Yeah, I know I posted two days ago, but this is big news!

I’ve already booked an Air Bnb in Kerrville for the week.

I am so freaking excited it’s not even funny.

Yes, things will be socially distanced, but I think the world will be much improved by June. Back to normal? No. Safe enough to do a socially distanced dig, especially if the majority of the adults have gotten their vaccinations? Yep.

Also…I changed my phone ring to the Time Team theme song. I confess that I do a dance when it goes off before I answer it (or let it go to voicemail if I have no idea who’s calling).

I’m such a geek.

I couldn’t think of a better title for this blog post, sorry.

It’s been 2 months since I last updated because nothing much has been happening. I was in between semesters. Today was the first day of my last semester before I graduate in May. I’m taking Old World Archaeology with my favorite professor and Anthropological Theory. I’ve read through the syllabi for both classes and WOOOOEEEEEEE this is going to be a writing intensive semester! I don’t mind, though, because it will be good practice for writing my master’s thesis starting in September (I’m speaking positively, see, because I haven’t actually been accepted yet).

We already kicked off Old World Archaeology with talking about ancient aliens building the pyramids. HELL YEAH! I love pseudoarcheology (hence my last post about the Archaeo Fantasies podcast). It’s so ridiculous.

Masters of the ARCHAEOLOGY

BY THE HONOR OF ACADEMIA…I HAVE THE POWEEEERRRRR!!!!

I think I finally figured out what to write for my masters thesis. FINALLY! It’s been driving me nuts. If you know me then you know I am really impatient and I want to walk in the door in September knowing what the heck I’m going to write about for the next two years.

I’m still nailing down an exact research question, but I do know that I want to do some work with finding missing African American cemeteries, locating graves, identifying the individuals by historical record if possible, and using genealogical databases and records to notify descendants of the location of their ancestors.

I feel like this work is important because for too long the individuals buried in African American cemeteries were deliberately ignored and forgotten. They weren’t deemed important enough to be remembered. I think that is disrespectful, sad, and needs to be rectified.

I don’t really think of archaeology when I think of social justice. You probably don’t, either. Archaeology, though, is the physical story of our past and that includes minimalized and historically oppressed peoples. I’ve always said you can tell a lot about a culture from how they treat their dead. This holds true for many African American cemeteries and graves. People didn’t respect them in life, so why should their final resting places be treated with the same care and attention as Caucasian cemeteries? Their cemeteries were often unrecorded and lost, only to be mistakenly discovered when they are dug up. This happened in Florida recently when a high school discovered it was built on top of a black cemetery.

It is positively shameful.

I cannot be held responsible for the reprehensible things my ancestors did, but I believe that I am responsible for making it right as well as I can. I have the skills to bring awareness to this issue and to help give a name to the people who were deliberately forgotten. Every person who has walked this earth deserves the dignity of having their name and their resting place remembered. I want to research what archaeologists and communities are doing to correct the wrongdoings of the past.

This also ties into my interests in funerary archaeology, so complements the work I want to eventually do when I’m working on a PhD (see, more positive thinking). I’m thrilled that it’s all seemingly falling into place.

Now I just need to narrow it down to a research question, which is the hard part. This is when I feel less like She-Ra and more like Shaggy.

I’ll gladly give a whole box of Scooby Snacks to anyone who helps me out here.

So I discovered this wonderful and hilarious podcast a few weeks ago to listen to when I was driving 2 hours each way through the backass roads of Texas to get to the dig site. It’s called the Archaeological Fantasies Podcast hosted by Sarah Head with Dr. Kenneth Feder basically debunking all of the pseudoarchaeological crap out there.

I love it.

There’s nothing better than driving to a site at the buttcrack of dawn with a cup of Buccee’s coffee and listening to two people and a guest rip holes through fake archaeology. It’s really a great way to start your day in the field. I highly recommend it.

Here’s the deal…I’m just an undergrad (not for long, though!) and I can’t tell you how many times when I’m talking to strangers about what I’m studying, they start going off on some weird random mystical artifact or archaeological conspiracy they saw on a TV show. It’s annoying as frak because I usually have no idea what the heck they’re talking about. I don’t have cable and I don’t get the History Channel or whatever channel shows that crap. I don’t watch the shows because I just don’t care to.

