A Day of Wisdom
By Caitlin Holland
I have never seen so many stars in the sky when I awake
before the break of dawn. Billions of stars illuminating the dark sky
surrounding a crescent moon over Chaco Canyon. The ruffling of sleeping bags,
the unzipping of tent doors and the contemporaneous symphony of alarm clocks
illustrate the departure time from the safe boundaries of our camping area to
the extensive mesas and pueblos of Chaco Canyon. A discussion of goals for the day arises while we carry and
prepare necessary equipment to the site for excavation as well as site
assessment surveys. Some students
continued exposing historic features and structures within the borders of where
the Wetherill Homestead and Trading Post used to be located in the early 1900s.
Other students were led to the Chetro Ketl agricultural fields, where they
received direction on the utilization of remote sensing and GPR
(Ground-penetrating radar).
Remote sensing techniques, such as GPR, allow archaeologists
to retrieve exciting data. Particularly for GPR, the radar sends a high
frequency of radio waves through the ground that bounce off a buried object or
boundary and that signal then goes back to the machine and results in a basic
outlay of a map showing the object. This is used to understand what is located
beneath the surface of the ground without disturbing the original context of
the site(s). While students were becoming familiar with this process, another
group of students, me included, were driven up to a site in the South Gap of
Chaco to learn how to complete site assessment.
Site assessment is when the National Park Service wants to assess prehistoric and historic sites
that were previously recorded by other researchers. The goal is to update the
records of each site (maps and notes) based on changes that have occurred
through geological, environmental and animal and human impacts. Today we relocated
a Basketmaker Period site, where we additionally learned about the process of
structure collapse and of ecological adaptations that took place within the
area. Strong gusts of wind, rain and a “stampede” of tumbleweeds off in the
distance marked the end of our work for the day!
The day was not over yet though, as everyone huddled
together at the Wetherill Homestead site to begin a tour of everyone’s
excavation units! Many of the units held exposed architecture such as a rock
wall, concrete step or a well house. Other units showed remarkable
stratigraphic layers of dirt, then ash and organic material, and then sand.
Still other units, under closer inspection, showed remnants of other features
such as post holes from previous buildings. From the beginning to the end of the day, wise lessons were
acknowledged by all of us; lessons that will provide guidance in the days
ahead. These lessons, sometimes masked by everyday events such as trying to
retrieve pickles from a jar, are what mean the most to us out here in Chaco and
elsewhere: Slow and steady finds the unexpected, and value friendship and
guidance when you need it the most.
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