Highbanks and river romping

Over Thanksgiving break mother and I went out to Highbanks to the Nature Center to take a closer, hands-on look at the artifacts that are there. They were artifacts from Baby's excavation that are on loan from OHS.

I really wanted to see if there was basal grinding on any of the points and I did feel grinding on all three, most noticable on the broken point. I also examined the pot sherd more closely and will hopefully get some more information about my observations soon. The sherd is grit-tempered and may be from the base of a vessel or the side-piece of a very large vessel due to the very slight curve. There is a dark coloration on the interior surface which suggests it was used for cooking. There also seems to be burnt sections on the broken edges. Mother suggested this was from oils on hands that had touched it over the past 50 years. I think it may be that the vessel broke in the fire while cooking and that it how broken edges were burnt. In any case the Highbanks staff (Elizabeth and Debbie) were as wonderful and helpful as always. I love bouncing ideas off of them and getting their input on my project.

A few days later, on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, mother and I decided to go to a chert outcrop suggested to me by Jim Murphy. This was located along the East bank of the Olentangy River, North of Highbanks. I invested in some fishing waders and got to it. The River was pretty high and rather fast on Saturday so I had to be careful not to fall. The tributary river that the outcrop is visible at was beautiful!

We collected a bunch of samples of chert and had a wonderful time. Stay tuned for the results of the chert analysis!

earthworks, embankments, and walls

A few little updates for this week. I am currently working on the Theory chapter of IS and it is going pretty well so far, which could either be a good thing or horribly awful because I am overlooking something very important. There are only a few more days until I return home for Thanksgiving break where I will be visiting Highbanks again, this time to look at the artifacts on display there. I actually get to have the case opened and touch them!!!!

A little more about the theory chapter:
As of right now I am discussing the various theories on the purpose/usage of earthworks. I am looking at the latest theories, starting with Prufer. The main ideas that I am coming across are "Vacant  Center" theory, also known as the "Dispersed Sedentary Theory", The "Corporate Center Plan", "Central Place", etc. The main theory that I will be working with will most likely be the "Vacant Center" theory which basically says that Hopewellian communities made up of single- or multiple- family households are scattered across the landscape but concentrated around the centrally located burial and ceremonial precincts. These precincts are not directly occupied and coincide with the "Hopewell mortuary cult". It is implied by Prufer that the hamlets that surround the centers constitute as a community, hamlets are self-sufficient. These ceremonial centers are vacant only in the sense that there is no permanent residential population. The centers, with their surrounding 'communities' are then scattered along rivers.

It is an exciting chapter in that I now get to explore the function behind the Orange Township earthworks in a broad and narrow scale.

Stay tuned for more updates!!

A call for help!!!

This is a mini call for help

I am trying to identify the projectile points which were excavated in the 1951 Baby excavation at the earthworks. Right now all of my IDs are coming up as being Archaic. This is a slight problem since this site is supposed to be Late Woodland. Hmmmmm... does anyone have any ideas about these points?

These three pictures were taken at Highbanks and are as close as i can probably come to them, this is all I got !

If anyone out there has any ideas please let me know!

Thanks !!!!

Updates for begining of November

Just a few updates to start off the month.
Currently I am in the middle of labeling all of the artifacts. It is a very long and tedious process that is taking a good chunk of my time. I am struggling with the labeling supplies that I have to use currently and battling with Paraloid B-72. This is the base coat for all of my labels and then the writing itself is done with India ink and a fountain pen...torture really. Labeling artifacts must be a level of hell Dante forgot to put in.
Any way, I am on artifact 460 and have a few hundred left to go. Mother was ever so wonderful and helpful by coming in last weekend to help me label a couple hundred artifacts! Where would I be without her?
Here are some other updates that are important but that I don't really want to go into very much:

• I wrote and submitted Chapter 1 of thesis
• I was denied Copeland Funding which translates into not having the funds to do more carbon testing
• I am working on my Theory chapter, specifically looking at mounds and earthworks
• I am in the process of organizing my other chapters and research plans for the chert which I will probably do some statistical analysis on as well

Stay tuned for more updates!!

Gallivanting in the river!!

This weekend was my Fall break so Mom and I went back out to Highbanks!! Debbie and Elizabeth were nice enough to give me a ride out to the river (Olentangy) on the tram/trolly car thingy. It was a short hike out to the river and Mom and I got to work right away. We were hunting for chert.
I was looking specifically for chert chunks large enough to do a little experimental archaeology on. I also wanted to know what kinds of chert were weathering out and into the river locally. Mom and I were out about an hour and a half and collected four large zip-lock bags full of chert. They have yet to be washed or looked over but that will be done tomorrow, along with A LOT of labeling. This new batch of chert is simply a sampling that will not be included in the final collection for OHS and is merely a way for me to get a better idea of local cherts and to do some flint knapping.
In the lab tomorrow I will have a few Intro students washing and labeling chert. There is still about 3/4 of the collection to be labeled. It is a tedious process but one of the most important.
I will try and take a few photos tomorrow of everything that is happening and post them later in the week. Other than the lab work I am writing feverishly to try and get my literature review completed and my first chapter polished.

Little update

In the past week or so I have been working on writing on my IS. I have done a little bit of lab work but right now I am waiting on the arrival of my labeling materials/supplies. I ordered them today, hopefully they should be here by early next week!
We identified two pieces of fired clay in the collection, one piece has a chert flake embedded in it. This further supports the idea that these pieces of clay were fired accidentally in a fire, possibly one used for heat treating chert.
My radio carbon/AMS dates came back from Beta Analytic, it turns out that the charcoal from unit 1 is less than 100 years old, sad but not terrible. It would have been nice to have a really old date to correlate to the site but we figure this was from a lightening struck tree or something of that nature.
Prof. Kardulias and I discussed how I am going to analysis the chert and I plan on doing some calibrations and measurements of a sample of pieces, perhaps separated by chert type. This data can later be inputed into SPSS (a statistics software).
Labeling will come first however so I am just waiting on the shipment!
Stay tuned for more updates

a new round of books!

hello all! I have been to the library yet again and acquired a new set of books for IS. This brings the total of books so far to 26 books! I am writing up a bibliography for Monday and I am sure the list will grow with time. The girl who was checking out my books at the desk today just laughed when she watched me struggle down the steps and up to the counter with my duffel bag full of books. They were super heavy and I contemplated buying one of those metal carts that bag ladies use for my future library trips.

A few updates:

• washing and preliminary sorting of artifacts and debitage is complete
• the fist phase of sorting all of the chert flakes is complete
• We found a piece of baked clay, this is not a piece of pottery, perhaps it is from clay that was too close to a fire or something else that is yet to be determined.
• Copeland Fund proposal was filled out and submitted last week!!
• Beta Analytic lab received my sample and the results should be in around the middle or end of October.
• Writing continues with the methods chapter, problem statement, bibliography. I have outlined pretty much all of the IS, now it is a matter of filling in

Stay tuned or more updates!!!