A Hard Day's Day

Did you ever watch Dexter's Lab as a kid? Well if you did you're familiar with his phrase "Today is a fine day for science." If you're a bit of a nerd for the show you'll also remember the episode where nothing he does works out correctly and he concludes "Today was not a fine day for science." It's quite an entertaining episode.

Today was not a fine day for science after all.

To begin with, I snapped each of my bootlaces (one of them twice). I lost all my maps to a rogue breeze and then the creek before I'd even gathered one sample. Everywhere I looked was either hosed, a town, lacking clay, or the freaking Caesar Creek Dam (which is all sorts of disruption to the landscape). My primary GPS went down. I ran out of batteries for my backup.

And I just realized something really went wonky on one of my data collection trips (as well as some disagreements between my two GPS units). If what I recovered is correct (As near as I can reason out) I'm not in "good" shape, but at least I'm in "not totally fucked" shape. I guess I can redo some of this stuff from a land based survey and get back to where I thought I was (the problem is that I'm starting to run out of time...).

Grr.

Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley

So, I'm finally getting around to reading Ancient Monuments of the Mississippie Valley (Squier and Davis 1848) "for realsies." For the uninitiated, this was the first book published by the Smithsonian, used to kick start American science being taken seriously by the world. It was an attempt at a systematic survey of the mound groups in the US (focusing on Ohio, the Mississippi river, some of the SE and the Upper Midwest). Prior to this I had been content with flipping through it, looking at the maps (and appreciating them as art, if not for their accuracy in description of the earthworks...since 150 year old techniques don't quite measure up and recent ground-truthing has shown the maps to be a little less than accurate at times). Sometimes I'd browse the articles, but if the maps are suspect, the writings are laughable in general.

However, if I take a step back from being concerned about little things like "reality" and "accuracy" and "out-right racism" it really is a remarkable work. Of course I'm just jealous that Squier and Davis were able to explore so much of Ohio before development had totally hosed the sites (although even in Ancient Monuments S&D lament "At the period when the original survey...twelve years ago, the lines could all be made out. A few years hence, the residents upon the spot [Newark, OH] will be compelled to resort to this map, to ascertain the character of the works which occupied the very ground upon which they stand").

The audacity to think that two men, even if they networked with some local enthusiasts, could within a period of 5 years survey the entirety of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers and their earthworks, as well as conduct enough excavations to satisfy their questions. Bold times my friends, bold times for bold men. What makes this audacity even more outrageous is that their work stood for fifty years before being challenged (and really is the only resource for many of these sites). Were it not for my inability to generate wealth, I'd say I was born 200 years too late, as I can only wish I were able to work on projects on that sort of scale. While I wouldn't want to give up my tools necessarily (carbon dating, all sorts of methodology, etc.), the opportunity...

Reading the book in that mindset I'm just boggled, baffled, amazed, and astounded. Not just at what they were trying (and failing) to do, but also what "used to be." Ah well, it was just too easy for them...they'd never make it a week out at Wildcat. That's where real men are made.

Oh well. We don't get to choose the times in which we live. Still, I really want to find these things poster sized and get them framed: (click for full size)

The Great Adventure

With a name like that, you know it's going to be a pretty sweet adventure, right? Unfortunately, as mentioned earlier, this will be a wall of text, with little to no photographic relief as my camera has failed me. I'll see what I can do to bring something extra to the mix though, there is one photo, but I hid it at the end to insure that you'd read this entire ordeal. A lot happened in the last two days, I'm running it through the editor in my head now trying to boil it down into a 1 entry piece (even though it probably deserves a 5 part HBO miniseries).

Wed. morning...things start out inauspiciously. I drop the canoe on my hand and cut open my thumb real good. It was raining. And there were these ODOT guys hanging out at the launch point (by the time we met, then set up my car at the base of the route and then got back up to the start point they were still there...2 hours later).

But soon we were on our way, and despite a slight drizzle things went well. Keep that slight drizzle in mind.

There was nothing we couldn't handle, I mean at this point we're pretty serious outdoorsmen. We already have one Miami river under our belts, what could it's "Little" cousin throw us that we couldn't handle? Actually? Nothing.

