It's probable that AI and Pepe are off doing research and writing during their summer hours, yes? JJ is, naturally, researching Italia and impala herds. I think AA is making trips up and down the coast of the Pac-NW (at least the last I heard). Here's a couple pics of mft doing a bit of archaeological survey and cultural resource inventory (see Section 106 of Public Law 102-575) on the high Plains.
That shiny or satin sheen stuff you see in the middle photo is either petrified wood or Knife River Flint. The last time it was touched was likely by the AmerIndian who created it many, many, many years ago.
Equally important: great steaks in the evening, especially when out doing the survey in cattle country. All the better with icy-cold beer, too.
That's all. Enjoy the pics.
~mft
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Note: all the little pink flags in the bottom photo indicate where a cultural stone flake (or what we call a lithic) was found on the surface.
Nice pics, MFT -- but it does look desolate out there. Gives a new meaning to the phrase "in the middle of nowhere". Any animals or birds in that no man's land, or just rocks and tufts of grass?
It was about mid-afternoon, and hot (90+ degrees), so fauna would've either been around the creeks and certainly the shade. We see them out in the earlier morning, and I know they come out just before dawn. This last time out we saw plenty of antelope, and some deer. Birds are common too, and mountain lions have been increasingly working their way back into the Prairie/border-Badlands.
It's really only the middle of nowhere if thought of that way. I enjoy cities, but I know some of my fellow Dakotans start getting a bit claustrophobic after spending a week in the concrete jungle -- there's no room to spread your arms and elbows out. Plenty of fresh air out here too.
There is layer upon layer of human inhabitation out here, stretching back at least 12,000 years. The stuff stretching back across millenia requires digging. All of it is just a matter of looking for the right rocks, and in the right areas (atop mesas and bluffs, or down in creek beds, ephemeral or running). Keep your nose to the ground.
Keep on diggin', man! Sound slike fun, if you look at it the right way. BTW, where do you put the goodies? In museums? University storage areas? Ebay?
The "goodies" (to use an AI term) end up in a variety of places. It all depends on the contract, but we often just identify, GPS, photograph/draw the artifacts in the field, and leave them so the next team of archaeologists can re-locate the site if needed. In other cases (when we dig test units for example), the artifacts are usually curated with the state historical societies of the respective state. They are stored there, but the artifacts themselves belong to a variety of State and Federal institutions (for example, the Bureau of Reclamation, various Depts. of Transportation, etc.). Also, if it's private land, we return the artifacts to the land owner, and suggest if they want to donate them to the State Historical Society (which I'm a big fan of).
I understand the joke, but more seriously I think it's kind of weird when folks pay money for artifacts, or put artifacts on e-bay. The artifact is almost completely meaningless when it's taken out of its physio- and geo-graphic context. A lot of times artifact hunters will ravage an area to get a few artifacts, and spend more time and money on the whole process than what he or she could have made doing something else (not to mention disrupting the bigger Archaeological Record that we're continuously trying to piece together).
Museums still sound like the best ultimate place to put the creme de la creme of such artifacts. Rather see a thousands-of-years-old spear or cave painting than a crappy Jackson Pollock "painting".
Yeah. And with museums, it gets into issues of managing space -- so many artifacts, prehistoric and historic treasures, but where to put all of them!
Here's a virtual tour link to the museum of the State Historical Society of North Dakota in Bismarck. Kind of cool.
Just googled Pollock. Is he just letting paint drip on a canvas?
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