Look, it's a site!

16DS277 site extension overview
Originally uploaded by texasrobo

That's me sitting on a nice sandy ridge that surely contains some awesome buried deposits related to site 16DS277. The photo was taken from the pipeline corridor, in the location that the site was originally documented. The recorder noted that the site likely continued onto this nice ridge, however, he was limited by the APE. One of our primary goals during the survey in Louisiana was to try and ground truth the site boundaries for the potentially significant sites. Many recorded sites have indeterminate boundaries because of the survey limits, but this isn't necessarily reflected on the topographic quad maps that are used by state agencies to record site locations.
In our case, our main limitation as far as chasing sites was the property boundaries and permitted areas. However, the restriction placed by the "no shovel test" rule, combined with the thick pine needle and oak leaf litter ground cover, meant that we couldn't really ground truth sites very well. This site was an exception because, as you see, it's been cleared and is used as pasture. In the background, however, you will notice a wall of short trees that is a pine timber farm. The site likely extends back there as well, as the ridge continues, but we had zero visibility. I used the fence line as my new site boundary on the GPS.
We actually found some artifacts here as well (photos on the Flickr page or just click below). The area along the fence line had undergone some erosion, which left a narrow linear exposure. I found a small, brushed, sand-tempered ceramic sherd and a tested petrified wood cobble in this area. There were also extensive gopher mounds on the ridge, and I found a grog-tempered, incised ceramic sherd on one of those. That doubled the artifact count from the week of survey.
Last Friday ended up being the last field day, due to limited access to two of our HPAs and two of our sites. We even got done a little early and grabbed some lunch at a gas station/cafe in Keatchie (rhymes with Peach Guy). The lady at the cash register asked if we were with the pipeline, and I told her that we were with the seismic survey. She replied, "Oh, the intellectuals" and laughed, and I smiled and nodded. She mentioned that they were glad to have us out there, because we were helping a lot of people out. That made me feel really good after all of the other nonsense involving landowners.

On a totally unrelated note, I was looking at a link on Colleen's awesome blog (and if you read mine, you probably already read hers, and probably read it first. If you don't, read it because she's out on the academic forefront of archaeology and technology). Turns out that I made a Top 100 Anthro Blog list. I'm sometimes interesting! I'm inclined to agree. Thanks for the kudos!

A first for me

Today, after multiple false starts trying to get a backhoe out to our survey area (much of which was badly rutted and partly underwater), we finally used a roundabout way to get to a nice upland ridge overlooking a creek. Theoretically, this area had already been surveyed and would not have such deep deposits that a backhoe was required (basically, a shovel test can only get you about a meter below the surface). But, it was a nice spot and it was actually dry, unlike the floodplains. SO I have our driver pop in a backhoe trench. It has about 60-70 centimeters of a nice brown sandy loam, and then a very strong yellowish-red clay layer (which would be very old and predating the presence of humans in Texas or the Americas). I'm out there partly to show a bunch of newbies and rusties how we examine and record a backhoe trench. So I start cleaning an area of the trench wall with a shovel, showing the actual clean profile. I go over the different strats and call out depths and such.
Then I start cleaning the whole trench wall. You're pretty much supposed to do this anyway, but depending on time considerations and probabilities and such, I don't always do this. Nothing was obvious in the backdirt and there was nothing in the small area I had cleared. Plus, it had already been surveyed.
As I'm going along, having cleared maybe another foot of wall, I see a cool ferrous concretion in the wall and try to knock it out. When I bend over to try and find it, I notice a piece of what looks like chert sitting on top of the dirt I had just cleared off the wall. "Interesting," I thought and take a look at what I figured was a small gravel. I realize it's an artifact of some kind, look at it again, and "Holy shit, I just found a point!" It's an ugly little Gary point, but it counts. I've never found a point in a backhoe trench (or a shovel test) that was not on a known site. Plus, I had eight people watching when it happened.
We end up doing another trench and a series of shovel tests, mostly just trying to find the site boundaries. We also did a column sample (a small test unit) on the original trench and screened the trench backdirt. All in all, we found 6 more flakes in the original trench, had 3 positive shovel tests that found 4 more flakes, 3 pieces of prehistoric pottery, and a possible point base. I also found 3 more pieces of pottery in a gopher mound, including an incised sherd and a very nice rim sherd. It ended up being a decent site, and we've recommended avoidance due to potentially significant, intact deposits.
So yesterday I talk about the high possiblity area, and sure enough, it produced! It took some looking, but it was there alright. It made up for the freezing mist we had to work in all day.
Tomorrow we head to the South Sulphur River for more backhoe trenching. We're also going to do some more shovel testing on a very large Caddo site that was found earlier this year. It's a lot of hard work, but it's really exciting! I'll try and post some pictures tomorrow.

