Documentation and Field Reports

All archaeology is only as good as the documentation that accompanies it.  Archaeological fieldwork is inherently destructive and the archaeological record is a non-renewable resource. This means that we only get one shot to excavate something and once we have the context, provenience, and associations are gone from the world existing only in our minds, what we write down, and our photographs.  This is one reason that looting, illegal stealing of archaeological materials, is so destructive. Artifacts themselves are not nearly as important as the context in which they are found.  Looters are only interested in the flashy, profitable objects and so they destroy the archaeological record destroying context, provenience, and associations without recording it.

Documentation is how we not only preserve the past but learn from it and share that knowledge with the world. Our 2011 field season at Ceren was extraordinarily successful. We have written a field report that outlines all of our findings and the most important aspects of our 2011 research.  Given the importance of documentation we leave the last week of the field season for writing reports and submitting all artifacts to the national museum. This report is submitted to the government of El Salvador and is available in English and Spanish. We will turn these chapters into further publications in academic journals and presentations at academic conferences.  Take a look and let me know if you have any questions!

CEREN 2011 FIELD PROJECT FINAL REPORT:
http://www.colorado.edu/anthropology/people/bios/documents/THEREPORT2011_001.pdf 

To do and not to do for fieldwork life in the tropics...

Doing archaeological fieldwork is so much more than just digging 'stuff' up.  Many students find that learning archaeological methods is only one challenge to life in the field.  Archaeological fieldwork affords a remarkable opportunity to learn about present day cultures in the area that you are living in. For most budding archaeologists the experiences of field-life are truly unique and become valuable memories for the rest of your life.

Since fieldwork is highly variable based on the specific archaeological record, your living conditions, and the local climate, I thought I would share a list of To Do and To Not Dos of fieldwork in the tropics. Many of these are likely useful for fieldwork elsewhere, but some are more specific to a tropical climate. Archaeological fieldwork often pushes you physically, socially, and culturally. These experiences can be very challenging, fun, and education. So just a few tips:

1. DO bring sunscreen, bug spray, a complete medical kit, and anti-itch creams.  (Med Kits should have at least: bandaids, second skin for blisters, anti-itch creams, Advil, Tylenol, Tums, Pepto-bismal, Imodium, athletic tape, tweezers...)
2. DON'T expect the bug spray to work and DON'T forget to reapply your sunscreen regularly!

3. DO break-in your tennis shoes and hiking boots before going into the field
4. DON'T forget to bring comfortable flip flops for around the house.

5. DO stay aware of plants and animals around you (as one botanist told me- if the tree bark is peeling don't touch it or you might be next to peel!)
6. DON'T ever reach into a hole or crevice if you cannot see inside it! Also DON'T ever touch snakes, critters, or other animals of which you are unfamiliar!

7. DO appreciate the beautiful world around you and explore your surroundings as much as possible. You never know if or when you will have the opportunity to return so be sure to see make the most of your experiences and take lots of pictures.
8. DON'T wander without doing background research first-  there might be many dangers you never even thought to be concerned about! Just ask around, google, or check a guide book to make sure you are educated about your surroundings.

9. DO work on speaking the local language. Even if you blunder your way through it, your attempt to speak the language is usually appreciated greatly. In my experience people have always responded positively to my attempts at speaking a local language.
10. DON'T travel to another country without learning the basics of the language (Please, Thank You, You are Welcome, Excuse me, May I have, Help, How are you?, Good, Bad ... or any other basic key phrases that might be useful)

11. DO try to appreciate and keep a good sense of humor about field life. If you are freaked out by the creepy crawlies then make a game out of counting the number of bugs or variety of types!
12. DON'T let any bites, cuts, or scratches that look very strange or unusual go unattended.

13. DO shower everyday if possible and be grateful for it, especially if you are one of the lucky ones who gets a warm shower!
14. DON'T reach up and touch the shower head if it is one of the Electric Showers where electric current is used to heat the water in the shower head.

