00:00.00 sad boy Welcome back to the saddest podcast on the archeology podcast network this is a life in ruins Carlton is here David is not thank goodness. Um is all men you missed it every time you would. 00:10.44 archpodnet Ah, Jesus it. 00:17.66 sad boy We mentioned your name in the last episode I would go where were and do the sad trombone. 00:20.27 archpodnet I Really like the um the C M survival guide that one was fucking the one that you guys did before that I couldn't understand the guest at all we were playing it in the van or way to the groceries and all the students are like what is this man saying I'm like I have no idea. 00:26.23 sad boy It's pretty good. It was. 00:35.26 sad boy Well, that's like part because like Vinny's italian and then he's then he had like exactly exactly well like he had the like the worst microphone and and we just couldn't make it it work so he had like a ah pc microphone. So. 00:41.77 archpodnet Gabagoul. 00:49.45 archpodnet Now. 00:51.84 sad boy Sorry for all those folks like Vinnie's awesome we'll have him back on and we'll do it properly? Um, but just just because we talked about the archeology and and there might be because it's so new and the stuff you found this summer. It might not be a great topic and it's probably gonna a. Topic of many conversations in the future and and whatnot um could you explain kind of in general what you see and what is what happened at lynch and what makes it like kind of so important. Besides it being like the None site in Boyd County Boyd County 01:24.80 archpodnet yeah None discover site yeah um yeah I wish I could talk about what we found but like I have to wait will present it at planes in Oklahoma city planes conference this year 01:27.76 sad boy None discovered site that's wild. 01:36.37 archpodnet Um, and you know so um, you know I'm I'm just at the moment a graduate student assistant like I'm part of the project but I'm not the pi so I don't want to you know I'm so Goddam excited to tell everyone what the hell we found but we just can't we can't we can't we can't but generally lynch 25 b d one and the site is over a mile long. 01:43.40 sad boy Are. 01:56.11 archpodnet It's over a bluff overlooking punk and whiskey creeks. It's over none of property based on the analysis that I did and in one of my articles shield chief at all 2021 bays analysis of the chronology lyns site. It's a single occupation site. Contemporous with None another? um and it is this coalesce. It's part of what we call it is the none site of the initial coalescent variant which is a taxonomic unit describing basically the coalescence of. Plains horticulturists into these centralized towns and they really are towns right? There's a fantastic, not a not a covid variant. No no, no, not a covid vari but you know there's that there's that prevalence of calling anything indian like a village but if you look at what we know about modern excavations of Troy. 02:33.58 sad boy Not a coat, not a Covid variant right? It's kind of disease. Okay, okay. 02:48.96 archpodnet Based on its size and population lynch is larger and both and lint and Troy is a city right? So this is really a town if not a small city a population estimates roughly 6000 people lived here and and potentially more um it is seems to be. 02:51.27 sad boy Wow. 03:06.35 archpodnet A bunch of people from central nebraska Northern Kansas came here. They have central planes tradition for you know square watddleand dog houses which we think they might be thatch true if we're not quite sure. But there's also pottery styles that are coming in from. Ah, the great lakes. So there's this mixture of locally made pottery. That's central plain tradition. But what we call onota and the term that we've coined is central plains onota folks. So there's something going on there either ideas or people are are up there. We haven't seen Oneota houses quite yet oneo style houses. But there's a lot of people up there. Is the none time that this has happened um northward on the Missouri River the initial middle missouri is they're doing something similar ancestral Mand ends and hadatass. It seems to be a ah response to maybe a ah drought. So these people are coming together and informing something that that then becomes pawe and a ricora. Um, and the history of the site there was excavations in the 30 s they were civilian conservation corps I believe so not Wpa, but the opposite None cca triple c um, they dug these you can see them on Google maps still because they didn't backfill them these 2 huge trenches so we were excavating in between them to look for a house. We did. Magnetomemetry which was conducted by Adam Weevil and so he we magnetometer damn near the whole site and over you know over None anomalies that we had to sort through and and see patterns and so we were pretty positive. We were over top of a house and that's what we were trying to excavate to um. Dude we found I wheel out we found over a dozen projectile points. Only one was incomplete to us. The rest were complete. It was crazy. We found like None preforms that were finished and like a bunch of finished plane side notch points. 