Any professional Historians/Archaeologists on the EB Team? Some questions . . .

[cmacq]

Cmacq, you know I always figured you were digging at Native American sites based on the juicy clues you've left... of course, coming from Nevada where mines and Native American sites is all there is really (besides dirt, rock and more 'dry-heat' -Aliens btw, although Dream Theatre rocks), i am kind of biased. I sort of figure there is no reason to be in the Southwest unless one is an archaeologist sorry all yous peoples- it's a freaking desert (which means you shouldn't be stealing water from elsewhere)! similarly I don't move to the 'lowlands' of the USA and wonder why it's flooding. also, I live where there are Tornados and I look foward to riding one, as the natural course of things go..

anyways, back to the point- am I wrong? do you never do Native American archaeological digs, ect. ? i am guessing if you're done with those assignments you can speak more freely but if you wish to not implicate yourself for all the stalkers about, I def. would understand...

Mostly Salado and Hohokam, with some work at Patayan, Anasazi, and Mogollon sites, and a little archaic, proto-historic (O'odham, Pai, and Apache), and historic; such as it is. As each is somewhat interrelated, I specialize in community and settlement structural and functional analysis, architecture, ceramics, and demographic analysis. I also was forced to develop a good working knowledge of chronometrics. When in the contract world I worked on at least 11 major excavation projects and about 45 minor projects (the use of ‘digs’ is considered somewhat passé by many). As I feel little need to update my resume, it’s a bit difficult to remember every one.

Plus there were a number of side projects. However, I do recall about half of the minor projects did not involve excavations. Right, I’ve also been involved in a number of large scale archeological surveys. Some may note, I’m known to say ‘that’s nice’ and point out that a newbie is standing in the mist of thousands of artifacts when they come running with a newly discovered single sherd, for an excited look see. I think some may honour me with ‘Dream Crusher.’ As a side project I’m also working on an absolutely enormous archaeological survey that incorporates a huge chunk of excavation data recovered over the last 70 years, which is being integrated with GIS. Because of the detailed fieldwork and the method used to organize and address this information we are learning things impossible by conventional means. Although the potential is great and may prove revolutionary as a method of understanding the past, this of course is an unofficial project.

In my present posting, maybe 60 minor projects and about 10 major projects, mostly surveys with a few salvage excavations, and one large scale testing project that lasted several years. I sometimes have to do historic archaeology, as in the current case. Congress in its infinite wisdom decided 42 years prior that all archaeology was historic, and since the US has a dearth of such, anything 50 years or older is historic. Soon the NHP Act (said Nahpra) itself will be historic. As a whale in a rowboat, the prehistoric stuff was only tacked on as an after thought.

Blitz did you get my PM? I’m interested to see how you addressed the EBII Lugi stuff.

CmacQ