Last year some guy at a teacher’s workshop started blabbing at me about some artifact in New Mexico (I don’t even remember what it was) and then got pissed off when I didn’t know:

1. WTF he was talking about.
2. Clearly couldn’t keep the look of “oh god, not another crackpot” off my face when he mentioned aliens. I mean, I get it. New Mexico. Roswell or something, right.

He mentioned a cover-up by the Feds and at that point I was about to burst into laughter and I moved to a different table. I just couldn’t. As soon as you mention aliens, I’m out. Bigfoot, out (sorry, dad). People other than the Native Americans who built the mounds, out. Giants, OUT. Young Earthers, out (and for the record, I am a devout Christian). Romans in Texas, GET OUT.

And I’m only an undergrad. I get the distinct impression that this crap gets worse the higher I move up in my academic career. This podcast has made that abundantly clear to me.

Yay? Well, there’s weirdos everywhere. It seems like they’ve just gotten worse in the last several years since there’s been a pushback against solid science in general. I guess it just comes with the job?

So I don’t really listen to podcasts in general. There’s nothing wrong with them. It’s just that I rarely have time to sit down and listen. I’m not really able to listen to them while doing activities that take a high amount of concentration, like writing a paper (that reminds me…I really need to stop procrastinating and get crackin’ on that Navajo burial practices paper for Dr. Anderson that I keep putting off). They’re great for long drives, obviously. Now that the site is shut down because Phase 3 ended and I’m not doing any driving because of the stupid pandemic, no more podcast.

Well, that’s not entirely true. I’ve started listening to it in spurts while doing the dishes, folding the laundry, and while out and about doing socially distanced errands.

I’d heard of Dr. Feder before. His book Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries Science and Pseudoscience in Archaeology has been recommended to me many times and has been on my to-read list for ages. It’s on the 10th edition now and I can only find older editions at Halfprice Books. It’s on my Christmas wish list, so hopefully Santa will hurry down the chimney and leave it for me under the tree this year.

I’ll admit that I’m only on Episode 9 of over a hundred, but I have subscribed and I intend to listen to the rest as much as possible.

Graduate School!

Uh…ok, not much has happened here, but everything is now officially in! The professor I asked to write a recommendation did it for me (thank you, Dr. Alveshere!).

So now we wait.

Might be until spring.

Dammit.

Other Stuff

I have come to the sad realization that I may not be able to go to TAS field school next year if I can’t go back to work soon. I’m still on FMLA and will probably still be out for a while. I AM doing better, but just not to the point where I can handle work yet.

That means 2 summers that I will have missed field school. Of course, I don’t even know if TAS is even doing field school yet. I guess it all depends on how distribution goes with the vaccine.

However…I am considering applying for a summer internship with the Texas Historical Commission in the Lost Cemeteries project. If you know me you know I can’t sit still for 5 minutes and I have to do something until my grad school classes start in September. Cemeteries and burial practices are areas that I am very interested in working. I think it would be close to what I’m thinking for a PhD dissertation (something I’m considering) and would be a great experience.

That’s me, always scheming and dreaming.

I found out yesterday that the site where I’ve been working is going to be closed down because they feel they have enough information to define the site. I’m pretty bummed because I really enjoyed working out in the field again. I managed to make it out there three times before the sudden shut down.

Sadly, those three sessions were all the digging I managed to do in 2020. I’m thankful I had the opportunity because it was cathartic to be back in the field and I’ll take three sessions over none.

I don’t know when I’ll be able to dig next. If (and a big IF) field school happens in June then that will probably be the next time. It’s possible HAS may do some work in the spring, depending on how the pandemic is going and whether a vaccine is available by then. I’ve heard Pfizer’s vaccine is about 90% effective and they are going to submit it for FDA approval soon, with the hopes it will be available for healthcare workers by the end of the year. I really hope it does because I don’t want to have to wait almost another whole year before digging again!

