; maybe not. If not, there will be other, similar firms with whom I will have established contact with by that time.

Even with all these rapid-fire changes going on, all is right with the world. :D

Strawtown - Part 2

The second weekend at Strawtown was certainly as enjoyable as the first. Got there a little later on Friday than originally intended but that worked out okay. Still got in a little time then before wrapping it up for the night. And there was still all day Saturday to play with.

The thrust of my work for Saturday involved the 2 rows of holes you see in the photo below.

Those are post holes; many of which were first uncovered during the previous dig season. We are assuming that these represent the wall of a structure and were hoping to find the point at which the wall terminated and/or turned. We didn’t actually get the answer to that question. One row seems to have ended just out of sight at the bottom of the picture but the other continues on without end. Both rows also continue indefinitely to the south (toward the top of the photo) as is represented by the colored pins which you can kind of make out heading off in a line upward. As this was the last weekend of the dig for this year, those will have to wait for further investigation until next year. My guess, based on minimal information, is that what we are seeing there may actually be more of a compound enclosure wall rather than a structure. If it is a structure, it is a LARGE structure.

And, of course, others were carrying out other investigations and activities.

Here, Scott is excavating a relatively deep feature that, I believe, he suspects is an intrusive Oneota storage pit.

And in this photo, Colin is trenching and dressing up the southern wall in preparation for drawing the wall profile. Profiling is something I talked a bit about during the field school discussion. This is the task where the differing soil levels are drawn / mapped for future evaluation.

So what did we find while we were there. Quite a lot! We recovered a great deal of pottery, lithic (stone) materials, and animal bone. All of these need cleaning and cataloguing yet before we can fully grasp the extent of our findings. Still, here are a few of the more notable artifacts uncovered.

This is an incredibly well-preserved elk antler.

Here is a talon from an, as yet unidentified, bird-of-prey.

And this is a rather unexpected find. This spear point actually pre-dates the rest of the site by 6-8000 years. A long-held family heirloom maybe? Dunno!

And that is really all I’m going to say about the time spent at Strawtown. As usual time is pressing so need to move on. If ya want to know more, catch me in person sometime, somehow. ;-)

Well, okay, one last pic or three. Yes, we did get in some recreational fun-time again Friday evening. That night’s activity was target shooting with the bow & arrow.

In order, this is Adrienne, Sharon, and Shelby taking their crack at it …

And, of course, yours truly had to play as well ...

Now on MySpace Too!

Okay, I've finally taken the plunge and created a MySpace page for myself. It can be found at the following address ...

http://www.myspace.com/mythic_voyager

If you go there and look directly below my photo you'll see a link named "pics". I've uploaded all the photos from the various projects I've talked about onto that site. You can go there and see them all if you wish, not just the few that I've posted here in the blog.

Enjoy!

Strawtown - Part 1

I had the opportunity to work on the Strawtown site this past weekend. Quite an experience it was. Strawtown is noted for its complexity. It was here that 3 different cultural groups (the Oneota from Iowa, the Western Basin Tradition from northern Ohio, and the Fort Ancient Tradition from southern Ohio) converged, and merged, over a millennium ago. The current project is an attempt to unravel the nature of this cultural merging which produced what is called the Oliver Phase of local prehistory. Work has slowly been progressing on this site for several years now, but there is still a long ways to go.

Here are a few photos to show the area in which I was working.

We collected a great deal of data and many fine artifacts in the 2 days that I was there. I’ll come back at a later time to talk about all of that.

This time around I want to show y’all a bit of the lighter side of things. While archaeological digs can be hard work, with long hours in adverse conditions, there is still generally time for fun and relaxation. And this proved to be a fun weekend!

Following the end of the workday Friday, Shelby, Sharon and I took off for a hike down to the nearby river. Or, as the photos below will show, it would be more accurate to say that we hiked INTO the nearby river.




Afterwards we went back to the site and joined some of the others around the bonfire before calling it a night.




Then, on Saturday, we took a mid-afternoon break to try our hands at spear-throwing using an atl-atl. A new experience for all of us.

So, all in all, it was a weekend packed full of both work and play. Looking forward to getting back to more of the same, hopefully, this upcoming weekend.