Clay sampling went smoothly, and we got some good stuff. Actually, we got our absolutely best looking sample (no loam, no sand, beautiful color, texture, etc.) from directly under Fort Ancient (which would put it ~ at the Anderson site, I think...maybe South Fort, there are like eighty sites crammed in there). It would be pretty cool if that proved a positive match to some of my samples. First, just just finding a positive match would be great. Second, that would put it in conjunction with a site from the Hopewell culture (~1500 years before Fort Ancient), which would have interesting implications potentially as well. Also, the Anderson focus, which my sites are a part of, are named for the Anderson site which is in this stretch of the river. It would just be very cool. If nothing else it shows why so many sites are in this area, and just one of the resources that were available in such abundance. Okay, archaeology theorizing over.

So, that night we'd made it some 13 miles into our trek...and it was time to set up camp for the night. Oh, remember that rain that started out the day? Well, it didn't stop all day but for a brief period around lunch (which was actually delicious and dryish). It started to get worse and we decided it would probably be a good time to find a place to pitch our tents.

So we pulled into a canoe ground I'd called the day before (who had said it was cool to just drop in, no reservation required). Some 15 year old prick (who we'd interrupted from playing a mean round of Guitar Hero) informed us that because it was raining they were closed. We explained that yes, we knew it was raining, which was why we would like to get out of the river and set up a camp. He, using small words (because of both our obvious stupidity and the fact that he was high as a kite) explained "but we're closed, it's raining." Ben resisted his urge to ask if there was an adult around we could talk to...but grumpily we realized there was no hope and took his vague directions of some other place a bit further down river. I never realized it would be so hard to give someone my money, not met anyone so unwilling to get paid.

So, as it starts to rain a little harder (though at this point we're drenched to the bone, water proof coats no longer water proof) we continue on a ways. Believe it or not, the little stoner actually had pointed us to a real place.

That was closed.

Grr.

The other option the guy had mentioned was getting a motel in town, which at this point was starting to sound pretty good (even if it turned out to be some flea ridden roach motel). So we decided to stash our canoe across the river (just so in the morning we wouldn't run into any of the livery people and fight over our canoe, and to keep our stuff safe...from thieves running around in the freezing rain). We started to hike into town (some unknown distance some unknown direction from here), we ran across an old codger who Ben politely asked direction to the nearest hotel. We were told "not in this town...nearest one is bout 9 miles away."

Goddamn stoner kid...expecting us to walk 9 miles...

But the man, paused a moment, and asked us if we'd tried the livery and campground just over there (he jabbed a finger over his shoulder). We explained we'd tried but the place was locked up tight, and neither of our cellphones got reception (mine had 4 bars but brazenly told me it was for emergency use only. Apparently my phone decided despite blue lips and constant shivering that this was not an emergency). He told us to wait, and called up the owner, who we were told would meet us back at the place (in ~10 minutes).

Twenty minutes later Ben and I were contemplating canoeing the remaining 10 miles to my car at the end of our run or finding some abandoned stretch of river to hide out in and set up an illicit camp. Ben was about a minute from never speaking to me again.

Then Mike came up and saved our lives. Mike, pulled up in his van told us to get in before we froze to death so we could talk over the options. He explained he didn't have any dry ground, but we said it didn't matter, just someplace to set up our tents. Mike immediately dismissed that idea and told us about his buddy who was just getting a Bed and Breakfast ready to open in the next week, and he'd take us there and he'd "work out a deal." So with only a little skepticism in our minds (at this point...yeah, lots of skepticism seeing how the day had turned out) we said we'd check it out (I think I was half expecting a roof with no walls or something).

It turns out that Mike was the Mayor of this town (Morrow, Ohio), and a really nice guy. His buddy, J.P. had set up a little ice cream shop and was opening the bed and breakfast next door. The Ice Cream shop was called Miranda's Ice Cream. With the new B&B it would be called "Miranda's Ice Cream (& suites)." Which is pretty clever I think.

J.P was a life saver. The place had just finished up and they'd set everything up just the other day for photographs. He's an incredibly nice guy, who let us be his first guests, though standing in this nice, new, clean, room dripping wet with rain and mud I felt like a real schmuck. He and his wife got some things in order (getting the coffee set up, the fridge plugged in (not that we used it) and filling the soap dispensers, taking the tags off the shower...like I said JUST finished renovating), and the Mayor ensured us a good deal, and we had the best night of camping set up (cable TV and everything!).

The man had a dryer he let us use, so our "canoeing clothes" weren't soaking wet in the morning (heaven!). The shower was hot (heaven!), and Ghost Hunters/Monster Quest were on TV (amazing). Ben and I ate dinner at the ice cream shop (they make a decent burger, although the girls working the counter (JPs daughters) were giggling the whole time. I guess it's not every day two scientists (at least one of them smoking hot) are saved from certain death by their father. Oh! I forgot the best part!