04:43.44 sad boy Wow. 04:53.93 archpodnet Um, mostly smoky hill Jasper which is like Southern Nebraska Northern Kansas like it was and and also um I think it's white river group up in the Dakota is like beautiful points. Um, really immaculate pottery. We found unfired Clay. Um. And it was and so it was just dense. It was just crazy and you know we had None students because we haven't neither see you boul or Augustine have had a field school in 2 years we have basically a backlog and we had to. We had the pick of the litter. So basically there was only 1 freshman. The rest were predominantly seniors and juniors so we have mostly adults. And it showed because even though we had 31 students. It was the best crew I've ever had and I've been doing field schools for like 6 years now from wyoming and c boulder in Fort Lewis college like I've done I've seen them like I've been around field schools like I know how this operates and these kids were just immaculate. Um, and and I shouldn't say kids. Ah you know adults they were just they listened they paid like and they just did such a wonderful job at excavating. Um and and in close quarters too and and conditions I think I mentioned last time like it got we got a week where it was over ° and with humidity and the wind was so strong we couldn't tarp so like they were they were in it so we would do work from None till about none. We'd break for lunch. Get back to sight around like be back by None so um, and then we'd work till two thirty three o'clock to try to avoid the heat as best we could. 06:27.36 sad boy So you guys were you just sampling one one house area and how many and how many times has it how many places have been sampled on lynch so far because it's always like you said it's ah it's a mile-long site like so how much. 06:27.82 archpodnet And they. Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 06:43.69 archpodnet So there was the 1930 s excavations that reno just like shoveling it out. There was another excavation I think in the sixty s and then another one in 2008 and then August and and Augustan and 2018 augustan and into boulder in 2019 but it's been sampled a bit and. 06:44.80 sad boy Testing has really been done there. 07:03.35 archpodnet There's just so much. We don't know about that site and it's just it's just it's just crazy and originally we had different expectations for we thought we were going to open basically test get the students with this the house that we were looking for was it was enough under the surface. That it would allow the students time to practice excavation to get down to it once they got down to it. We'd be able to open up another excavation like maybe up to None more excavations that didn't happen so we stayed in the same spot and so we weren't able to do our original plan and and you know based on what what? Ah what we had discovered in the field. 07:26.97 sad boy Um. 07:38.12 archpodnet You know, radically adapt your game plans and I really have to give a huge shout out to Dr. Carlson Dr. Vanforth for being able to do that on the on the fly like that. So we continued working we it was you know it. Could tell I'd I've been out of the field for a little bit because like we had you know how we have the arbitrary datatum set up at none with the stakee. Well one was getting loose and I was like what should I do about it and everyone's like oh well just sink it in further. So like none of us you know, thought about it. So like all right Let's just hammer it in and then all suits like all of our measurements are wrong like how are the measurements wrong. 08:05.98 sad boy Ah, the. 08:11.70 archpodnet It was like this who's on None thing were like we had been. It was just like such a stupid mistake like oh we sunk in the datum so they wouldn't get loose so that's why our measurements are absolutely fucked. Ah, but we fixed it but it was like we were freaking out for a little bit. It was just like. 08:19.96 sad boy The elevation control is ah not under control. 08:29.39 sad boy Um. 08:30.51 archpodnet You know Dr Carlson at Carlton didn't you take a slutgehammer to one of those like yeah because there's fauna. Oh that. Yeah oops and you know just like goofy stuff. It's and they're like and. 08:37.80 sad boy Ah I believe Covid It's covid right? It has to be covered like that's. 08:43.91 archpodnet You know and they're like it's okay, have him been excavating tears like actually I ran a field school last year's Fort Lo college like I shouldn't know better than to something that stump but we caught it and fixed it. But it was just like 1 of those goofy things because I you know I asked everyone like what should we do about this can I just think it in and like no one thought about it. You know. 08:50.94 sad boy That. 09:00.94 archpodnet Because we had't had the total station up yet if the total station was up. It wouldn't been an issue. Um, so it's just it was just it was you know it was a little goofy but um I think one of the most but I don't think I know one of the most transformative aspects for those students is that we had the pawne visitation. 