15. DO make friendships with other archaeologists as well as the local people who work with you, live nearby, or you see regularly.
16. DON'T be surprised by culture shock. When you first arrive you might feel disoriented, overwhelmed, extra tired and confused.  This is normal.  If you are there long enough, upon returning home you will feel a similar experience that we refer to as reverse culture shock.  These are great opportunities to see the variation between life in different cultures, so take notes on anything that seems strange to you (as soon it will become normal).

17. DO remember that your cultural rules don't apply. It is best to get a feel for local customs related to etiquette, dress, and particularly appropriate behaviors between men and women. 

18. DON'T forget that in a foreign country the same laws, protections, and cultural rules do not apply.

19. DO try new foods, drinks, and experiences- especially when individuals are offering to share their food with you! Some of the most touching moments I have experienced have been when people who deal with true poverty and hunger offer to share their food with me. This generosity is hard to even describe.
20. DON'T feel ashamed if you just need a taste of home every once in a while! Sometimes a peanut butter and jelly sandwich helps me get through the day.

I could list many more, but these are just a few to get you started.  My field experiences always allow me to grow as a scholar and a person. If you are fortunate enough to attend field school, volunteer on an archaeological project, or run your own excavation do your best to remember to appreciate it. Field life can be very challenging but also greatly rewarding.

Never A Dull Moment!

We continue to have a great field season. Today we excavated another area of the Ceren sacbe (road). Our excavations have maize fields on each side of the sacbe. Our plaster plant casts of the maize (corn) show multiple ears of corn and in one case we are even able to see the corn kernals. 

Check out the photo published a few weeks back of our of our plant casts:
http://news.yahoo.com/photos/christine-dixon-student-university-colorado-shows-ear-corn-photo-230357713.html

We also documented an ancient manioc field that was so worn down and compacted, we were able to interpret this as a manioc field that was no longer in use at the Ceren site at the time of the eruption. The fields appear to have been not used for a season or longer (given the erosion and compacted areas).

I will post more when our Internet connection is a bit stronger (rainy season makes for more difficult Internet connections) and plan some upcoming posts on paleoethnobotony, lab work, and  a list of fields dos and don'ts to remember! Stay tuned. For now I'm going to go see what the latest flying bug is that has caused half of my field crew to run around screaming.

Document, Document, Document

Sometimes people imagine that all archaeologists do is dig, fight off snakes, and chase down looters. While those might be aspects of our archaeological work, the most important part of our work in the field is documentation. Without documentation the artifacts, ecofacts, and other data we encounter are rendered almost useless. The context and provenience of what we excavate allow us to reconstruct the stories of the past.

So what to document in our excavations? Typically we document by drawing maps of the excavation in plan view (bird's eye view) and profile view (cross-section).  We record information about the ridges and furrows (height, spacing, direction), we record how deep we are below the ground surface, and even differences in color along the ground surface. Since colors are often subjective, cultural influenced, and names not agreed upon, we utilize a system of standardization by using a Munsell Soil Chart. This book contains a variety of colors (each given names - e.g. 10 YR 3/5) that we compare our soils to for a color description.  We wet the soil or sediment (note that dirt is not a scientific term and soil and sediments are not the same) and then compare these to the color swatches in the book.  It can be frustrating to decide which color you have,  but this system provides a way to standardize our observations of color.

The moral of this archaeological tale... DOCUMENT, DOCUMENT, DOCUMENT.  Our job is to record as much data as possible when we excavate. The archaeolgoical record is a non-renewable resources, so once we have dug it up we cannot go back and re-excavate. We get one shot to do this right and that responsiblity weighs heavy at Ceren, where we have a very special data set to record each day.

Catching up!

Sorry for the delay in posts but we have been sick around here the past week!  Head colds in the tropics are not so fun but our field crew is on the mend and we are continuing to enjoy our Ceren work.

Having had so many of us fighting through ear infections, fevers, coughs, and what not has given us a lot to catch up on. So here we go, we have opened many more excavations (we are beginning our 12th operation of the field season tomorrow - all 3m x 3m in size).