When Mike introduced us to JP he did by saying "Hey, these are two scientists working on the river, and they need a place to stay." That is the first time in my life I've ever been introduced as such (aside from a friend joking around), it was pretty darn cool. (Being cold and miserable we hadn't resorted to our usual dog and pony show of being vague about our real task...saying "I'm doing archaeology" just ends up opening a can of worms, so it's easier to say "I'm doing a soil survey" which is technically true, but no one is interested in so lets us go on without incident)

Anyhow, Miranda's Ice Cream, in Morrow, OH. If you're ever out that way check them out, I'm more than willing to give them a glowing review, and I'll definitely look them up next time I'm out that way in Ohio (it's a little town ("not quite Mayberry, but close") along the river and bike trail) .

Miranda's Ice Cream

Well, Mike, the Mayor, drove us back to our canoe in the morning and Ben and I were back on our way. He was a very nice guy, who gave us each a poncho (sort of as a joke reminding us to stay out of the rain like normal people do), some really helpful information, his cell number, and an offer to help us out with outfitting any future trips. He'll definitely be getting a copy of this when all is said and done (not that he'd be interested specifically in the finer workings of clay, but he did express gratitude that people were doing research and utilizing the river as a natural resource, and not something to exploit, he's proud that he and J.P. are the (unfortunately) only two guys in town doing the tourism/scenic river business).

I can't believe how lucky we got...a series of improbable events led us to having a really good evening, met some really nice and helpful people (who might even be contacts/partners/resources Ben and I can use in the area for any future work). One of the two of us owes lady luck some human sacrifices in the very near future. Probably me, but I kept telling Ben, he just has to stick with me, I'll take care of him.

Well the rest of the day went smooth as silk, we got our samples, had an easy day of paddling and got home nice and early. So, what does sampling along the Little Miami look like (in comparison to the sampling you saw along the Great Miami earlier?)

Something like this:


This is the only picture we got on this trip, it's just with my cell phone camera, so it's not that great. It had stopped raining today so we fished it out after I got up there since it seemed photo-worthy. It's hard to tell exactly but that's a 100 foot cliff if it's a foot. Okay, maybe 20 feet. Anyhow, so I'm clinging to the edge of this cliff when Ben takes this picture. Thirty seconds later the scree gives way and I was sent hurtling down the cliff face. I hugged the wall like they say you're supposed to in order to redistribute your weight...but I just ended up with dirt in my mouth, and my hands torn to hell.

The wost part is I didn't get the clay, it was another couple feet out of my reach when things collapsed. Oh well. That's your sweet archaeology in action shot for the day. I hope it was as good for you as it was for me.

Terrible News

My camera, loyal companion through thick and thin...

is no more.

It has ceased to be. It's expired and gone to meet its maker. It is a late camera. It's a stiff. Bereft of life it rests in peace. Its electronic processes are of interest only to archaeologists. It's hopped the twig. It's shuffled off this mortal coil. It's run down the curtain and joined the choir invisible. It...is an ex-camera.

It is very sad, and I'm not looking forward to buying a new one (even though it wasn't terribly expensive, still...I'd rather keep the 90 bucks in my pocket, you know?)

In archaeological news today was "Thank goodness my father made me work construction with him" day. Backfill day. Bobcat day. Spent 4 hours tearing around the site returning the site (more or less) the way we found it. You know...except for the giant packed dirt areas it looks pretty much the same. I'd do a photo comparison, but ... my camera you see.

My hands still feel like they're vibrating.

Tomorrow Ben and I have a 2 day canoe trip down the Little Miami for clay gathering. Yes, in 14 short hours we'll hoist the jolly roger and terrorize those fair waters. Yarrrrr.

The Mighty Miami? Tamed.

Today Ben and I set forth from Sunwatch down the Miami. Adventure? Charted. Science? Plotted. Adventures were had, data was collected. Science? We took science by the horns and broke it, tamed it, made it ours.

