This morning I was able to recover a nearly complete corrugated pot at a site in the park. It had begun to erode out of a small site from what looks like the floor of a pit/house structure cut into the wall of a dune. We recovered the vessel in-tact and full of sediment. Hopefully I will be able to recover some seeds or organic remains from the sediment. To remove the vessel I excavated around it and with the help of the fossil preparers we wrapped the pot in foil and plaster. We were then able to lift it and sling it in a cargo net for the hike down the mesa and into the truck.

The process ended up taking most of the day. But hopefully we'll be able to get some good information about it.

So... sorry for the absence. I have been trying to get some hiring done and spent last week at the Society for American Archaeology meetings in Honolulu. The conference turned out to be a good one. I got to see many interesting papers, although there wasn't much in the way of Paleoindian or geoarchaeology papers. Waikiki was a little touristy for my tastes, but once you got out of Honolulu the island was very pretty. I'd like to go back for a real visit someday and maybe hit up some of the less developed islands.

We tried a little re-shoot photography at work today. The first image was taken by a paleontologist named Charles Camp in 1921. The second shot was just a couple hours ago.

 

It is a pretty striking example of what 92 years of erosion and probably a little bit of looting can do to a site.

We had a few snowy mornings lately, but it seems to be warming up. Here is a shot from just up the road from the office.

I got a call yesterday evening from a sheriff in a neighboring county about some human remains. As the only archaeologist for hundreds of miles I occasionally get called out for this type thing. So this morning I got up early and grabbed my gear and headed out to meet him. While out there I was shown a very interesting site. There is quite a bit of scattered artifacts on the surface of a dune ridge, but eroding out of the side were a series of rectangular adobe structures. In two cases they appear to have entry ways. There is also burned adobe and one has an upright post set into the walls. There are currently no trees for probably over 20 miles.

In this shot my field book is leaned up against some burned adobe and behind it the wall alignment can be seen (the corner of the structure is in the center of the photo). The dark stain to the left is ash and charcoal in the entryway.

Here is a shot of one of the other structures. Again my field book is against the outer wall, to the left the structure interior corner is easy to see with the entryway above it.

The land owner was a really nice guy, he would love to see some research and excavation happen out here. Now I just need to talk somebody into it....

Stuck in the office today watching the snow storms roll up from the Mogollon Rim. It snowed last night and has been bitterly cold. They closed the park for most of the morning. Here is a shot from just outside the office of the next storm sweeping up.

We had a rock art recording trip last weekend. It rained off and on the night before and almost all day Saturday. It made for some very muddy conditions and it was almost impossible to see the petroglyphs against the wet rock. But we did find some interesting new glyphs at a previously recorded site and a new panel of cowboy glyphs. So despite the cold, rain, and mud it was a pretty productive day.