Our road I first posted about to you has been declared an official Sacbe by Maya experts due to its shape, size, and the level of investment put into not only building the road but also the canals on the sides. We have now documented the first earthen ancient Maya sacbe in two test pits. In the second test pit that exposed a section of the sacbe we had very well constructed canals on either side and again a width of approximtely 2 meters. There appear to be maize fields of either side of our sacbe and we suspect that the sacbe runs into an area where a ritual feast was underway when the volcano erupted. This has been hugely exciting!  We are now excavating an area even closer to the site where we think the sacbe runs and will likely expose this during this week. If the sacbe does extend to this area we will have confirmed approximately 40 meters in length of this road!

From Left to Right Maize Plant, Constructed Canal, and Ceren Sacbe

Plan View of Ceren Sacbe

Doesn´t get much better than this!

Hi again,

Well I have to say the archaeological research at Ceren this year has just taken off to an amazing start.

Today I excavated a 1400 year old earthen walkway ! This is amazing. It is much larger than would be required for one person to walk on it, and it seems like it would require a lot of maintance. I even found a spot as I was excavating where the soft sand from the canals on either side of the walkway hadbeen scooped up and placed on the edges (to reconstruct the walkway).  We have never seen anything like this before at Ceren and are truly excited.

Along the top of the walkway are small ceramic sherds that have been compacted into the surface of the walkway. This shows us people likely walked over these a few times.  Also, you can readily see a dip and color change in the center of the walkway where much higher traffic was likely present. To the east of the walkway is the beginning of  a maize field.

I think the most amazing part of all is that today I walked in an area that was last walked on 1400 years ago!

I am so lucky to get to do this research and really do love being an archaeologist!

Hollow cavities, plaster, singer workers, oh my!!!

Before I begin let me apologize for the typos! Spanish keyboard here and a brain totally mixed with English and Spanish.

Well another great day in what I have to consider archaeological paradise. Our excavations have progressed nicely and in Op S we have reached the TBJ (tierra blanca joven) horizon, the living surface of Ceren. You should by now be feeling very connected to our work if you are reading this because I walk each day at 4pm after work to the Internet cafe still covered in dirt as I write to you! So the Ceren tephra is actually helping me type this- we like to call this our washable tan.

Okay on to the archaeology-today we found many hollow cavities in the western two operations Ops Q and R. It appears we have a maize field in these areas. In Op T (furthest east and north) we also have what appears to be a mazie field with a very large branch that was blown off a tree during the eruption of the Loma Caldera volcano 1400 years ago.  In Op S we have the beginning of a maize field in the far eastern corner but almost the entire rest of the excavation appears to be an area with open spaces where possibly activities might have occured. In this Op we have a very clear field boundary for the maize, which is exciting, but we need to excavate more to more fully understand it. 

 

First- we test the plastic bag to make
sure there is no hole in it



We mixed and poured the dental plaster into the hollow cavities of Op S.  This is a mix of powdered dental plaster we put into a plastic bag and then add water to it until it is the right consistency.These will harden tonight and then tomorrow we will clean off the TBJ surface and excavate these plant casts. Very exciting times.



Next, we add the powered plaster



 

Then we add water to the plaster mix

 

Finally we pour the dental plaster mixture
into the hollow spaces and will excavate
these once they h



Please let me know if you have any questions... In other exciting project news, we have a flush toliet being FINALLY put into our house! After years of outhouses with cockroaches, spiders, mosquitoes, ants, giant grasshoppers, etc.  we will finally get some cushy accomidations added to our cinder block field palace. But for now our workers, the tour guides, and the guards at site are having a blast making fun of the gringos who make very good use of the site museum´s bathroom! I´m pretty sure they have bets going on the gringo visits to the facilties each day!



Oh and when my workers found out I will be here for my birthday (July 4) they became very excited and began planning my party. They practiced how they will sing to me and even wrote happy bday kris (their spelling of my name) with the extra plaster. ;)

That´s all for now... but much more fun to come tomorrow.