Everything started tranquilly enough. We dropped the canoe in, and right away had a sample to gather. Bingo. Easy as pie. What could possibly go wrong after this auspicious start? (ignore the fact that this was in fact our second time at this bank...we'd forgotten to lock the car, and so 15 minutes down river had to paddle against the current...and after 15 minutes of no clay decided to grab some clay right at the start point, which we had passed by the first time)




In all honesty things went pretty well for a while. There wasn't much clay unfortunately, lots of the Miami's banks are covered with concrete debris (like those highway dividers) apparently making "stone" shorelines is considered a normal way to dispose of this sort of garbage. For a chunk of the time we were right next to the interstate, which wasn't a particularly nice place to canoe, but we started off away from it, in a nice peaceful zone, then swung towards it, then away again. Only once did we choose to explore a "tributary" or "non-main" channel around a cool little island in the morning. We chose...poorly. It turned out to NOT be an island, but rather a peninsula, so we had to backtrack 100 yards or so out of the little pool into the main stream.

At that point we'd left 75 behind, and there were good pockets of clay to gather, rather...not as many pockets to gather from, but lots of potential areas not covered with concrete debris.



Look at that poise! That skill! Look at me test the soil for clay, and then take a sample! (or at least prepare to take a sample in these photos) Have you ever seen anything like it?

In seriousness, this is the only way to do science. What a wonderful, and relaxing, method of data collection. Sure we didn't cover the 11 miles in 15 minutes like we would have by car, but you can't beat the experience (plus for the "good science brigade" we saw far more clay deposits than we could have from a car, we were able to access otherwise inaccessible points, and this would have been a possible method of traveling to clay sources utilized by the Fort Ancient). All in all...giant win for science.

But the Great Miami wasn't going to let us get off easy. Oh no. There was more in store for your intrepid explorers.



That's right...we were getting into the territory of the dreaded Danger Dam. We entertained the idea of just hitting ramming speed and gunning it, but decided against it. (we had previously utilized ramming speed for hitting the beaches, just like marines do it of course)



It was probably a good idea.

You may notice that from here on out the photographs kind of...uhm. Stop. Well, let me explain why my camera is (at least temporarily) out of commission.

There we were, at about noontime. The Great Miami? More like the pansy-ami river. We'd taken anything it could throw at us (like uhm...the time we ran out of water and had to push). Little did we know that the Nelson Narrows lay ahead of us. Ben had decided (now pay attention, this is important) to grab a bit to eat while we cruised down the river. As he was about halfway through his sandwich we had a choice to make, left or right around this little sand and gravel shoal...we chose the way that was more than 3 inches deep.

Well, it turns out the reason there wasn't so much gravel was the current here was pushing it away, but I discovered my natural ability to navigate rivers. "Stay right! We'll hit a good channel away from rocks!" That sort of thing. We sluiced through fairly well, Ben even had time to take a few more bites of his sandwich (I was looking forward to reversing roles and having my own sandwich as soon as he finished). Then...something went horribly wrong. I called that we needed to stay right, because the current was pushing us straight at this tree that had grown sideways out of the bank about a foot off the water. Somehow, despite the furious paddling which had served us so well for the previous slaloms, our efforts failed to save us.

We managed to turn and keep the canoe more or less straight as we barreled through the narrows and straight into the tree. As the bow slammed the trunk I managed to dive backwards so the tree (more or less) passed over me. For a moment I thought we were in the clear. Then Ben caught the tree, sandwich in hand, full in the face. For a moment we hung there as the water rushed past and the tree held our canoe still. Then the inevitable happened, the current pulled us slightly askew, and then with that little toehold pulled us completely sideways and dumped us over.

The good news was that the water was pretty pleasant, and pretty refreshing. My life jacket turned out to be the best 30bucks I ever spent, as I easily bobbed clear of the tree and dodged our now riderless canoe as it shot past me. And then my backpack shot past me. And then my lunch box. At about this time I was kicking my foot clear of the a limb that had come free with our canoe...then I suddenly realized that 20 pages of data collection were bobbing along the stream in my bag.

As I scrambled after my notes, hauling my bag free from the water and trying to toss it (20 extra pounds of water and all) onto a gravel shoal I saw Ben float past me, feet first, on his back, popping the last bit of sandwich into his mouth. It had stayed dry, and he had stayed cool and kept his priorities in order.

Well we gathered up all of our stuff (luckily it all floated), pulled the ol' SS Nelson upright and set back down the river. I ate my lunch, which had floated (I didn't know that it did that), and it was all good, although Ben got a scratch on his forehead, that we really hope turns into a gnarly scar, with an equally gnarly story. I thought I came through clean, but apparently I caught a tree branch on my arm as I noticed it was all torn up when I got home.

Now this is why my camera is down. It only got a tiny bit wet, but it was enough to (I hope) only ruin the batteries, the card still worked, I just hope I can get it to turn on again with new AAs. The problem is that THIS is the incident I really want pictures of...oh well.

