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2021
15
Jul
How Time and Place Is Woven at Zuni
Courtney Campbell, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa
(July 15, 2021)—We started our time at Zuni by visiting the local trading posts where I and several of my fellow field school students were captivated by the fetishes. The fetishes are stone animals that protect the owner’s mind and body fr...
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2021
06
Jul
People Questions
Sam Rosenbaum, Montana State University
(July 6, 2021)—Archaeological sites can often be wondrous and mind-boggling attractions. Angkor Wat, Göbekli Tepe, and Chaco Canyon are impressive to behold, inspiring many to imagine a rich and colorful past. Although the Gila River Farm site is not as ...
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2021
05
Jul
Cottontails, Skunks, and Scorpions—Oh My!
Guinevive Halstead-Johnson, George Mason University
(July 5, 2021)—The first animal I saw in the wilds of New Mexico was a scorpion. We were on our first day of excavation in our unit, and we were digging a trench along a known South wall of Room 454, all the way down to the bottom cimientos (b...
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2021
03
Jul
My Journey
London Booker, Howard University
(July 3, 2021)—During the fall of 2019, I felt very indecisive about my future career path. I was a rising junior majoring in History at Howard University, unsure of what I was going to do with my undergrad degree. Originally, I majored in History to pursue law,...
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2021
02
Jul
Gaining Confidence
Mason Bolaño, Franklin and Marshall College
(July 2, 2021)—If I had to describe myself, I’d say that I am a chronic overthinker. My brain tends to fire off thousands of thoughts a minute, anxious about the small and large alike. Before I even arrived at the Preservation Archaeology Field Sch...
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2021
30
Jun
Sense of Displacement
Kathrine Taylor, Cochise College
(June 30, 2021)—Preservation archaeology speaks not only to what we preserve and protect, but also what and whom we find worthy of preserving and protecting, of understanding, of learning from and respecting. It poses a unique opportunity to reevaluate the place...
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2021
30
Jun
Fifteen Pipes
Val Freireich, Volunteer
(June 30, 2021)—Fifteen stone pipes in a plastic bag. Other than potsherds, fifteen of a single type of artifact in one place has been a rarity during my volunteer work on Archaeology Southwest’s Robinson Collection Project.
Fifteen steatite stone pipes. The quanti...
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2021
22
Jun
Arqueología: Entendiendo nuestro pasado para abrazar nuestro futuro
Josué Cortijo Contreras, Universidad de Puerto Rico, Río Piedras
Mr. Cortijo Contreras is bilingual. He offers an English-language version of this post following the Spanish.
(22 Junio 2021)—Siempre he visto la arqueología como una vía para ayudar a otros; especialmente, aquellos que han...
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2021
17
Jun
The Transcendent Experience of Preservation Archaeology
Ruijie Yao, University of Arizona
Mr. Yao’s first language is Mandarin.
(June 17, 2021)—I have trained as a Mediterranean archaeologist, so Southwestern archaeology and its field methods are new to me. I had many ideas about archaeological fieldwork before I came to the field school, but I...
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2021
15
Jun
Renewal
Megan Eigen, SUNY Albany
(June 16, 2021)—It may not come as a surprise, but I—like many others—was first introduced to the concept of archaeology by watching Indiana Jones movies as a child. Although there is much to be said about Indiana Jones and his practices, the films drew me into the ...
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2021
15
Jun
Diversity Across the Landscape
Ray Mills, University of Maine
(June 15, 2021)—When I first came to the Southwest, I was expecting an arid landscape scattered with sparse, scraggly vegetation, and lots of sand. I was not expecting the high level of biodiversity that I have observed over recent weeks.
Immediately, as I step...
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2021
10
Jun
The Ins and Outs of Survey
Gabby Pfleger, Glendale Community College
(June 10, 2021)—Over the past week, I’ve been learning the processes involved in archaeological survey from the field school’s survey director, Michaelle Machuca. In theory, this work sounds like the dream—hiking and searching in the name of archa...
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