Chris

Ceren Archaeological Excavations

Hi again,

A view of our current excavations at Ceren.
located along the southern boundary of the
archaeological site.
(From right to leftÑ Ops Q, R, S, and T)



Today we encountered more hollow cavities in our four excavations.  These excavations are alligned west to east and named Ops Q, R, S and T  (these letterings are a continuation of our system used in 2009). These Ops are all 3 m x 3m in size and are currently over 4 meters deep with still more excavating to do. Ops Q, R, and S are each spaced 5m from each other and are in a line . OP T is to the east and north of Op S.  In the furthest Op (operation) west, we have identified what appear to be the hollow cavities of three different maize plants. In Op R we have two maize cavities that are in a line with each other.  Curiously in Op S we are the furthest down in the stratigraphic sequence and only found one hollow cavity (maize plant) in the far eastern wall of the Op. This is very surprising and we are not sure what we will find when we reach the Ceren living horizon (called Tierra Blanca Joven after the fine, white volcanic tephra that Cerenians used 1400 years ago as their living surface).



Carefully cleaning around a recent hollow cavity found
in the volcanic tephra. These are the tops of plants that
once lived here 1400 years ago that were subsequently
buried by the Loma Caldera eruption.



We are hypothesizing there might be a cleared activity area here, but honestly do not know at present why there is one maize plant in the Op and nothing else thus far. We have been very careful not to miss any hollow spaces, so this means that at the time of the eruption  there was no plants present at this height about the ground surface.  What was on the ground surface (if anything) and what that ground surface looked like remain to be seen.



In Op T we have found multiple plants that are a potential milpa area. We are still not entirely sure of the alignment of these plants but will be able to see this more clearly as we excavate more.



Today we continued these excavations and I helped to train the new individuals on our project in proper excavation methods. When we encountered hollow cavities we investigated these, then rolled up newpaper to put into the holes as a protection while we continue to excavate the rest of the Op.



Tomorrow we will excavate more, and then mix up dental plaster to pour into each of the hollow cavities. We will then continue to excavate and when the plaster has set, we will excavate these to reveal the plant that was entombed in that spot 1400 years ago.





  








Yesterday we set out a few future excavation pits for our next spots to dig. My advisor, 

Ceren Structure 3 (excavated many years ago)
This structure is thought to be a building of politial importance
due to the benches (raised areas) at the front of the building.
There was also a very large vessel found here with another
smaller vessel that was likely used as a laddle for the contents
of the very large (largest so far found at the site) vessel.
Possibly ceremonial beer that was consumed when village elders
met to make political decisions.

 Payson Sheets, and I used compasses to establish a line from the main political building at Ceren (structure 3) to the area we are working, By placing an excavation along this line in the southern area of the site we are hopeful we can see how the fields are artiulated in direction and distance from the site center. In a very touching moment as we were standing next to Structure 3 my advisor gave me one of his Brunton compasses- somewhat of a rite of passage. 

  

Measuring the test pit depth

below the ground-surface (4m+)



We finished the day setting off some Salvadorian fireworks to celebrate these finds! Now I´m headed home to wait for the water supply to come back on so that I can shower!



The good stuff has just begun, so stay tuned.

Chris





My advisor, Payson Sheets, and I preparing to set off a rocket!

(some of our workers are hiding behind the back dirt pile)

Payson running after setting off a firework.
This one was very cool and I hadn´t seen it before. Basically,
it was gun powder wrapped up in newpaper with a fuse.
When this one exploded the newspaper flew apart like confetti!

*Do NOT try this at home

Front of Structure 3, Ceren
We used compasses to determine the alignment
of these walls and all were aligned from North
to South at 33 degrees east of mag. N. 
We are setting up a test pit that will intersect this line
continued from the site to the southern area we
are currently working in.

And so it begins...

Post-Classic obsidian blad core (Ceren PostClassic)

Excavation profile of tephra with a lava bomb from the eruption

First Hollow Cavitiy of the 2011 season
This is plugged with newspaper to protect it
while excavations continue!

