Well, this is very late in coming but I really need to thank a lot of people for two amazing weeks in the hot sun at the edge of an arroyo with mosquitoes and gnats and being covered in ashy sand. It sounds awful but it was one of three events in my life that have been the most incredible times I have ever had. So, Gary thank you for you thoughtfulness in telling me about the Archaeology class and getting the gears moving, Barbara at Ghost Ranch for slipping me into the Archaeology program at last minute and the scholarship that without I'd not been able to afford to go. Barbara, you are a sweet sweet woman, John the Crew Leader for being such an great and interesting leader who's a treasure of knowledge and wonderful stories, again Gary for pushing my application through. And most of all Mark who held down the fort at home and did everything that normally we both do in a day, even when he was in terrible pain. Your hard work, patience, and thoughtfulness are acknowledged and deeply appreciated.
First please understand that this story is in amateur words. It is very technical work and I am not about to act like a pro.
The story ... Ghost Ranch is a dream for a geologist, paleontologist, or archaeologist, anthropologist, botanist, and yes, tourist, because of it's incredible amount of the geological activity over millions of years and the fact that it has been scoured away by erosion exposing many layers of soil and rock deposits creating a beautiful display of formations and scenery seen for miles away. It has many areas they know of and are sure many not found of dinosaur bone deposits. A dinosaur and the state fossil, Coelophysis from the Triassic period has been found in abundance there. A recent discovery at the ranch turned up a new species that may be cause for rewriting history of the period. And lastly ancient human activity. Ghost Ranch has many known sites and more to be discovered of ancient native cultures. And there is where I jump into the story.
All of the attendees of the class from as far away as Boston and California, were given the choice to work on one of two sites and/or work in the lab. The first site was deep in an arroyo drainage against a cliff face and many artifacts have been found there. The other site was across the ranch and at the base of a smaller ridge that was out in the open and not a whole lot has been found there yet. Wanting to dive in head first (what's new there) I chose the first site. For the sake of security to these sites I will not be giving any details of the location to protect the site from looting that is very prominent here. Our team was made up of about seven people, most of which were people who've come back each year because they love it so much. I think there were only two of us who were totally new to actual digging. We were led by John Hayden. John has had years of service with the Forestry Service and is now retired from there. However, the man never stops. His love for the region and digging keep him very active. He is an enclyopedia when it comes to soils, plants, native cultures, and history. And he is one of those people who are just plain great. He certainly has my admiration. And I wish I had his devotion to this project and his drive and energy!
The first thing we had to do was set up the site with tarps for shade from the intense heat coming down on us from above and off the cliff face. Then a bunch of equipment had to be dropped in by rope about 40 feet or walked around on a trail that was just a little too long to carry things in. After that John assigned us grids to begin working on. I was place on a grid with the other new man and next to an experienced man so he could watch over us and give us some direction. The whole process of excavating a grid is at times very tedious and time consuming. Record keeping alone is very involved and needs to be to make sense of what is being discovered at the site and how it all comes together after many seasons of digging. After finding something of interest we took a photo of the item where it lay, recorded it on our grid map, wrote a description, wrapped it, bagged it, then logged it into the field record book. Sometimes after hours in the heat writing gets hard and sloppy, memory stops working, and you just want out of the pit and into a cool shower!
We found some really cool artifacts. The most was bone fragments. The site is assumed to be an over night or hunting camp. Multiple "thermal features" (fire pits) sites have been found and bones have been cracked open to scrape out the marrow, a great source of protein. We found a few pottery fragments and several points (a.k.a. arrow heads) and point fragments. The site was also littered with fragments of chert a cousin to flint I believe, and stone tools as well. The chert pieces we found where mainly from Cerro Perdenal several hours journey by foot. But there were also fragments from miles and miles away. I think I was the one (not sure) that found a shell bead. A shell from the Pacific. These people migrated hundreds of miles annually to trade, hunt, and survive.