In other news, I applied for graduate school a few weeks ago! The University of Highlands and Islands has an MLITT (same as a Master of Arts) in Archaeological Studies and it’s totally available online. I’m just waiting for them to make a decision and I’m not sure how long it will take. If I don’t get into their program, then my second choice is University of Leicester online because they have a pretty decent archaeology program, but it isn’t as specific to my interests as UHI’s.

What I really wish I could do is go to Texas State San Marcos because the skills I need to learn are there. However, I can’t afford to quit my job and commute down there every day. It’s an hour one way. I earned my M.Ed. from Texas State, but I lived in South Austin back then and it was only a 30 minute drive. I’m stuck with online classes for now and I guess I have to be content with that. I hope I can pick up those skills down the road when and if I can go to the UK to do a PhD.

Sometimes I feel like this whole archaeology journey so far has been like running around on a hamster wheel. I’ve been going in circles and not really getting anywhere, but now I know that isn’t true. In six months I will have completed the first major step in this journey and applying for graduate school was when I realized that I’m getting off this hamster wheel.

I mean, maybe graduate school is another hamster wheel, but it’s a wheel filled with different challenges (DISSERTATION, YIKES!) and is closely aligned with my field of interests. I also may have the opportunity to excavate IN THE MOTHER FLIPPIN’ ORKNEY ISLANDS! I have always wanted to go there, so this pandemic needs to skedaddle so I can hone my practical skills and become a better archaeologist.

Last Saturday I finally got out into the field after a year or so hiatus. It was so great to be out there. I did take photos but I can’t post them since the dig site is on private land and I said I wouldn’t. You’ll have to content yourself with this selfie of me that I took on the way out there. Behold! That most elusive of creatures, an uncaffeinated archaeologist.

Basically the only thing that will get me out of bed before the buttcrack of dawn and to a dig site on time is the promise of Happy Hot Bean Juice. Buc-ee’s in Bastrop is pretty decent and I can get in and out really fast. The drive out to the site was gorgeous. There were some low clouds over the highway, but not fog. The sun was just rising over Bastrop State Park as I passed it and it was such a stunning view. I really wish I’d pulled over and taken a photo.

It was also a rare moment of peace that I’ve had in ages. There is a lot of stupid going on in my life right now. A LOT. I’m on FMLA for having a nervous breakdown last month and I am only maybe marginally better. I’m still waiting to talk to a counselor, but I really should have been talking to one like…four months ago. Our society doesn’t make it easy to get professional help when you desperately need it. I’ve also been diagnosed with not one but three genetic corneal diseases. At least those issues are relatively under control and the incidents I’ve had have lessened in intensity and frequency.

So when I saw that beautiful sunrise over the park, it was like my whole soul sighed with happiness. I was going on a dig. It was quiet and peaceful and, for just one moment, everything seemed ok with the world.

I can’t express how wonderful it was to be in the field again and to be with people and my friends at Houston Archaeological Society. I was able to learn some new skills, but mostly I screened. I did find a partial animal skeleton for the first time and that was pretty cool. All of those classes in forensics and physical anthropology actually paid off! I think maybe it was a rabbit, but I found the femur, tibia, and I think part of the pelvis.

I think I’ll try to go every other weekend while the weather holds. I was super happy right after the dig and I think it’s good therapy for me to get out there doing something I love, honing my field skills, and seeing people.

Archaeology is the only thing in my life lately that hasn’t gone off the rails. I really need to get out of teaching. I just…don’t want to be there anymore. It’s not even a don’t. It’s a can’t. It’s like waking up one day and realizing you can’t do something anymore. I feel like a brick wall has been plonked down in between me and the classroom. I can’t really explain it any other way. I don’t know how to tear down that wall or climb over it. I’m not even sure I want to. This is why I need to see a therapist. I have all these great analogies for the way I feel, but I don’t know how to process them. All I know is that being in the field makes me happy and I need more happy right now if I’m going to recover and be able to manage anything besides my studies and homeschooling Nora.

