The Last Road Trip

I'm sitting next to Fanya's gate at ABQ "Sunport" waiting for our flights to come in, and I can't help but be surprised at the MANY things that have happened in the last 3 weeks. Has it really been 3 weeks? It seems much shorter. All of us are a little in shock, I know, that it's already the end of June.

There have been many lessons learned, even not about archaeology, from this field school. I feel like I definitely fit in within the archaeological world, and for this world to be rewarding, I need to take more personal time to delve into subjects I find interesting in the field. For example, the readings that we had for this field school were informative, but not very long; and I find myself hungry for more information either about the sites, projectile points (which I'll start reading about this weekend), and the prehistory within the Good Ol' USA.

Also, you'd be surprised how close prehistory is (15,000-10,000 YBP) while just striding around the landscape here. We found out yesterday that the ground had only risen a foot in the last 10,000 years. So ridiculously recent. Walking around the top of the Horace Mesa, eyes down, you easily come across points that were made thousands of years ago. At this point I definitely feel a connection with the people who once lived here, although the world they lived in was much different than the New Mexico we see today.

All in all, I'm glad to be going home, but I will never forget the bonds that I made with the people here. I hope that as I move through my last year at Cal, and into the archaeological world, I stay in close contact with my new friends, and that we all endeavor to use the knowledge we gain to our best advantage.

I promise, now that I'll have nothing else to do, to finish the last few posts of this blog. I need to cover: our camping trip at Mule Creek (3 days), Thursday the 10th, Friday the 11th, Weekend in ABQ (visited old town), camping trip at Redondo campground near Valles Caldera (3 days), Thursday the 17th at Deann's Site (Folsom), and Yesterday, packing and Final at Steve's. It's a lot but I WILL get through it :) My journal is in my luggage or I'd do it now...

I'll end with an altogether heartwarming and hilarious email from Steve that he sent this morning as a goodbye to everyone, just an hour or so before I got him to sign my textbook. Just to give you a taste of how awesome a professor he is.

Subject: Goodbye geoarchaeologists

From: M. Steven SHACKLEY

Date: Jun 19, 2010 5:26 am

Message:

I hope you've all learned many concepts of geology and archaeology that you never expected to encounter. As you go through your academic life, you'll generate some stories of your own. Perhaps the best experience to take away from the Stone Tools in the SW class is that in archaeology we must work together, even when it's hot, dry and unconfortable and your bunk mate is driving you nuts. If you go into academia, this is crucial. With great intelligence comes complexity, and sometimes this complexity generates consternation. If archaeology is it for you, cooperation is the necessary element.

After that, have a good time. Remember, Doc Haury said that archaeology is the most fun you can have with your pants on! Reminds me of the story of a collegue that thought he had a snake in his tent and came jumping out of his tent with one leg in his pants - well you had to be there.

I'll be on and off campus during the next academic year. From now on you're never a stranger.

Sweetwater Steve

A note to everyone

Dear Family and friends,

I'm so sorry I haven't been writing very often. I REALLY want to be writing an amazing blog for you all to read, but I literally have had NO time to do so. Last weekend I spent re-cooperating from the first week, and now I just want to curl up in a ball and sleep after what's happened the past 3 days. To recap, I went to Mt. Taylor's surrounding area on Friday, which I have started to write about, and the past 3 days were spent at Jerome Ranch, Stafford, NM where there wasn't any phone reception or internet (which I thoroughly enjoyed, actually). We camped there, looked at about 5 site on Tuesday, and on the way home today looked at another site. So... I think I really need to precess my thoughts before I can do my camping time justice on paper. I'll hopefully finish the entry for Friday tonight, then talk about Monday-Today tomorrow. Please keep checking back every once in a while, and I promise I'll have more for you to read and see!

-Lizz

Camping Trip! (Monday)

Today we just drove from ABQ (Albuquerque) to Mule Creek. The drive took a while, though. Mule Creek is in the south western corner of the state, while ABQ is closer to the northern part of the state. Needless to say, it was a really long drive.

Once there, it was so hot we were useless for most of the day. They weren't really expecting us until the next day, but we were still allowed to set of camp (thankfully we weren't turned away).