Things went pretty well after that really, although we had to stop collecting clay as we 1) were coming to the edge of my research area of 7km from Sunwatch and 2) all my paper was wet so I couldn't write on it.

We did hit one more rough patch, Schulenburg Shoot. This time, we hit the rapids perfectly, found a deep spot, and were on top of our steering....at least until a submerged rock knocked us sideways. Once more we were at the mercy of the current, until Ben barked a crisp command "Marcus, get down!" And I threw myself to the bottom of the boat, stabilizing us with a lower center of balance and we managed to steer (backwards) through the last attempt of the Mighty Miami to defeat science.

But no, science may experience setbacks, she may unexpectedly capsize, but science can not be stopped.

My god I love my job.

My very own field work!

Alright, photos or narrative? It's always such a delicate balance. How's this...I'll give you a quick narration of the last 3 days and then some photos to illustrate my more exciting stories.

You already know the most exciting stuff, right? I collected from some of the nastiest backwaters I can imagine Monday. Tuesday actually wasn't nearly as bad as I got further from the more developed sections of Hamilton. Unfortunately those are my low probability samples...apparently the same things that attracted the Fort Ancient to Hamilton attracted Ohioans to the area as well. It's almost as if there are common human needs or something. Nah. That sounds heretical.

Anyhow, Tuesday I polished off Butler County, and today I moved on up into Montgomery County and got all my inland samples surrounding the Sunwatch site. Tomorrow Ben and I are off on a little adventure to collect samples from the river proper.

I ran across all sorts of enchanting places...from the picturesque to the grotesque. And collected from them all. The clay is showing a surprising amount of variation, at least in its raw form, it will be interesting to see how it compares when I get it into the lab.

So three days down, and I'm doing alright I'd say, probably a "B" so far, but I'm learning as a go, getting better at identifying what's actually clay, where it's likely to be, and how to get at it. So without further ado...photographs.




Apparently I was supposed to collect here. It's not far from a site, it's at a confluence of the Miami and a tributary...but apparently there's been some modern alteration of the landscape. Concrete isn't a natural deposit I'm thinking.

However, just across the canal there was some (relatively) undisturbed bank left from which to gather a sample. (The photo is boring, it's of grass and mud...I won't bore you with that).



This is just a typical looking cut bank. Nothing special for all of you guys, but to me? This is a wonderful wonderful thing. Look at all that exposed clay (the gray stuff, not the yellow, that's sand...oh and the big rock shaped things that are approximately rock sized are in fact, rocks).


I apparently had placed one of my collection points here, the calm, serene, Rosehill memorial. I decided it would probably be frowned upon to go tramping around looking for someplace to dig a hole. Respect for the dead and all that. I instead skirted the property line and did my work outside. Letter of my ethical qualms, if not the spirit, right?





Taking a picture of yourself while hanging from a tree into a river is a lot harder than you might think. Actually, just lowering yourself down to the clay on a sheer bank isn't that bad to collect clay, but I was hoping I could get a picture showing how impressive I was making it look easy. The loss of a hand makes me look totally incompetent. Ah well, these are the lengths I go to in order to impress, err, please, you people.

My picture of the immense cliff didn't turn out well, or I'd post that as well. Rest assured my friends, it was 3 meters if it was an inch. Okay, it was exactly 3.1m. I know this because of my notes. Yay science! Ah well, you get the picture. I grabbed a leaning tree and lowered myself down until I could jump. To get out I carved some hand and foot holds in the clay and loam (yay trusty trowel!) and scrambled up. That I wish I had pictures of...instead, you'll have to use your imaginations.

Tomorrow, the voyage of a lifetime begins!

Oh! P.S!

I almost forgot Touchdown Jesus! Cruising down 75 between Cinci and Dayton if you look off the highway you will see, as I did, this!




Sorry it's just a cell phone out the window...but you get the idea.

Goooooaaaallll!!!

To be continued

So, I forgot to bring my camera...or take the pictures off of them before heading out to the library today.

In short:

No falling into creeks (good!)

No nasty smelly watershed (double plus good!)

16 mile canoe trip planned for Thursday...uncertain as to the goodness within

Ohio's rivers are flammable...never forget that

No pictures today, sorry...

I was mucking around in creeks, rivers, and random watersheds today in Butler County in my eternal quest to find clay sources. Well, during the course of this I kind of sort of fell into this random creek. Not totally head over heels of course, just a turned ankle, and my legs wet to my knees (and arms up to my elbows as a scrambled out).