1. Mom’s Happy Tuna and rosé do not a good combination make.
2. Staring at the overgrown backyard and tempted to just…randomly start digging. More likely to break a utility wire or throw out my back rather than find anything. I really need to get back out into the field. Stupid COVID.
3. Should stop putting off my test. It’s due tomorrow and there’s an essay on Make Prayers to the Raven that I haven’t started.
4. Damn, this rosé is good.
5. But not with tuna.
6. These crackers are great.
7. Oh damn, this cucumber salad is awesome.

8. I feel like living dangerously. Not stupid enough to go into a store without a mask on. My desire to be reckless should never potentially harm others.

10. I think I will have another glass of rosé and take my test and see what happens. LIVING DANGEROUSLY!

11. I am pathetic.

12. I wonder if the Koyukon eat tuna?No, you dummy, they live in Alaska’s interior.

13. They eat salmon. I hate salmon.

14. Does salmon go good with rosé?

15. Would I like salmon mousse? Does that go well with rosé?

16. Wasn’t that dish on an episode of Chef!?

17. Lenny Henry is hilarious.

18. What if I dug a hole in the backyard and called it gardening? What grows in Texas in October?

19. Shit, I screwed up the numbered list format in WordPress. This is the last time I blog on my phone.

20. My glass is empty. Time to imbibe the last of the rosé and consider my essay question. The Koyukon are freaking amazing.

21. I’m out of crackers. Damn.

22. And cucumber salad.

23. Happy Tuna is gross by itself.

24. I have had too much fish this week.

25. I hate this stupid pandemic.

(UPDATE: I got a 98 on the test while slightly tipsy, if you’re curious. I’m not sure if I should be proud or ashamed about that. Just to clarify, I don’t usually drink wine before exams in case any future employers or potential universities are looking at this).

Surprisingly, a lot! You’d think that with COVID-19 making all of our lives miserable I wouldn’t have done anything related to archaeology, except maybe take some classes.

Well, you’re right. I did take some classes (Sociolinguistics, a requirement for my program), but I also did an internship at TARL to knock out three more credits for my anthropology degree so I can graduate in May.

“How?!” you may ask. How indeed.

Remotely!

The good people at TARL set me up with this amazing project entering data from burial records from the Ernest Witte site into their human remains database. I had to learn a ton about burial terms and how to interpret the records, which were incomplete and contradictory at times. For example, I had to translate coordinates into cardinal directions, which meant getting out some graph paper and drawing in burials. I’d never done this before and it took a combination of my experience in the field and my husband’s rusty Boy Scout orienteering skills to help me figure out what the HECK Annie was babbling at me to do. Once I got the knack of it, though, I discovered just how crappy I am at drawing.

There was also a lot of reading about the care and curation of human remains, how samples are taken from bone, FORDISC and 3Skull, and NAGPRA. Annie talked me through a lot of that over Zoom and Marybeth joined us sometimes. I learned so much, and all from my office at home! I really enjoyed myself, though, and it was a really cool experience. Of course, I would have preferred to be back at TARL again, but this was the next best thing. TARL has become my summer home and I really miss it.

Part of the project involved writing a lab narrative, which I included in all of the stuff I had to submit to my professor at Western Illinois University. I guess they were pretty impressed because they included me in a recent news release. 😊

Check it out!

All in all, I’m pretty proud of myself for all my hard work and getting noticed. It’s nice to have your work acknowledged now and then.  

It’s super strange, but surrounding myself with burials and human remains this summer actually helped me cope with my own sister’s death. Mindy passed away on May 30 after a five year battle with an inoperable brain tumor. That was right before my internship started.

This is the first time I’ve been able to write those words, honestly. Anyway, I found the internship really cathartic for some reason. It helped me stay busy, sure, but a lot of what I learned had to do with burial customs and practices. I reflected a lot on my own culture’s practices surrounding death, directly observed at my sister’s funeral. Even at her funeral I couldn’t turn off my archaeologist’s brain.

I miss her so much it’s like there’s a hole in my soul. I don’t have any other siblings. My sister’s cognition had seriously declined in the last few years, but her long term memory was still pretty sharp and she never forgot that I wanted to be an archaeologist. The few times I saw her after my digs and told her what I’d been up to, she always wanted to hear all about them and would ask questions about the sites and the artifacts we’d found. She told me once that she could tell I’d found my niche and she was really happy for me because she could see how happy archaeology made me.