We basically hung out that day on the deck since it was so hot. We played B.S. (card game), and sat around talking. We all wanted to sleep because of the heat, even though we hadn't really done anything that day but drive. We had stopped once for lunch, and another time for gas. It didn't take me long to decided that the entire area where we were reminded me of the hills around Pittsburg, and all around Mt. Diablo. The view of hills in front of the deck looked JUST like the hills behind my house in Pittsburg: the same golden yellow. The heat also added to the feel of home. As you might guess, I felt very comfortable being in that area :)

We ate some chicken stew and salad for dinner (made by the woman in charge) and we bussed our dishes, even though they were plastic, for reuse. There was a lizard that kept crawling around the wall (we soon got used to it), and a bird's nest in a rafter above the deck. The deck was where we constantly were because it was the only shady part of the property besides our tents, but our tents were stuffy and hot. So we basically hung out in that one spot if we weren't walking around. At twilight, a few of us decided to take a walk up the road to the main highway, which was probably a mile or so. We saw an elk on one of the other properties just outside of the Jerome Ranch gates, so I attempted to take a picture of it. However, the light was too weird for it to take a good picture. On the right is what I could get. Also, the sunset reminded me of the sunsets at home, above hills with lots of clouds.

First Weekend: Hibernation

Once again, I'm writing this long after these events happened.

The first weekend was really relaxing, and not too much happened. I mainly sat in my room working on my journal all Saturday so that I could turn it in. It was 102 that day, so I neither wanted to go outside, or even move from my room.

I did laundry (so I guess I did move a little), and while doing my journal I watched Northanger Abby

and Mansfield Park online. There's a girl who's 2 years younger than me on the trip, Katie, who LOVES Jane Austen just as much as I do, and I planned to let her read my sequel to Pride and Prejudice as soon as I finished it. She had inspired me to look at the 2 Jane Austen novels that I knew nothing about, and I must say that I liked Northanger Abbey better than the two. They were very different from P&P or Sense and Sensibility, and I hope that I can read the books sometime this summer.

Sunday I don't even really remember what I did, but it involved much of the same thing as Saturday. I watched the rest of Northanger Abby and watched Shakepeare in Love on Netflix. I'm pretty sure a few of us went out to dinner at El Patio for dinner, which has some of the spiciest enchilada sauce I've ever had. It makes me sweat, but it's so good! However, that's pretty much how my weekend went.

Last, I had to pack for camping the next 3 days, so I spent the evening doing that instead of zoning out. I also watched the sky which was experiencing lightning without the rain, and the sunset was amazing because of it (below).

Mt. Taylor area: East Grant Ridge and Horace Mesa

(Mt. Taylor)

Writing this a week after it happened, so I will try to keep it as accurate as possible :)

Today we went to the Mt. Taylor surrounding area to look at more deposits of obsidian. We hit two different sources: East Grants Ridge and Horace Mesa. More details about the particulars later, but I'll describe the day from a non-academic point of view for now.

The drive wasn't too bad, started at 8:30 AM and got there late morning. We first stopped at a camp ground at Lobo Springs, which is kind of in the center of the two places we were going to visit. It was nice because it was shady and had picnic tables for us to sit and take notes. By this time the GSI had tightened the reigns on what we take notes on. Basics are who, what, where, when, and why, but it seemed like our eagerness to get this information was keeping us from actually listening to Shackley talk. We attributed the GSI's sudden strictness on the fact that field schools she experienced were much more strenuous than the one we were doing. However, we were all so exhausted from being in the heat every day that despite the lack of actual digging, that we felt we were getting worked too hard mentally. It was nice to just sit, listen, and catch up on thoughts during that first stop in the morning.

Now, the day before I'd only picked up obsidian nodules the size of silver dollars, but today was much different. We first went to East Grants Ridge (the side of a mesa east of a town called Grants), where we parked at the site of an old perlite mine. Why mine perlite? Because it's used in many potting soils (the white chunks) and plasters. Pretty cool, but we weren't there to look at perlite. Perlite houses nodules of obsidian until it erodes away, and the obsidian becomes exposed.

We walked over the landscape (Dio mio it was hot) and right to the edge of a huge erosion slope that had formed. The ground was literally littered with obsidian, some it the size of my fist. I actually grabbed one of these since it was a goal of mine to get something that large. It was just big enough to be impressive, but small enough that I could carry it on a plane :)

There were also what are called "obsidian needles", which are nodules that formed in a stretched, instead of spherical shape (at right). As we started hiking up the slope, it was gravelly with obsidian scattered everywhere, but when we reached a certain point (and at this point I was winded) you couldn't avoid stepping on the obsidian that was everywhere. If you want a goal when you come to New Mexico, go to one of these sources and check it out, because it's a beautiful sight in some ways.

(My good friend Fanya, Monica and Wyatt in background)

Some people decided to stop halfway up and debate continuing. The slope was pretty steep and we weren't all good at hiking, so half of us debated while the other half pushed ahead. The professor said it was not required to hike up there, but I was determined to finish the climb. There were a lot of bushes to go around, and most rocks slid when stepping on them, but when we finally got to the top the view was amazing. The cars looked like specks down on the road (below) while we could see everything for miles ahead (right).