Normally this wouldn't be too much of a problem. After all, it's summer, I dried out quickly, and who wouldn't want a nice refreshing plunge into aqua pura while working outside?

I should set the scene for you...and I mean no offense to anyone who lives in Butler County, or its county seat (Hamilton). However, this was the filthiest stretch of water that I've ever seen (not just the Miami proper, but the tributaries too). When the water catches in a little rock pile it foams this disgusting yellow color in places. There is so much trash in this thing that I could probably have build myself a raft and canoed down the length (minus a portage over the dam).

I found this lovely little park nestled just above the dam, you know...one of those quaint parks right next to the historic downtown area. Only...this was somehow different. The smell emanating from this park is worse than anything I've smelled in various parts of Milwaukee, Chicago, or Columbus (I'm talking alleys and stuff...not parks). Along the various party pads (areas cleared of weeds and littered with trash, ashes, etc.) I found a pair of men's underwear...large men's underwear. Skidmarks? You betcha! Thank god I didn't fall in right around there...I'd have gone straight to a hospital if I had.

People are just disgusting...I'll never understand the compulsion to just toss your shit in the water, as if that just makes it all go away (until you get dysentery from the water that is).

As I write this it's getting worse, the aches are starting. Bedtime I guess. (Let's take wagers on what strange disease I'll get this year...I'll start the bidding at...uhm...well I guess I shouldn't be allowed to guess, I have an advantage as I know all my minor symptoms).

El finito (that's Spanish for 'the finito')

Well, it seems we can lay to rest the 'cat. Three summers and we seem to have enough information to (start) answering the questions we've had. I can't say I'm sad to finally write it off...but there's still a little twinge...just a little tug. I learned a lot about archaeology in that field, and hopefully it'll stay protected (although that's pure sentimentality speaking...not scientific judgement). But all things must come to an end...so it's off to other things in the coming weeks. We're taking the show on the road, so to speak. We're going to hit a couple of other sites, doing a bit of minor work at them and I'll have time to run off and do my own thing.

Fare thee well Wildcat.

July 8th Part II (electric boogaloo)

Okay, Background photography completed. If you somehow don't have a feel for where I am...well, I could say something mean to you...but instead I'll offer a "ask me a question, I'll see if I can answer it" deal.

So, what was I up to today?

Zen of course. (I'm all about the zen of archaeology)

It all started with a nice little blobby stain of dark soil (with carbon and those sorts of goodies distinguishing it). Inspection of the area revealed...well, I'm not sure quite what to call it. It's some sort of "heat altered" rock. It's been turned red and shiny (as heating quartz-like stones tends to do) and it's very brittle. The large stuff will crumble if you poke at it wrong.

Some digging revealed the area was bound by this heavy gravel lens...which thanks to some sand and clay had turned to cement. This seemed like a pretty good natural level, it was (more or less) bowl shaped, with some golf ball sized "heat altered" rocks peeping through/embedded in the stuff. There wasn't any carbon or anything "featurey" in the gravel so it was let be...and by noon I had this:


Not much to look at, but an acceptable basin sort of thing.

Poking and prodding beyond the apparent boundary didn't reveal anything featurey in the gravel. In fact, there wouldn't be anything cultural about that were it not for the strange manner of the gravel concretion, and what was under it...

As it turns out those little ping pong ball sized rocks were just a couple nodules of something else...my own personal rock garden:


In a brief explanation of what didn't show up in the picture: jus to the left of center is a rock running ~ left to right. Well, there's an odd stain running to the right and down of that (it forms the slope of the basin) and connects to a small cobble. That's actually the "inside" of the rock, but it's disintigrating pretty badly, so it looks like the surrounding gravel lens. To compound the "huh what?" part of this conglomeration of now very large "heat altered" stones...I'm pretty sure that the two very large ones in the middle of the picture, just to the left of center are actually one huge rock. Also, I think that "line of rocks" going up the left hand side to the top large-ish rock are in fact connected to that top large-ish rock. I'm not entirely unconvinced that this is in fact just one boulder.

Anyhow, my off the cuff interpretations aside (and let's stress that they're just spur of the moment conclusions...which I often make as ridiculous as possible, because it's more fun to do, even if it only is barely based in reality...although in this case i'm not being too ridiculous) this is a nice complex maze of rocks, some clay, and lots of pea gravel and the weird cement-like stuff. I was getting pretty frustrated with it all until I realized: it is the nature of Wildcat to not give up her secrets. The only secrets worth knowing are the ones worth protecting. So muttering other faux zen mantras to myself I just relaxed in my rock garden poking around (and dulling both of my trowels...which reminds me, I should at least pretend to have an edge on them tomorrow).