I wish I could have taken her on a dig with me. I think she would have loved all the activity of a busy dig site. Mindy was curious about people, the same way I am. Part of the fun of archaeology is trying to puzzle out our ancestors and understand them through their artifacts and cultural remains. Mindy would often ask me why we thought a certain way about a culture. She enjoyed speculating along with me and I miss her terribly.

In other news, I am taking two classes this semester: Native American Cultures and North American Archaeology. We started off in both classes talking about Cahokia, which I was able to visit this summer on a whirlwind socially-distanced trip through Missouri. I didn’t get a chance to take too many photos, though, but that place is huge. Climbing to the top of Monk’s Mound in 95 degree heat suuuuucked, but it was so worth it. I got an idea just how big that city was. I felt pretty small. Nora was in a bad mood (read: hot and tired and thirsty) and didn’t want to talk to me, so I was all alone, much like a monk. How apropos.

I do have plans to keep up this blog more regularly. I’m a bad bad blogger for being neglectful (*cough*haventupdatedinayear*cough*). Honestly, for a long time nothing really cool was happening. I also didn’t have any ideas of what to write about besides the occasional digs I was going on. So much was cancelled this year that I’ve been focusing mostly on the practical academic side of archaeology. However, I finally got some cool ideas and I’m going to work those into the blog, so look forward to more updates.

I’ve also realized just how freaking weird and unique it is to be a middle-aged woman throwing the middle finger at a good career and deciding to pursue a career in archaeology. Most archaeologists I know, both professional or avocational, are either within 10 years of having graduated from college or are my mom and dad’s age (retired). I’m smack in the middle. At TCAS meetings I’m usually one of the youngest members in the room and that’s just odd to me. I’m used to being the oldest! I figured this blog might inspire others around my age to chase their dreams and that there’s no use being tied down to a career you feel is going nowhere or one you hate. In my case, archaeology combines everything that I’m already good at as a teacher and spins it into something I truly love.

I’m working towards living my dream and I wouldn’t have it any other way.  

My apologies. I want to say that not a lot has happened since April to justify not keeping up with the blog, but that would not be true! I’ve been to field school at Palo Duro Canyon State Park, I volunteered at TARL again, and have started classes at my new home of Western Illinois University! I also did some brief shovel testing at a new site with the Houston Archaeological Society in July.

So I said that I was doing survey at field school and that is true. I had no idea that the floor of the canyon was so…mountainous? Hilly? Anyway, lots of ups and downs. It was supposed to be light survey. Oh hell no. This was rugged, so that was annoying. It rained A LOT earlier this year, more than usual. Normally the vegetation in the canyon is pretty dry in June, but the rain made everything grow like bonkers. Yes, it was beautiful, but it made it very difficult to see artifacts and lithics on the ground (which is what we were looking for).

So we were up to our ears in the bushes (not kidding) in the middle of nowhere and I heard rattling every so often. Great. Have I mentioned that with the rain comes an increase in rattlesnakes? Frikkin’ snakes. In true Indian Jones fashion, I HATE SNAKES!!!!

I guess it’s not so hard to avoid them? Walk away from the rattling? Except that the damn mother fudgers are camouflaged to blend in with their surroundings, so yeah…good luck with that. I didn’t have snake gaiters because I’m a newbie at survey and didn’t think to hit up Academy and buy any. At one point I hear the telltale rattle and it’s CLOSE. REALLY CLOSE. I look down and there’s a damn Nope Rope about 2 feet from me, curled around a yucca, and buzzing away.

You have never seen overweight and out-of-shape Heather Leonard move so fast wearing 20-30 pounds of gear. I impressed myself with that physical feat. Amazing what we’ll do when confronted with serious danger. RUN, HEATHER. RUN! Like Forrest Gump, I WAS RUNNNNIIINNGGG!!!!

