A 4th level Gamer Chick's Tome of Knowledge

This is just my little piece of the internet feel free to peruse... I'll update when I can about game, school, plans, and anything people pester me about... #2

Name:
Location: Naperville, Illinois, United States

I'm a freshman at the University of Wyoming majoring in anthropology and minoring in German and geology. I'm currently playing in a V:tM game Friday nights and trying to work in Kalamar when I can.

Sunday, June 24, 2007

The first ten-day

Well, as a few of you know and many don't, I elected (and my 'rents paid good money) for me to do an archaeology field school this summer so I thought I'd share the results of the first of three tendays with y'all.

I now know more about plains projectile points than I ever cared to, but it's interesting. I've come to the conclusion that no matter how hard I try I'm never going to be able to pick out pot sherds from fire cracked rock on survey. And Seven Mile Point is my personal hell-on-earth, luckily I should never have to go there again.

Thursday, around 7 pm (should have been earlier, but I'll get to that), I got back from Pine Bluffs and my first stint doing honest-to-God archaeology work. Overall, it was fun, though it definitely had it's ups and downs (topographically speaking). We spent a lot of time in the first half of the tenday in the 'classroom,' but moved out to more field trips and practical work later on. I have learned how to classify points and other lithics (but mostly points) as well as the knapped material (if I never hear about the Heartville Uplift again I'll be plenty happy) and we spent the last three days maping and plotting tipi rings, which should also extend 3-ish days into the next tenday before we start testing (hopefully).

It can be really frustrating at times because Chuck (Dr. Reher-the listed prof for the course) often doesn't know what he wants done/to do until about 5 minutes before he gives Rick (Prof. Weathermon-his assistant, who didn't get into town untin Monday...), and then usually spends most of his time politicing with the local land-owners and sends Rick to take us out into the field.

While there, I sleep in a tent designed for two children (I can just barely stretch all the way out along the long axis) in a cow pasture. Yes, cows. In fact, it took the cows a few days to adjust to our presence... during which they trampled and chewed on David's tent and uprooted Rachel's.

There were 7 of us students this past tenday, but one, Michael, was only able to come for the one and his government-issue forest service vehicle will be missed as a means to transport the crap we need that should go in Chuck's vehicle.

We eat on the main floor of the town's Mason's Hall and have access to real showers in the city's community center. This luxury will continue for the next tenday (which I leave for on Tuesday) as well, but the third tenday we'll be living off a cook tent and solar showers *shudders*, but that's a few weeks off yet.

Pine Bluffs is a nice little town. It's about 6 blocks by 7 blocks and has no stop lights. There's only one grocery store and it's closed on Sundays. Pine Bluffs is the second largest town in Laramie County.

I would recommend that anyone passing through Pine Bluffs (it's on I80 just inside the Wyoming border... heck, it is the Wyoming-Nebraska border) in the Summer months stop by the two museums in town. There's the HPA (High Plains Archaeology Project) Museum, which is where we work out of, and the Texas Trail Museum, which is a more general history of the area. We set a tipi up for them just before we left at the end of the tenday... I wonder if the mold has travelled throughout the building yet.... So if you stop by the TTM (which is open year-round) and get the full tour, I helped put up the full-sized tipi, go us.

We've already had one injury, and it wasn't even in the field. Michael got up early-ish one day to go running, stepped on a rock and tore a ligament in his knee. Needless to say, he spent the rest of the tenday doing the jobs that required the least walking about.

I've also started doing some flint-knapping. It's actually a lot of fun, though also a bit dangerous considering the zeal of some of my classmates. I'm not really past being able to make decent-sized flakes yet, but I'm having fun.

I'm also learning a lot about what goes in to keeping a field lab/museum running. We were given fairly free reign to set up the new displays and re-arrange the old ones when we got there this tenday, which did include some instances of me on a ladder, which at least a few of you know is a rare occurrence. Not only was I on a ladder, but I was on a ladder hammering brass tacks into wood facing... that was an interesting project, let me tell ya.

In the next tenday I can look forward to more mapping (if I'm lucky a lot more mapping, mapping I like) lessons on some basic zooarchaeology to prepare for going to Vore Buffallo Jump for the last tenday, and digging test units and the like. The poor bastards have to eat my cooking every three days (we rotate through KP in teams of two), but I haven't killed anyone yet, so that must be a good sign, right?

Feel free to throw questions at me, though answers will be a few weeks in coming, since I leave again in a couple of days.

#2