Photographs: The continuing saga (July 8th update Part I)

Right, I left off yesterday with some general background, but not many specifics. I'll try to finish that stuff off tonight, as well as getting caught up with the activities. Festivities? Nah, probably not. It's a good crew (small), but it's not quite reaching the "every day is a party" stage. Science: serious business.

Anyhow.

I'll begin with the summer of 2007. A fine summer. A fairly cool summer (if memory serves). And a summer filled with "that guy." We all know "that guy," so I won't go into too much detail. To this day his spirit lives on in all of us, motivating us and lightening our souls. Ben declared that in 20 years he'll still be shouting "Get on!" and windmilling his arms. No one will know why he's doing that…but he will. And he'll laugh.

Anyhow, that summer we did a 20m grid on the top half of the field (and a small peninsula down to the bottom quarter) not that those details matter to you. Anyhow, here's one of our old shovel tests. What…you can't see it? It's right there! I mean, it's so obvious that there's no way while thrashing through waist high weeds I could have missed it, stepped in it and turned my ankle, right? Actually it's just a demonstration of how the weeds have come roaring back, even though this section was mowed last year, and the year before…and actually back in 2006 during the first Topo survey/Mag reading/Total Station run

Here's what it probably looked like in 2007:

Anyhow, the year of the shovel tests was good…we plopped down a couple of 2x2s, hit a couple features (juicy stuff, enough to keep an intrepid field student or two excited about the prospects of archaeology). Searching through my archives: a bell shaped pit from 2007 (1.3 m deep). Look at it. Revel in its bell-like nature.

While that's really cool in a "stuff" sense ("Gotta get the stuff! Gotta get it out!" – that guy), we're post hole fishing now, trying to finish off a couple of structures that we caught the middle of…but no edges on…in our trenches from 08. So my life is all about these (no, not the plow scar, the other thing…):

Exciting stuff, eh? Okay, while not visually exciting, or filled with "stuff" it's actually pretty darn cool, and I'm enjoying the game of trying to piece together these little dark circles (when they're real posts, and not rodent runs) to make some sort of structure. As a side note, you can kind of see the clay and gravel mixture here that makes things so wonderful, although none of the famous Wildcat Magnetic Cobbles are visible. The store just up the hill has been tremendously helpful, they've let us borrow all sorts of stuff (like sprayers, a couple years running they lent us an ATV to haul stuff), and have just been everything we could hope for. Every once in a while when we stop in for a drink, or supplies, or whatever, one of the clerks who recognizes us will ask us how it's going. The other day Ben and I (rather excitedly actually) explained that we'd found a series of posts holes. The man stopped…and after a second of thought responded "Post holes? Like what I dig for my fence?" The underlying text being: Really? That's it? Damn kids…get a real job!

Oh, here are the remains of a 2008 trench (filled in by yours truly: The Bobcat-driving, backfilling, bad ass). It's kinda cool how the plants grew back so differently where we backfilled…you can still pick out the 2x2s from 2007 and 2008, as well as the old trenches. (The trench is the strip of tall weeds with the white tops). I'm standing just at the edge of the newly growing forest and the old slash underground creek looking back up the hill.

I can't wait to see what our uber deep trench (okay, uber deep for us…to the OSHA limits or so) will look like in the future… (yes, the datum line is sagging and the floor dirty…but we finished with the trench a while back, it's kind of dilapidated now, just waiting to be backfilled). Look at that awesome break from the A to the B. Although, from this angle you can't see the other cool layers within the subsoil…but I didn't figure you wanted a profile picture with all the stratigraphy illustrated.

Oh, on a side note, I came across some odd tracks in the field…I wonder if it was a deer or something…

can deer drive 30 ton bright yellow front end loaders?

Okay, that's pretty much all I've got…some quick background is all done, a brief update on what we're working on (but none of the top secret stuff of course…after all, it's top secret…let's just say we've got proof of a radical Fort Ancient deer domestication program, it's undisputable…very exciting stuff, going to rewrite every book ever written. We've got top men working on it. What men? Top. Men.)

Photo-Assault!

Right, so I finally have some pictures to share from Wildcat. They're going to be sort of a lot here, as I've got a couple weeks of catching up to do. (pictures are below the description, cuz I didn't feel like making my beautiful wit and wonderful description a mere caption) Oh, and if they're too small to see, click on them and it'll take you to the ginormous images...