So my team got back to the Mack Dick Pavilion (command center for the field school) and I had my first panic attack in 20 years in my car. The thought of going back out in the boonies the next day actually made me physically ill. I’m all for facing your fears, but I wouldn’t have been any good out there in the field freaking out every 5 minutes. My team leader concurred, so no more survey for me. I shall try again at a less remote location and wear snake gaiters next time (yes, I have some now…they are in the garage).

I asked to be moved to excavation, which I like more anyway. That was actually a good move because my site supervisor, Brian, was fabulous, and I learned a lot from him! He knew exactly where to push and challenge me and I came out learning some new skills (paperwork, yay!) and refining the ones I’ve already started to develop. Here’s some photos…

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

So that was the first couple weeks of June, for the rest of the summer I volunteered once a week on Fridays at TARL (Texas Archaeological Research Lab). Mary Beth had me working in a separate building verifying the contents of different collections and entering them into the database. It was tedious but interesting work and I didn’t get nearly as far as I thought I would. This was my first day on the job…

Several of the boxes were from field schools that were 30+ years old and the plastic bags containing artifacts had degraded somewhat, especially the bags of debitage or snails. I had to rebag EVERYTHING, which is why it was tedious. Here are some random photos I took of artifacts that I found…

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

In July I did a day’s worth of shovel testing at a prehistoric site called the Lone Oak Site. Not saying where as it’s privately owned property, but it’s about 2 hours vaguely east of here (sorry for the vague, but looting is a huge problem…it’s why I don’t post trinomials or anything like that). There were cows around, which was interesting. They would just sort of wander over and stare at us, let out the occasional confused moo, and wander off. I’ll take cows over rattlesnakes any old day (I had my eye out for snakes as well).

I finished my short course over the summer in Viking studies and earned a diploma with a distinction. Go me! Actually, I learned a lot about Vikings and it opened a lot of research questions that I’m working on. I have a list of books and sources on my computer that I’m adding to for when I start looking for ideas for a Masters thesis or even possible PhD dissertation.

My classes at Western Illinois University started this past Monday. I’m taking Forensic Anthropology (YAY!) and Magic, Religion, and Shamanism. Both of the classes look amazing and I can already tell I’ll learn a lot!

That’s about it for now. There isn’t too much coming up except for the annual Archaeology Fair at TARL in October and I’m volunteering for that, like I did last year. I promise I’ll take more pictures this year! I don’t have any planned digs yet, but the fall is another short digging season for us when the weather cools off (it’s just too hot to dig right now) and sometimes things are announced last minute. So who knows!

This semester has rocketed past me! I blinked and it’s almost over. My Introduction to Cultural Anthropology and Introduction to Physical Anthropology classes were really fun and I learned a lot. I liked that both classes weren’t very structured. That’s the first time I’ve had a professor just sort of dump the curriculum on me and say, “Here it is. Get it all in by May, all right? See you at the end.” I had the same professor for both classes. I think if you’re not used to online learning then that would have been a bit disconcerting, but this isn’t my first rodeo with taking classes online. I had enough discipline to pace myself and I was actually done with all the reading and discussion posts by the first week of April! I just had a few tests and a project to finish. I’m done with Intro to Phys Anth at this point, just waiting for the professor to post the final exam for Intro to Cultural Anth and then I’m officially done.

I had a bit of a burp on the educational front. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I was accepted into WIU and I will be starting this fall. I was not pleased that there were only 5 classes available in the fall, three of which I could take. I am worried that it will take me more than 18-24 months to finish a BA if there isn’t much available. In a fit of anxiety and madness, I applied for and was accepted in Colorado State University’s program, which offered a lot of classes.

Except…they weren’t as exciting as WIU. And…they won’t accept any transfer classes over 10 years (as I found out this morning). Also, a lot more expensive. I was in a right fit this morning, pacing back and forth trying to figure out what to do. I am NOT going to redo my undergrad classes! I have 2 BA’s already, for crying out loud! I decided CSU was just ridiculous and would probably take me a lot longer than waiting for classes to come available at WIU.