At the top there was a huge hunk of perlite jutting out from the mesa (right) with black streaks in it (below, left). These streaks were non other than obsidian nodules embedded in the rock. In a few thousand years when the rock erodes away, those nodules will fall to the floor and begin to erode down the mountain like so many had before them. We took some pictures while there, then we had to get down. The easiest way, though what seemed like the scariest, was to go down a steep slope of sediment. I was scared at first, but the larger steps I took the faster I got down. It took very little work, and was just like walking. Such a strange feeling: walking but falling. My shoes didn't like it so much, though, because they filled with dirt and finally became my not-so-nice exercise shoes. They were over a year old so they were due for the demotion. Fanya is shown below, right sliding down the hill!

(From left: Valerie, myself, Cristina, and Jake)

After that, we went to Horace Mesa. This was not too far away, and instead of going to the side of it, we drove to the top. It was a strange feeling being high up, but on a completely flat surface. The place was covered in a red-brown dirt, so it (like a lot of places we visit) looked like Mars with trees. The way the mesa had formed was that basic lava (basalt) flowed steadily out over a layer of obsidian-rich lava, and now the obsidian has "floated" (as Shackley said) to the surface of it. So although there wasn't a lot of obsidian around, it was present, and we spent quite some time looking for un-worked nodules.

It was very cool wandering around the area and coming across projectile points (arrow heads) just lying on the ground. Being the archaeologists that we are, we picked them up to study them, but we put them right back where they were. If you ever find arrow heads, just leave them where they are, because you never know if someone will want to do an excavation where you're standing.

There were also animal bones everywhere, bleached by the sun. One was a near-complete deer skeleton that had its vertebrae still sticking together. It was VERY cool. We were there to look for obsidian, but finding bones is really entertaining for most of us, especially one of the women who wants to be a zooarchaeologist.

Below are all the rocks I found this day!

It was a long day of looking at things, and it was Friday so our journals were due the next day. When we got back, it's all we worked on, and we had an end of the week party in the room next door. It was really fun! We had margaritas in the southwest/Mexican theme that we were experiencing. Go Bears to the end of the first week, and the first post I've finished in a while!!! I didn't have any pictures for Horace Mesa because I left the camera in the car, but I'll leave you with this beautiful lizard that we saw from the car!

Bear Springs Peak/Creek, Jemez Mountains: A REALLY Bumpy Ride

Today we took a drive to, and in, the Jemez Mountains to look at volcanic domes that created obsidian nodules ("Apache tears"), pearlite and quartz. We started at 8:30 this morning, and we just got back at 6pm. It's been a really long day, but an awesome one. This will be mostly pictures because it was a little dull--just hiking--but the rocks we found were spectacular. The ride there was probably one of the most entertaining rides in a car I've ever had.

The ride took about 3 hours. Maybe 1.5 hours to get to the mountains, and 1.5 hours to get to where we were starting our hike (close to the Carnovas Canyon Rhyolite domes). The second leg was, in a way, terrifying. But that was only because I'd never been off-roading before. I use the term "off-roading" liberally because we were on a road, but it might as well have been off of the road, too.

Driving up and down mountains on a road with rocks protruding, pot holes at least a foot deep, and bears running across it was interesting to say the least. If you've ever been on the ride at Disneyland for Indiana Jones, imagine that kind of jerking around , but instead of being led around on a track, there's actually someone driving. The first few minutes of it was not fun at all, but after a while I got used to the rhythm of it, and we would say things like "That was a good one!" if we got jerked around particularly hard. I wouldn't be surprised if my butt were sore tomorrow from the bouncing around, but it was actually REALLY fun (besides the fact that we were scared for the car)! Note: the guy to my left, Jake, is exaggerating just a little bit, haha.

When we got to our stopping point, we ended up having to wait for the other suburban, because Celeste, the GSI, had made a wrong turn and started driving past where we were. During that time, we scoured the land for any obsidian or artifacts we could find, and believe me, there was a lot to find without digging. There was an old mountain camp that was deteriorating, including 3 different log cabins in about an acre vicinity to each other. The roofs of all of these had fallen in, and so we didn't walk in them, but around them were rusty cans, bullets, and some not-so-old bullets. We were assuming someone was doing target practice out there or something of that nature. I don't know how long we waited, but it might have been about an hour. When the other car finally came, we sat down and had lunch.

After lunch was a lesson on how to match GPS coordinates to a 7.5 minute Topographical map. This was really interesting because I had very little experience with maps and mapping, let alone finding my location on a precisely laid out map. It was very cool, and when we found ourselves, the map was labeled with the camp that was no longer in use. The map was something like 50 years old, so the camp might have even been in use back then. Once the lesson was over, we got set up to hike to a series of volcanic domes that had once been active, and had geodes of quartz, nodules of obsidian, and perlite, a composition that houses formed obsidian.