09:02.70 sad boy Yeah, ah. 09:17.70 archpodnet And so originally we had over like 2 None people registered to come but because of gas prices many couldn't afford it so we had about a dozen including Matt Reed out shout out Matt Reid who's listens to this podcast. Um yes, he he is on the podcast and still listens. 09:27.32 sad boy Um, was on one of them I don't have my phone near me but he was definitely on a podcast. 09:36.66 archpodnet Um, and ah him a cousin of mine. Um Phil Goover one of the Phil Goovers Phil Goover the None and ah Aaron prim his son felix and also there's a bunch of pawnee interns at the crane trust in Nebraska because that land is being deeded to us. So there's a bunch of interns out there. Of growing corn and they found out about so they came and visited and so they were familiar with us and you know we got they got to excavate they got to see the site. We toured them around the whole area showing where all the other sites are why this matters and like the look on felix who's you know a kid like get to excavate and then. Like be a part of that I was like I think he's going to be None of my graduate students in a decade because that kid was just blown and there's another part of the site where there's eroding pits and like felix really wanted a a projectile point and they eroding pits so it's like the context is gone. And you know our our view of it including you know the the pis is like if if anyone if this are if those objects belong to anyone. It's it's descendants of the it's the pawe so we went to these um roding pits. Everything's washed out context is gone and sure enough it was the day after it rained and we found a complete side notch point. And Felix was so excited when he got it. He like threw it in the air and lost it in the grass for a little bit and was like freaking out trying to find it and I ran a hold on that to you Bud so when you when you get home. Um, and you know it was just such we you know such a humbling experience to have them there for a week. We fed them I made fry bread and it was like they were. Giving me so much grief for my fry bread because they're like you know, usually know your're aunt or someone makes this and this's your none time making ffri breads. They just loved like heckling me on making indian tacos and I got a bunch. It was like you know was a bunch of these like field school guys. Everyone was super excited to have the pawny you know we even had a day. Um, they were there during one of our days off. And we said like hey you know you don't have to because it's your day off, but like if some of you like to volunteer to come open the site so we can show it to the pawnies since not, you know 31 of you will be in there and like half the field school showed up on one of their days off like a lot to to reopen the site and work for a morning we didn't do a full day. We did a half day. 11:38.52 sad boy Um, well wow. 11:46.42 archpodnet And like a lot of the students like reflected on that and just like no this is amazing that they're here because like before they showed up I did this whole talk on indigenous archeology and why this is important and explaining them like inviting a descendent community out is an outlier like this doesn't happen like there might be like 2 There might be like a handful of other students. 12:01.17 sad boy Never. 12:06.21 archpodnet Schools across Canada and the United States that might do this but like the fact we're inviting them for a week and we're hosting them that just doesn't happen and so the students were like wait a second why not and so had this whole talk with them and explained to them indigenous archaeology and and mostly the history behind some of this stuff. And you know we cedared the site and I explained to the students like you know, fifty years ago that would have been illegal and they were like you know and really kind of contextualizing like the work that you guys are doing here matters and I think a lot of them really felt that and especially we had um. Had 3 indigenous students so 2 were descendants. None ne's descendant crow one's descendant lakota and then the other's Cherokee nation of Oklahoma and it was this weird for me. It wasn't weird I don't know how to describe it? um. 12:53.96 sad boy But it's an interesting I mean it's it's It's not something you experience every day in. 12:58.27 archpodnet Yeah, it's not something