Eureka!  Today we found the first of our hollow cavities for the 2011 field season.  Now I realize you are probably asking yourself what an archaeologist is doing so excited about finding a hole in the ground with nothing in it! No, it is not the heat stroke, but good guess.  One of the most amazing aspects of the Ceren archaeological site is that the impressions of the plants that once grew here are preserved in the volcanic ash. What that means is that the four holes we found in the volcanic tephra today are actually the tops of where plants once stood, close to 1400 years ago!  The plants have long since decomposed, but their impression have remained sealed in this ash (from the Loma Caldera eruption) until now.  So, we begin by investigating the holes and in one we found clear evidence for the plant strations of maize (corn) on the tephra forming the side of the hole.  We are currently using newspaper to plug the hole up and will continue excavating the rest of the pit.

Once we reach the Tierra Blanca Jove (TBJ) living surface (probably a meter or so below where we are now), we will then begin to cast these hollow spaces. This means we will mix up dental plaster and pour it in the holes we located today and whatever further holes we find.  Once the plaster has set we will excavated the pedastaled (the small amount of tephra we left around the hole to protect it) area around the casts and we will have a copy of the plant that was here 1400 years ago!

This is hugely important and exciting.  I will attempt to document each step of the process and post some pictures to help you conceptualize it. In summary, stay tuned because there is a whole lot more fun ahead (sorry no pun intended but the field does crazy things to one´s brain and sometimes bad humor just slips out!)

Time to head home, clean up, and prepare for the morning!

The Beginning

We began field work for our 2011 Ceren season this Monday.  A professional surveryor joined us on Monday with his students to located our old excavations and map in key points of interest for our research this year.  On Tuesday 20 workers arrived at our house and we began a basic introduction to the site and our research. We are fortunate that of this group approximately 3/4ths worked with us in 2009. It is great to see old friends and to have our workers not just familiar with our work but also us already in the season.  In previous seasons it took time for our workers to begin joking and talking with us, but this year it is immediate since we already have a relationship with so many of them.

We established 4 new test pits (3 m by 3m) along the southern boundary of the Ceren site yesterday. Quiz question' what is the hypotenus of a 3 x 3 m pit? :)  

 These pits are aligned in such a way as to hopefully intersect the agricultural fields we excavated south of the Ceren site in 2009.  This is the first year we are excavating within the archaeological park boundary in many years. Being that Ceren is a United Nations World Heritage site, the opportunity to work within the site boundaries is truly special. 

Our goal for this season is to identify further agricultural fields and assess the relationship between the fields and the site center.  Most importantly, we are hopeful that this field season will allow us to futher identify and locate manioc (yuca) fields.  These fields are very significant to our understanding of the ancient Maya, as no where else do we have evidence for this intensive cultivation of manioc. It is very likely manioc was a very important plant to the ancient Maya (particularly in times of drought) but it is extremely rare that this evidence would preserve to present day.  Thus, these Ceren data afford an extremely important window on the agriculture of the ancient Maya.  Agricultural production is more than just how people fed themselves. Food production has implications for all aspects of a group's life and lifestyle.

Today while excavating we found multiple Post Classic artifacts (mostly ceramic sherds) and one obsidian blade core (hopefully my photo will attach).  We quickly moved through this Post Classic horizon and are now well into the Loma Caldera tephra sequence. Loma Caldera was the volcanic eruption that resulted in the burial (and amazing preservation) of Joya de Ceren.

Our work is off to a great start and I am so happy to be back in El Salvador. As usual, it took about a day to adjust to being here and most of that was spent trying to remember how to speak either English or Spanish. I am still in the transition between languages right now .. something I am terming Language Shock.  In this phase I am speaking English and a Spanish word comes out of vise versa. Also, there are moments my brain is fried from working so hard to translate (especially when people are speaking very quickly) and I am left not knowing words in either English or Spanish! :) We are joking about this and enjoying the process or remembering and learning a non-native language and culture. We had so much fun on site today attempting to tell various riddles to each other.  If you want to work on your language skills just try to tell complex riddles in that language! What fun. A favorite of the day was ¨"What is mine but other people use more often?"  ...

Give up? The answer is  my name!  If you have any good ones please share since it is a wonderful way for all of us on site to connect through shared laughter and fun.

There are also many cultural differences that I will try to touch on next time when it comes to our work here, but for now just a brief hello from the field.  I am covered in dirt, have too many ant bites, and am ready for a shower and a beer! Ain´t this archaeological life grand!
Chris