So, I decided to tell CSU to take a hike and I enrolled in 2 classes for the fall at WIU today: Magic and Shamanism and Forensic Anthropology. I’m really excited about both because they both are related to my field of interest (Vikings) and I could really use a course in Forensics for Bodie Boneseer, which I’m going to revamp and outline this summer since I’ll have time.

See, I was going to take summer classes, but there’s only one available at WIU. Also, Nora’s been begging me since January to take the summer off and spend it with her. While I’m eager to get this BA over with and move on to an MA, I also know that she’ll only be young once and I should spend as much time with her as I can. Besides, I’m also volunteering at TARL and going to field school this summer, so it’s not like I’m shirking my archaeology studies…just working on the practical side that I’m not able to do much of during the school year!

Speaking of the practical side, I’ve been able to go on 2 small digs recently. I’ve finally was able to dig at Joyful Horse in Bastrop. The unit is pretty deep at this point and the walls have been shored up with timber for health and safety. There wasn’t much room to dig, so I mostly did screening and left the digging to Nora. Yep, she went with me! In honor of her first dig outside of field school, I bought her a trowel. Doesn’t she look happy?

On the drive out to Bastrop, we saw some deer crossing the road and I may have grumbled some choice words at the Lord as I slowed down to let them pass. Not funny, God. Not funny. Nora wasn’t pleased, either! It was really cold when we went out to Bastrop, unusual for Texas at this time of year. I was digging in about three layers of clothing. Now I know how the Brits on Time Team felt on some of those digs! We all eventually wound up shedding layers as it got warmer.

I recently joined Houston Archaeological Society so that I can go on their digs that are closer to my side of the state! Hey, it was only $15 since I’m a student! They are digging out at San Felipe (YAY SAN FELIPE!) and I was able to join them last Saturday for shovel testing. San Felipe is absolutely beautiful and it was great to see the finished museum. It was still under construction when I was there last year. The streets and homesteads of the razed town are roughly mowed out behind the museum and we shovel tested in the middle of what was Commerce Street. They want to put in pathways, but have to first make sure there’s nothing important there. Digging up the town is really a privilege and it was my first time doing shovel tests. I didn’t do too much on the paperwork end. Actually, all I did was screen! But, we found a little bit of plain white ceramics, glass, and a lot of nails!

In March, we both visited the Archaeology Fair out at the Nightengale Center in Kingsland. I went last year and we had a blast. It’s a paleoindian site that was excavated in the 1980’s and they never backfilled the units. It’s neat because you can see what a real dig looks like. Here are some photos…

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Looking forward to this summer, I will be visiting TARL the first week of June before I head to Palo Duro to discuss summer projects and will probably finish cataloging the Vinson Site assemblage before moving on to another collection. Also, I’m slowly working on a British short course in Viking Studies that I might be able to finish before August. I need to learn more about the Vikings if I’m going to do an eventual thesis or dissertation about them! It’s at my own pace with no completion date. It’s going to be a busy summer, but a fun one getting to do lots of cool activities with archaeology!

I changed my mind. I AM going to field school. I don’t really WANT to go to field school, but I need to. Let’s face it: I am old and am pressed for time to get experience if I want to be a competitive candidate for graduate school. They require experience in excavation, lab, and survey. I have the first two. I don’t have the last.

This year’s TAS field school in Palo Duro Canyon State Park is heavy on the survey and that is a good thing for me, but holy heck…why does it have to be in the middle of the prairie?! It’s going to be so flipping hot, and that’s really why I don’t want to go. At least there are two survey types: light and rugged. Light survey will be looking at known or potential sites near the roadside in the state park and the rugged survey will be exploring the canyon looking for new sites. I’m signing up for light because I am old and fat and out of shape. I just need to learn the survey techniques, but that doesn’t have to mean hiking through the boonies. Save the rugged for the young whippersnappers who don’t have weak ankles and can bounce over rocks and avoid rattlesnakes.

I’m not taking Nora this year because I don’t want to spend 8 hours in a car alone with her and I don’t think the youth program is going to be all that exciting this year. She wants to go to camp, anyway. I did get a nice Air BnB in Amarillo about 30 minutes away.

Let’s just hope I don’t meet another suicidal deer this year. I don’t think I can take totaling another Subaru on a damn deer that’s hellbent on committing suppuku.