Catching up

So Thursday (where we left off), the morning started with a heavy thunderstorm blowing through. This delayed our departure by an hour, but I didn't go back to sleep. We got to the project area around 9:30 to a light drizzle and a rapidly dropping temperature. By the time we finished the first mile stretch (11 am) the sky had cleared and the thermometer read 39 degrees. I was having horrible chills in my chest and coughing up all sorts of gross stuff. Walked a little more, then around noon my co-worker made me take a break in the truck. I really needed it, as i was fading and really hurting. She finished up the part we had started, and then we drove over to the "easy" part. It was easy mostly because it was already cleared for overhead power lines, so all we really had to do was walk. Unfortunately, both segments would have to be done as a "walk in/walk out" because the access roads were too muddy to drive.But I soldiered on. Sure, I sat on my screen a few times to catch my wind, and I didn't carry a shovel, but I did over 2 miles on that second segment, and we got it all done. And then I went to the hotel, took some nyquil, and stayed in bed for the rest of the evening!
So the sherd we found on the surface was not alone. All told, we found 7 sherds (including the original) in 5 shovel tests across 60 meters. That's actually a pretty low recovery, and suggests that the site is fairly insubstantial, at least within the narrow corridor where the pipeline is going. But it was something new and different, so I was pretty excited.
On Friday, we drove back and then I cleaned up the sherds so that Mary Jo might identify them. Then I came home, took Nyquil, and watched TV for the rest of the night. Tina went out with work folks and crashed at someone's house. Saturday, we sat together in misery on the sofa. I also went and picked up my new glasses (you can see them on my Facebook and Myspace pages). Not exactly what I wanted, but I'm getting used to them. Need to get them tightened.
Yesterday, I spent most of the day working on a secret project that I'll talk more about once it's finished! I might be slightly more Austin famous after this. Then I watched the NEW YORK GIANTS shock the world and humble the smug New England Patriots. If it couldn't be my beloved Packers, then I'm glad it was the Giants.
This week is back to the TxDOT grind, while Tina does biological survey work in Kenedy County. I'll use my time wisely, I promise, and I'll talk more about the project soon.

The day in review

I saw a water moccasin. It's 50 freaking degrees out and there was a water moccasin all stretched out along a small creek. Mary Jo saw it when it moved it's head and opened it's mouth. We found another way across.
A Caddoan ceramic sherd (my first). Exposed in a tire track along an overhead power line corridor. Unfortunately, we weren't really prepared to dig holes, we were just checking out access points and the project area. So we brought it home and I cleaned it up for pictures and identification, and tomorrow we'll take it back and check out the area more thoroughly. I don't know what type it is, just that it's grog-tempered plain ware with blackening on the inside
I'm pretty sick. I alternate between chills and sweats, and have a pretty nasty cough. Makes it hard to get comfortable. Tomorrow should be interesting, as we'll be working a long day, walking 2-4 miles and digging shovel tests. It might rain, too. Hope we find some cool stuff in our 30-foot wide corridor. And it sure is nice to be doing archaeology again!
Where in the hell am I? A Quality Inn in Marshall, Texas.
PS: I started a second blog to review restaurants from a field tech perspective. Here's the link:
http://texasfieldeats.blogspot.com/