We off-roaded on foot to one of the domes, climbed the south-eastern side (as far as I could tell), and everywhere there were these bulbs of unbroken geodes scattered across the ground. Shackley (the professor) broke open a few with his rock hammer, and they were full of quartz! Surprise! Then we climbed up and over the dome, to the north-western side of another dome, where there were "Apache tears", or tiny nodules of obsidian, scattered all over the ground. These were here because the perlite that made up most of the dome was eroding away, allowing the obsidian to come to the surface. Also because of the erosion, the nodules of obsidian were rather small. On the right, this shows that most nodules I found were smaller than a quarter, although a few were slightly bigger. On the left, this is a geode that Shackley broke with his rock hammer. Inside is all white quartz.

Shackley did some flint knapping (working the stone to make something out of it) and demonstrated how nicely the obsidian broke into a flake. Below is a picture which shows that the glass is such good quality that it reflects light in a rainbow. Very cool. The rings at the top indicate the area where Shackley struck the nodule (also known as the proximal end). Because of the high quality of this obsidian, Native Americans from all over came to this place.

A story that Shackley told us was about the peoples of the Zuni Mountains. The Zuni people have a language that is like no other in North America, and they sing many songs in their own language. However, they also had a few songs that were sung in what they thought were gibberish. This is because the songs had been passed down from generation to generation without explanation of where it came from. They sang these songs in a song-circle with Natives from the Jemez Mountains, 100 or so miles North of the Zunis, and the Jemez peoples knew the language! Turned out that a long time ago, there had been a connection between the two peoples, which had been long forgotten. This is proven in that people from the Zuni mountains mostly used obsidian from the Jemez Mountains (where we were today).

The hike back was nothing, since we were actually not that far from a road. Shackley had just brought us off-road I'm guessing to make it hard/show us the domes. On the way back we stopped at the Ponderosa Winery, and tasted some wine. I obviously couldn't buy some due to my age (grumble, grumble...) but there was a cute dog that all the non-21-year-olds were playing with. His name was Ralph, and he reminded me a LOT of Belle. A bunch of us kept taking pictures of him, which I'm sure happens all the time. It was adorable :) I was sooooo tired by the time we got back that I just sat staring at my computer for a few hours and was knocked out by 11.

More to come soon! I haven't written the past few days, but this was possibly one of the most interesting days this week.

Dorm, Sweet Dorm

Today I moved into the dorms! Mom, Dad and I got up early (8:30... ugh....) and drove from Santa Fe to Albuquerque. I slept most of the time because high altitude had not been letting me sleep very well. Once there, we parked and checked in, and the guys at the desk were really nice. I got keys to the room, and drove to the dorm where I am now currently, Building A of the Redondo Suites. Even though it's building A, the entire place (A, B, C, D, E... I don't know how many letters there are...) is one big building, and every hall looks the same (kind of like Dwinelle Hall in Berkeley). It's really easy to get lost and I was very disoriented for a couple days. Around are pictures of the apartment and my own room--and yes, I have my own room!! There are 4 bedrooms per apartment, and each has its own AC/heater due to the extreme weather. Living in the lap of archaeological luxury...

Anyway, I got to my room, and tried to open the door to my room, but the key wasn't working. We went back to the Student Residence Center (which was basically a lounge, market, and office all in one), and told them about the problem. They sent a security guy with me, who reminded me of the Bear Walk guys from back home, and he opened the door to let me in my room. Then he was very helpful, telling me where everything was, where the grocery store was, and other things I could know. Then he said I should come back around noon to meet with the manager who will figure out what was wrong with my key. Really nice reception to UNM, if I do say so myself.

Mom, Dad, and I then went out for our last lunch together until I come home. We went to a place across the street from the dorms called Melanie's, which turned out to be right next to the Walgreens. I made a note to go there later. The diner was really good, and it was a nice break from all the Mexican food I'd been eating (I got a nice burger instead). We talked about some last minute things before they left, and we asked for the bill since they had a flight soon. When we got back to the dorm, we said our goodbyes, and for once my parents weren't dropping me off only to see me the next day. For the first time in a long time, I was completely alone out in a foreign--though American--place.

The afternoon was spent getting settled. I unfortunately got a call from my roommate saying that he couldn't find my keys that I'd put in the mailbox. Then I had to deal with that roommate over the phone, where he was very difficult (as he was a few days earlier) with some final business that we need to get straight about the apartment. That was extremely stressful, on top of being already stressed about this new class. However, I've decided to deal with the brunt of that roommate when I'm actually back in the state.

People arrived throughout the afternoon, and my new roommates and I went to the Frontier (for me, the second time) for dinner. It was really fun hanging out with them, and we have a pretty good dynamic going on in the apartment. I think having separate rooms helps with that :) And that's the first day of being on my own in New Mexico!