(My second post for the Day of Archaeology event. Here is the link.)
So, I spent the “Day of Archaeology” monitoring a seismic crew as they worked a few thousand acres [removed]. This was actually on July 26th since I didn’t work on the 29th. I’ll start by describing, as best I can, what seismic is.
Typical Vibrator TruckThe seismic crew consists of about twenty ground workers, a few truck drivers, a recorder, and a geologist. The ground people lay out cable that stretches from north to south across the project area, a distance of up to five kilometers. The truck drivers drive east/west across the project area and vibrate the ground in prescribed intervals. The vibrations cause shockwaves that penetrate the ground hundreds of meters deep which then bounce back to the geophones that are running north/south. We are told that the goal is to determine the geological structures that exist beneath the ground so the mine can decide whether they want to excavate that area or use it for waste rock. I spoke to someone this weekend that works in the business and he says they are looking for oil and that eastern Nevada is sitting on a huge, very deep, oil field. I’m not too sure about that.
As monitors, we were assigned with the care and protection of the cultural resources across the project area. The survey was recently completed and the report has not yet been approved by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) or the State Historic Preservation Officer (SHPO). Since the sites remain unevaluated, none of them are cleared for construction. As a consequence, no vehicle traffic whatsoever was allowed across the sites and all foot traffic had to be observed by an archaeologist. We watched for disturbance of artifacts and features by foot traffic and by the electrical cords that the crews were laying out. We also watched to make sure that the seismic crew didn’t disturb any artifacts. People like projectile points (arrowheads) and usually don’t see anything wrong with putting them in their pockets.
Nevada high desert near Barrel Springs, Nevada. (c) 2008 Chris WebsterA lot of monitoring involves a lot of sitting around for hours waiting for something to happen and then working furiously for a little while. This was no different. When you are monitoring you are on the schedule and time frame of the construction crew you are working with. That’s why we were putting in about 13 hours a day. When you are sitting you tend to feel like you should be doing something. I usually read or listen to podcasts. For the seismic monitoring I couldn’t even be away from my truck for very long. A call could come over the radio at any time and you have to be where you are supposed to be as quick a you can.
While monitoring, you have to get over the “high and mighty” feeling that some people tend to get. You are typically working with people that, at most, graduated high school and went right into the construction field. They usually see us as highly paid scientists. It’s likely that they are getting paid more than you are! They just don’t know it. When I’m conversing with construction workers I certainly don’t try to minimize my field or the education requirements but I don’t try to make it sound like more than it is either. No one responds well to that.
I wish I had something more exciting to talk about for the Day of Archaeology event but the reality of cultural resource management (CRM) archaeology is that many of your days will be like this. Sometimes you go weeks or months without finding an artifact. You may go an entire season without finding a feature. This work needs to be done, however. A project area that doesn’t turn up any artifacts or other interesting finds still tells us valuable information.
Written in Monroe, Washington.
From the Dictionary of Archaeology, Peguin Reference, 2004, an entry chosen using a random number generator Pg 520, entry 6:
Yombon a complex of open sites in West New Britain, where Christina Pavlides excavated a sequence in which cultural material alternates with tephra layers from Mount Witori. The area was first occupied about 35,000 bp. This is the oldest evidence in the world of tropical rainforest occupation. Artifacts from Pleistocene layers are made only of local chert and the sequence documents changing patterns of exploitation of this material. Obsidian from Talasea and Mopir appears in the mid Holocene.
This is the only picture I have of a Monitor we had in Washington State in 2008. He stood around mostly but liked telling interesting stories. He was a good guy. (c) 2008 Chris WebsterThe link is to an article in the Billings Gazette posted on August 15, 2011. I'm glad to see Native Americans taking an interest in their heritage with a scientific viewpoint. I've worked with monitors before and they come in all different types. Sometimes they stand next to your unit and don't say a word. Occaisionally one has commented on an artifact or a feature but they usually want to know what we think it is. Then they say we are wrong. I've also worked with monitors that are interested in the science behind what we are doing but didn't have the education and training to really understand it.