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.