My SAA Field Trip

 

The highlight of my trip to San Fransisco was the 'GeoArch' field trip on the first day. 'GeoArch' is a blend of geology, geography and archaeology. It considers the landscape and archaeology. What did the place look like in the past and how has it changed through time. On Kodiak when I look for archaeological sites I am constantly 'modeling' the paleo shoreline in my head to help me find sites. It helps to know what old beach ridges, wave-cut terraces, and paleo-shorelines look like. So I was excited to go on the fieldtrip. 

There were a bunch of us and we travelled in two buses almost an hour and a half North of San Fransisco to the mouth of the Russian River. This is really close to Fort Ross which has a strong Alutiiq connection, and the river is named after the same Russians who were in Alaska at the same time. Up there we got to check out some old sea stacks that had been rubbed by mammoths. We also checked out some caves, and midden sites and learned about coastal erosion. I also learned that the geology is really similar to that of Kodiak island. They even have a radiolarian red chert that is exactly analogous to Kodiak's red chert. Both regions represent the sediment scraped off of the Pacific Plate as it subducted under the continental plate.

It was also a spectacular day and I got a pretty good sunburn on my face.

Patrick

Pelicans

I gather this plant is horribly invasive and was used to stabilize dune erosion

A cave shelter site

A very pretty invasive plant!

Mammoth rocks

San Fransisco

 

I am at the 'SFO' airport eating breakfast in the Alaska Lounge and my San Fransisco sojourn is over. Funnily enough, other than an SAA field trip to the Russian River on the first day (post to come), I never left the neighbourhood of my hotel in the 'Tenderloin'. I spent almost all of my time at the conference itself where I explored the world at the various sessions. 

I learned about Mayan salt works, earth ovens in Texas, the Kelp Highway, colonisation of Islands in SE Asia 17K years ago, and much, much more. I also socialised with other archaeologists. Normally I only go to the Alaskan archaeology meetings and at those meeting I generally only talk to the same people year after year. The Alaska meetings are sort of like a high school reunion that happens every year. In contrast, at the SAAs I knew very few people, and was a bit out of my comfort zone. For this reason I was a more out going and met a lot of new people. 

I came to San Fransisco expecting to find a city plagued with petty crime and homelessness. This is the stuff you read about on the national news. Instead I found the Tenderloin neighbourhood where I was staying to be quite pleasant.  So near the end of the conference I was surprised to hear  that it is considered a 'shoddy' area of San Fransisco. This surprised me. A couple of years ago when I visited Seattle it was far, far worse.  So I guess you can't believe everything you read!

Patrick

My SAA Presentation

This afternoon I am presenting my paper at the SAAs. The paper is basically a summary of the Alutiiq Museum's survey work on Kodiak's big salmon systems, and then the subsequent excavations near Karluk Lake over the last 6 years.  Basically we came up with various theories during our survey work and then tested them with focused excavations at various sites. The excavations have been sponsored by Koniag the landowner. Below I have attached the abstract (as an image) and a few of the talk slides to whet your appetite.

Eventually the museum will record the talk as a video and it will be posted on our website. But if you are interested in hearing it live and are attending the SAAs my talk is at 2:15 in session #313.

Patrick

The View from my Room

 

Full moon setting over the Pacific

Right now for work I am attending a conference in San Fransisco. It is the Annual Meeting for the Society of  America Archaeologists. For archaeologists this is the BIG meeting and there are thousands of other archaeologists from all over the world at the meeting. Every year I usually just go to the more regional Alaska Anthropological Association meeting. But this year, for the first time in 18 years, I decided to go the Big Time meeting.

The last time I went to the SAA meeting it was in Vancouver. This year it is in San Fransisco. It is not a coincidence - I like to go to the SAAs when they are meeting in a city I want to visit. Funnily enough, as a kid I actually lived in San Fransisco. But it has been 58 years since I last was here and my only memory of the city from childhood was driving across the Golden Gate Bridge.

Anyway, here I am in San Fransisco, and my hotel room has the most incredible view. I can even see the Golden Gate Bridge. I can't stop looking out at the view from my window!

Patrick

That's the Golden Gate Bridge in the distance

Bar at the top of the hotel

Fairbanks

 

Museum of the North on a cold March day

Last week I travelled to Fairbanks for work. Amanda and I were up there to bring an archaeological collection back to the Alutiiq Museum on Kodiak. The Crag Point collection was excavated in 1986, but for various reasons did not get to the Alutiiq Museum with all the other collections excavated by Bryn Mawr College teams in the 1980's. 

It is a HUGE collection and it took us 2 full days to pack it up in totes. It ended up fitting into 9 large totes that we checked as baggage and 2 smaller totes that that we carried on the planes. That somewhere around 550 pounds and a hell of a lot of excess baggage! Getting it all checked in at the ticket counter was a little stressful.  And then there was getting the hand carried totes through security. .. .

Just before I got to the TSA agent I saw the 'no ulus' in carry ons sign and an ulu with a big red cross on it. 'Uh oh', I thought, 'what if my tote is full of ground slate ulus'? Ulus are Alutiiq knives used to clean fish and we always find lots of them on archaeological excavations. The TSA agent had me open up the tote and I was relieved to see it was full of netsinkers. The agent was quite curious and I explained that net sinkers hold down the bottom of a net to spread it out in the water and catch more fish. Phweeeew - no ground slate ulus! My plan if there had been ulus was to call them 'ground slate tools' - not knives or ulus.

Anyway, the Crag Point collection is now back on Kodiak!

Patrick

Packing up totes

Thai duck for lunch the first day

Scott holding a Three Saints ground point with maker's mark

Amanda with a barbed dart

Museum of the North collections storage

Some final ones from Arizona

 

This is the final Arizona vacation post. It is hard to believe that just a week ago I was still in Arizona. 

Yesterday when I told someone I had been in Arizona they asked, 'where's your tan'. I told them I had been wearing sun screen which is not totally true. But then again I did not try to get a tan. Funnily enough, when I was a kid and went to Arizona I do remember trying to get a tan. I can remember basking in the sun even when it was freezing cold, and getting frightful sunburns. Then going back north and losing the tan in about a week.

These days my kids do wear sunscreen, and no one seems to be trying to get a sun tan. I guess times have changed.

Patrick

The trunk of an old olive tree

Polly tries to 'catch' butterflies