and and and and there was this ah I didn't favorite them but there was a mentorship role role was explaining to them like I'd kind of take them aside and be like this is why we're doing this. This is what's going on here like these are things to think about and especially for the um, ah cherokee. Cherokee You know I saw a lot of myself in her when I was undergraduate and like really kind of took that to like chat with her and we you know had really honest conversations about what it's like to be indigenous in this field and some of the things that she's been facing and really kind of you know do my best to. Give some sort of advice and mentorship that I didn't have right? you know coming into you know I really didn't have it until I got to you know boulder and even then like later in my career and so it was um, it was this weird. You know I haven't had a but real I had a postdoc but not that real postdoc experience where you. 13:45.28 sad boy Um. 13:56.48 archpodnet There's that time to go from student to teacher like you know as Dr Robinson told me is like my learning curve is going to be steep as shit when I get to Indiana and I felt a bit of that when I'm like with the indigenous students of like this is why we're doing this like this is how you need to protect yourself. This is how you navigate this world. And um, I really hope like you know as we were talking I think I a couple of them really got inspired to pursue anthropology beyond and I hope I get to see them maybe at iu as one of my students. Um, as best I can so that was like that whole experience and the day after the palynese laughed. Man and and we did what we need to do and and we had and we did some stuff like the whole prairie came to life the yuckab bloom. The Prairie roses came out like the hole and it was it was cool. The wind came back. The temperatures dropped. And like the whole Prairie opened up and like students were kind of wigged out by it. They're like what happened and like for me and for the indigenous students. It was just like oh yeah, this is what's supposed to happen. But for like some of the other students they were like is this witchcraft like they were like you know they it was. It was a very interesting like. Clash of worlds and for me I was like oh yeah, this is this is what needs to happen. Um, but it was just such a cool experience and um I don't know how to describe it and like to see how grateful everyone all the pone participants were in like as we were posting photos. Um, the folks that didn't make it were like envious. And even when I posted the announcements I only got like None negative comment I thought half the tribe was going to burn me at the stake as a witch but like everyone wanted to come and so I think next year I'll be in a position to write a grant to like hire up tour bus and also I'm really trying to get the the rior is down man if they don't have a casino to stay at. You know they're they don't they don't you know they're a little bit you know tent camping. Are you kidding? you know? um, it's hard it's hard to keep 15:48.63 sad boy Ah, ah, to be fair I look like I look like that right now. So. 15:53.39 archpodnet Yeah, it's it's you know it's it's hard to convince our northern relatives to let come down and you know get in the mud. Um, you know for good reason but it was you know and it it also I think was a critical part in you know you know finishing the dissertation and like trying to get everything done and you know it was that. Weeklong experience reminded me of why I do what I do and like affirmed that I need to do what I do um, oh yeah, my computer crashed I didn't mention that yeah my laptop died like two weeks in lost all my dissertation data that I was working on so i'm. 16:18.00 sad boy Is that going to give you fuel to get the eat these next couple weeks together is yeah oh. 16:30.78 sad boy Ah. 16:32.55 archpodnet Grambling right now to get things done and I'm like I have an appointment with I t tomorrow to like pray to the technology gods to salvage all the work I did um dude it was like you know, but it happened during that week the paw e came and it was like is this a you know part of me was like is this you know to focus on what I need to focus. 16:39.68 sad boy Oh. 16:52.20 archpodnet Um, you know so you know it was just that was I like fucking cried when my computer died like it was and then of course I got it fixed kind of. 16:56.38 sad boy That's insane. 17:04.45 archpodnet I lost all the data but I was able to get access to it like two weeks later all it took was one I t guy with a brain to be like oh here's your code I was are you kidding me? Yeah yeah. 17:15.81 sad boy And on that note, that's your code to ah listen to Chris Webster talk about some beautiful things that we're seeing here. So this is episode None of a life and run podcast. We will be rebec. 17:23.45 archpodnet Well.