ArchInk 2021, Day 1

Here’s my contribution for Day 1 of Archaeology Inkotober 2021, the prompt being “Uncommon Ground.” The transition from one’s specialty area to another can feel a bit jarring at times. Yes, the process of analysis is similar across the board when it comes to ceramics and lithics, recording structures, etc. but actually being able to find said artifacts can be tough. I had gotten so used to my high desert environments, where there’s a field house, pueblo, or crazy huge artifact scatter every few meters, that moving to an area requiring shovel tests to see if anything–anything at all–was on the landscape, was a hard shift. But, no matter what, no matter where, there’s archaeology if people were there.

ARCHINK2020 (INKTOBER), ‘Ghost’

The final prompt for ArchInk 2020, ‘Ghost.’ What’s more terrifying than a box of unfinished reports? oooOOooo!

ARCHINK2020 (INKTOBER), ‘Repair’

Archaeology has a long history of mistakes and exclusionary practices that, hopefully, are on their way to being fixed. ArchInk Prompt #22, ‘Repair.’

ARCHINK2020 (INKTOBER), ‘Season’

I don’t know about you, but I measure my year in bugs. Archaeology Inktober 2020, Prompt #7: Season.

ARCHINK2020 (INKTOBER), ‘Selfie’

Archaeology Inktober, Prompt #6: Selfie. I may be a slow surveyor, and have tendency to trip over my own feet, but I can record the Sh*t out of a site.

ArchInk 2020 (Inktober), ‘Below’

Archaeology Inktober is here again! I’m a bit behind, but here is prompt #2 “Below.” Now, I know that mice are a huge disturbance to subsurface deposits, but what else could sing a Disney parody?

ARCHAEOLOGY INKTOBER 2019: OCT. 3 ‘Behavior’

Sometimes I think past peoples are just messing with archaeologists.  You never know . . .

ARCHAEOLOGY INKTOBER 2019: OCT. 2 ‘Layers’

ArchInk/ Inktober Prompt: Layers

I think a lot of folks assume that archaeologists do only one type of archaeology throughout their lifetime, but for many archaeologists their career varies from one type to another.  For example, I’ve been a grad student, federal archaeologist, teacher, shovel bum–the whole gambit.  And, within that, I’ve done Cypriot, Classical, Southwestern (US), and Western (US) archaeology.

Archaeology Inktober 2019: Oct. 1 ‘Material’

Catching up on my Archaeology Inktober Prompts.  This is the first thing that popped into my head when thinking about ‘material.’  We all wish we could get into the heads of those who leave behind the artifacts we study, to get beyond the material record.  Sometimes that’s possible with descendant communities, who carry a wealth of knowledge from their ancestors, and/or from written records, but so much of prehistory and history is limited to just the things we find.  Something we find breathtakingly beautiful may have been considered butt-ugly when it was created.

This years prompts:

Archaeology Inktober Prompt, Day 9: Records

Day 9 Prompt: Records