Layer by layer, centimeter by centimeter we scraped our trowels through the ashy sand in sometimes broiling heat. The tarps protected up from the direct sun but the cliff face heated up and man did it radiate the heat. One morning when we arrived at the site I was climbing down into the arroyo and I could feel the rock face still pushing out heat from the day before. The days were sometimes long an tedious but geez when something cool was found my heart picked up and my excitement reminded me what this time was all about.
The program itself was in two parts, work at the site from 8am until 3, 4, or 5pm depending on our discoveries and sometimes our excitement. Then we had lectures by some very well experienced and educated people and a talk about the days discoveries with the other team at site two. That went from 7pm until ... well, when my body said enough! I'd race home between the dig and the class to grab food and race out. Thankfully, I was fortunate enough to drive the 7 miles home each day to collapse in my own bed. There were a couple days where I was about to quit just because of the grueling heat and body pain from kneeling, leaning down into the pit as it deepened, or laying on my belly to reach the next layer. But like most of the time, by morning I was reaching for a stable object to pull myself out of bed, get strong tea in me, pack a lunch, and head back excited to find more discoveries.
At the end of the dig each year all the equipment gets packed away ... now it's time to pull it out and load it up in the trucks.
You see all the backsides because just in front of them is the cliff that drops to arroyo and dig site.
Down they climb onto the site.
Most of our heavier supplies and equipment had to be dropped down by rope
And our shelter from the direct sun begins to go up
Yup, time to get dirty. My guide Craig from Boston has been at this awhile. He will over see me for the first week.
I am nervous as heck! I am so afraid I'll ruin evidence or destroy an artifact. My nervousness slipped away pretty fast.
Measure once, measure twice and just for kicks measure three times. Each item is marked on the grid map. Measuring correctly and actuarately means that back in the lab all the data can be combed through without guessing. I think it was a compliment that John said he approved of my attention to detail. The mapping and sketching was very fun.
No! I am not sleeping on the job! The pit was on a slope and I happened to get the high side. So as we dug deeper my side deepened fatser. Laying on my belly was the only way I could reach. Yeah, Yeah, that's my bald head.
This was one of the coolest times in my life! I hunted for points or tools many many times by myself and with my grandpa. Not once did I ever find one bit of anything. I broke my record the second day when I found this beautiful transparent obsidian bird point. I'll admit my head swelled just a bit that day. It sure as heck pushed me onwards!
Look close at the paper towel and you can see a small rodent jaw I found deep in the pit. More than likely he died in an old filled in burrow. There was no evidence of him being cooked or burned.
So here's where you can go crazy in the heat. In my hand is a bird bone, many chert flakes and a couple bone fragments. Each one has to be measured where it's found, place in an envelope with all the details of where it was found, then logged into the field book. I think it takes more time to log than it did to scrape a centimeter of soil all day.
This was a super find of mine. This is an atlatl point. You can Google to get the details. It hopefully will be of some help to sort out the site's age. This point was attached to a long fletched stick. The stick was then thrown by a notched stick. It was a powerul and deadly weapon in the right hands.
Maybe you've seen this before. This plate with letters and numbers and directional marker maps the pits depth and location as well as the spot where artifacts might have been found.
This is without a doubt the coolest find. Sadly I have to say it wasn't mine. What you see is a hammer stone in the man's hand and large bone fragemts sitting on top of a work stone. They were cracking bones for the marrow. The women on our team uncovered this great find just exactly as the cook left it hundreds of year ago! In situ! Some one must have left this camp in a hurry and didn't bother to do the dishes!
So, I could show dozens of more photo's but they get pretty monotanous. I went away from this feeling like I had experienced a once in a lifetime event. I am a very lucky man to have had this chance to dig into history. When I think about it five months later I am sort of taken back that I did it! My love for this region and the Native history has always been strong. This dig made me realize that I have only barely scratch the surface of what is available to me here. There a many many new experiences and adventures in this beautiful "land of enchantment". That's a pretty fitting name for this state as far as I am concerned! Now .... onto my next big adventure!