I need to buy some good hiking boots and some long pants. Hooray for an excuse to go clothes shopping! I should do a post about the challenges of putting together an excavation wardrobe when you’re a woman and plus sized to boot. That’s been a whole other adventure, but all I’m going to say is thank god for the Columbia clothing company for being size conscience and not just carrying misses’!

Shifting gears, I’m starting to think about what I’d like to do for a bachelor’s thesis. I’ve always been interested in Vikings and anthropology of childhood, which is why I’d like to go to Sheffield University because they have a great center just for the archaeology of childhood. It’s not that surprising that I’m interested in studying kids since I’m already a teacher. Anyway, I read a cool paper recently lamenting about the lack of archaeology of Viking children. This seems right up my alley. It jives with my current career and interests, where I want to go for postgraduate work, and with what’s going on where I currently live.

The local medieval fair, Sherwood Forest Fair, and Thorin’s Mead are teaming up to open the Texas Viking Festival this coming December. There’s a launch party next month on the 23^rd that I am definitely going to. I’d love to do an ethnographic study on Viking reenactors. Yeah, I know that’s more cultural anthropology than archaeology, but my undergrad is going to be in anthropology because that’s the way US universities go (remember that archaeology is a subdivision of anthropology).

The thing about reenactors is that they are (or they should be) very particular about historical authenticity. That means keeping on top of current archaeological discoveries. One of the questions I’d like to ask when I’m doing my interviews is what kind of research they perform when they are putting together a new persona. Do they pay attention to archaeology? There have been lots of exciting discoveries in the past few years concerning Vikings, discoveries that could very well impact the authenticity of a reenactor’s portrayal.

I’m immersing myself in Viking sagas and mythology for now. I figure the best way to begin learning about an ancient society is through their stories. Hey, I’m an English teacher! Are you surprised? I also plan on listening to The Viking Age Podcast while I walk in the mornings before work (I need to get in shape for field school).

I found a neat ethnographic doctoral dissertation about ren faires that I want to thoroughly read sometime when I’m not so busy, but I glanced over the abstract and the table of contents and it looks intriguing.

I’m also no stranger to Renaissance/Medieval festivals and reenactors. I’ve been attending them since I was 15 or 16 and was on the casts of a few as an actor. The rennie community becomes very close knit because they spend so much time together in pre-season workshops (16ish hours every weekend) and then during the run of the season itself. They become like your family. I confess that I really miss that family. Going to a ren fair is like going home, doesn’t matter whether it’s Scarborough, TRF, or Sherwood. Oddly enough, it’s been over 20 years since I was on a cast and I STILL know people in the circuit. Isn’t that wacky?

This is a very rare photo of me as Lady Godiva at the now defunct Hawkwood Medieval Fantasy Fair in 1998 (last cast I performed in). This is during the Snype Hunt and Godiva adamantly refused to believe that the Snype was real, even if he was right in front of her face (he’s crouching on the table and grinning at the camera while I am expounding on the stupidity of hunting a nonexistent bird). She insisted he was not the mythical snype, but just an overgrown chicken.

It was actually what we called a “lane bit,” which is a rehearsed scene you can do at any time when you encounter other villagers. Festival actors mostly rely on strong improvisational skills since they live that character for 10 or more hours a day, but there are some rehearsed bits. Snype and I came up with this because we thought it would be hilarious to have one of the nobles who refused to believe in his existence, even if he was standing right in front of her. We also did this to protect him. He liked to hide behind me while people yelled, “GODIVA! STOP THAT SNYPE!” and I would huff and roll my eyes and bellow, “Be thou fools? How many times must I tell thee that the Snype be not real?! Thou seest the village chicken, who be most overgrown from feeding on the baker’s bread. God’s teeth, get thee away from this poor fowl and get thee a life!” It was one of my most favorite bits of playing Godiva (who was obsessed with men and getting married…you can’t see the giant butterfly net I had for chasing men in this photo). Good times!

So, I used to work at historical reenactment festivals. Is it any wonder that I got into archaeology? 🙂