First: The setting. You can't start movie without establishing the setting can you?

It's not the easiest to tell from here, but I'm one terrace down from the "top" of the ridges lining the Miami Valley north of Dayton. (The next terrace up is a bunch of strip malls, so it's hard to see anything). I'll hunt around for a better angle, but you can kind of see the drop off to the valley floor, even though it's obscured by a treeline, but more specifically you can see the other side of the valley rising back up. Why yes, that is an interstate, why do you ask? Isn't it scenic? It's not a huge valley or anything, but hey...that's the topography, I can only describe it as it is...Wildcat isn't on the bottom terrace, it's a ways up (vertically) from the Miami River, although the creek that runs along the treeline parallels the Miami for ~5km before finally joining it.



Alright, skewing our view straight down the hill you'll see "Goose Mountain" as the rise just left of center...and a sporting goods store one terrace down from me (these were at one point natural terraces, but of course now they've been developed and highly modified).



From the edge of the next terrace you can look past the treeline and see a clearing (we'll see in a moment that the term "clearing" is being used generously here). Goose Mountain is off to the left now, and you can see a backdirt pile peeking over the treeline. One of many dirt piles.




Okay, and here we are entering the field proper. This was last plowed in ~2003, and aside from random patches we've mowed in the last 3 years it's been left to overgrow free from interference. Another dirt pile is there to the right (actually I was working just to the other side of it all day). The treeline there is ~200m away (If I can remember how that whole Pythagoras thing works).



What's this? A new image from Mars? A false color image from the moon and the new Lunar orbiter? Nope. Wildcat dirt after ~ an hour of exposure to the sun. Words can not express how absolutely terrible this soil is. Moments after exposure and it turns into concrete (the sand/clay and gravel mix is actually not too terribly different from the mixture in a bag of ready-mix). It can soak up water like a beast (as I mentioned earlier) with little effect...when Wildcat gets tired with that trick the water will turn it into a gooey sticky paste that's totally unscreenable. Apparently the soil is so rocky/horrible that not even 5 years of sludge injections were able to make it fertile (info courtesy of Kat Sterner and her brave foray into land use research). The rule of thumb is: if you can work with the dirt...you're in the wrong place. Unfortunately a preliminary survey shows that this abundant clay isn't even that good for use in ceramics (after some cleaning and lots of water I got it to "barely adequate" for working), which is an interesting result to begin my project.


Hmm, I don't want to go into too much more right now, this post is plenty long. I will however end with a picture of me standing where the subterranean river now flows...down where they've let the forest try to reclaim the field. (This picture is kind of staged, since I'm not really working down there anymore, but I did so at the start of the year. Also shown: The Green Bandanna of Revolution (tm) my awesome hat alternates with the headband). That's not the largest/densest of the growth at the base of the hill, but that's where I took the picture, so sorry for your loss.



I love my job.

Three.

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Ready To Go...?

So, I've spent the evening going over some maps, work from the prior semester, and tearing my hair out fighting with ARCGIS...and I should be ready to begin some sampling at Wildcat tomorrow (and the surrounding terrain) for my thesis. I've got some 16 points marked and ready to go, hopefully at least 9 turn out...any fewer than that and I'll be a bit unhappy with my chances of getting match.

Have I mentioned my thesis? I'm sure I probably have...but the down and dirty:

Sampling possible clay sources at a selection of Fort Ancient sites within the Miami Valley and comparison with collections of sherds. The goal: determine where individual sites were gathering their raw materials (in this case clay) and how ceramics traveled throughout the region (recreating a portion of their economy I suppose you could say: ceramics from creation to consumption to deposition (I couldn't think of a good word that started with "c" there)). I'll start at Wildcat because 1) I know have the greatest familiarity with the site and surrounding landscape 2) I won't be mucking up someone else's site if I screw up 3) I won't get lost driving to some of the more distant collection points (and I know where the actual site is) and 4) it's better to have a test run in comfortable conditions, yeah?

I'm pretty excited to give this a shot tomorrow, and of course if we don't have time I'm going to be very disappointed. Oh well, I'm finally (I think) ready...at least I guess. Right about now all that doubt is creeping in ("Am I really there? Am I actually good enough? I sure don't feel smart enough to be doing the thesis thing..."). Ah well, I guess all that's left to do is take the plunge... (is it just me or does life seem to be a series of plunges?)