Southwestern Archaeology, Inc. (SWA) Southwestern Archaeology Special Interest Group (SASIG) " Got CALICHE ? " Newsletter Archaeology, Anthropology, and History of the Greater Southwest! Saturday January 05, 2002 ***************************************** ARIZONA From: Ron Towner The next issue of Kiva, the Journal of Southwestern Anthropology and History, will include the following articles: The Economic Implications of Hohokam Buff Ware Exchange during the Early Sedentary Period by D. Abbott, S. Stinson, and S. Van Keuren; Deciphering a Pueblo I Household in the Central Chuska Valley, New Mexico by P. Reed and K. Hensler; New Insights into the Early Agricultural Period in the Tucson Basin by B. Roth and K. Wellman; and Late Archaic and Red Mountain Phase Task Group Size in Paradise Valley, Arizona: Evidence from the Last Ditch Site by M. Hackbarth. Subscription information can be obtained from Keith Knoblock at kbk4@mindspring.com. An additional note for people attending the Southwest Symposium in Tucson. AAHS will be selling back issues of Kiva at bargain-basement prices -- so make your list, check it twice, and bring your checkbook (no credit cards accepted). From: Darlene Lizarraga Arizona State Museum events http://www.statemuseum.arizona.edu February 22 SOUTHWEST INDIAN ART FAIR SILENT AUCTION; February 23 and 24 SOUTHWEST INDIAN ART FAIR; March 6, 7, 12, 13, 19, 20, 26, 27 ARCHAEOLOGY AWARENESS MONTH LECTURE SERIES; April 3, 10, 17, 24 RARE GLIMPSES ­ ASM International: The World Collections; April 5 and 6 SPRING BOOK SALE; April 6 OPEN HOUSE 10-4; May 24, 25 and 26 MATA ORTIZ LEARNING EXPEDITION. Contact for more information. From: Pam Jones We have just learned that Colorado has decided not to participate in the tri-state lottery therefore it will not come into existence at this time (this would have meant an additional $8 million loss to the Heritage Fund). However, we have also been informed that although the taking of the Heritage Fund was removed from the Senate and House budget for this year, the issue will be back on the table for the 2003 budget. Additionally the lottery must be placed on the 2002 ballot or the Lottery will Sunset and all Heritage Funds will end. We have been given to understand that Again, thank you for your help in protecting the Heritage Fund. From: Jeff Van Conant About a year ago Boma Johnson (retired BLM Archaeologist) told me of a site in the Kofa Moutains that was a pictograph site. He had been told of this site in the late 80's and never had the opputunity to go there and asked if I was interested in finding this. Was I ever! Well a fellow site steward and I took on this adventure in April of '01. We plotted our map of the area and started out on a rainy morning. Along the way we came across a group of BFR's (Big Flippin Rocks) and holed up under one as a squall passed over us. Well after waiting out the rain we noiced PETROGLYPHS! What a pleasant find... but being wet.. they were hard to see... A big horn sheep, a tree of life or creator, a medicine wheel or cross in a circle and a few others. We continued on our quest deep into the rugged and remote Kofa mountains. We came to the canyo that was supposed to hold the pictograph. We looked for about 10 minutes and wa la, there it was in the southern wall, and it was a beauty. It seem to be a trail of some sort with some anthropmorphs on it and some other figures. All done in red except a few lines of black. It flows from east to west. And is over 50 feet long. It is in relatively good shape. On New Years Day 2002, we returned with 3 other site stewards to check on the "Marsten site." It was still there and undisturbed. We found a bit of pottery on the site this time, river plain ware and a Matate along one of the old old trails. Fellow site steward Shelly R. looked at the petroglyphs and commented that the were quite old. She thought that they were from a pre-patayan age. It was an AWESOME day as the temps were in the low 70's. http://community-2.webtv.net/vancosouthwest/Pictographs/index.html From: John Giacobbe Stantec Consulting is concluding data recovery efforts at two sites in the York project area [AZ T:3:247 (ASM) and AZ T:3:250 (ASM)]. This site complex rests atop a Pleistocene terrace overlooking the Agua Fria River, south of Lake Pleasant. AZ T:3:247 (ASM) is a large Hohokam resource procurement and processing site, containing structures which appear to represent seasonal habitation loci. AZ T:3:250 (ASM) includes several historic canal segments and associated features, located within the floodplain of the Agua Fria at the base of the terrace which contains AZ T:3:247 (ASM). Stantec is also engaged in testing at the O'Malley Lumber Yard, within the boundaries of the La Villa Site [AZ T:12:148(ASM)]. AZ T:12:148 (ASM) appears to have been first described by A. Schroeder & A. Kelley in 1938, with the most recent work done by Kelly Schroeder in his study of the Pioneer and Military Memorial Park. The site includes 72 prehistoric features, including 14 pithouses. The features and associated artifacts suggest an occupation from AD 380 to 850 (Pioneer and Colonial Periods). Vahki Red and other early ceramic types were collected, and some of the projectile points suggest the possibility of a Late Archaic occupation. In addition, Stantec is testing several locations in downtown Phoenix adjacent to the Medical Examiners Office. We have included ground penetrating radar in the initial phase of our investigations, and that, coupled with historic research, suggests the presence of several buried historic structures, including possibly an early school and auto repair shop (1909-1912). Any questions, comments, ideas, or random rants are always welcome, contact . UTAH From: Layne Miller The Emery County Public Lands Council will be accepting public input on Sevier County's (Utah) proposal to construct a two-lane coal-haul road alongside Quitchupah Creek. The road would directly impact (destroy) several significant rock art sites, including one multi-cultural site containing Barrier Canyon Style, Glen Canyon Linear, Fremont and Ute style panels. A draft EIS released on the proposal recently offers an alternative location for the road that seems acceptable to all parties involved, but does not designate a preferred alternative. For further information on the road, search the "Got Caliche" archives. From: Dorde Woodruff The January meeting of the Salt Lake/Davis chapter of the Utah Statewide Archeological Society is Wednesday January 9th at our new meeting place, the library of Our Lady of Lourdes School at 1065 East 7th South, at the usual time: start gathering at 7 PM and begin the meeting at 7:30. Parking is in front. The January speaker is Merry Lycett Harrison of Millcreek Herbs. Indian "bundles" or cached packs never retrieved by the owner are rare in Utah. The Patterson Bundle (which the BLM has in Moab) contains plant parts. With her training as an herbalist, Merry was intrigued to try to identify the plants, and succeeded in doing so. The bundle contains, among other things, roots of species still used in Native American medicinal herb practice, and by any one else familiar with the use of these native plants. All can be found within a 50-mile radius of the location in the Book Cliffs where the bundle was discovered. Merry's training at the Southwest School of Botanical Medicine under Michael Moore was ideal for this task, as Moore is the most knowledgeable person today about the use of native Western medicinal herbs. In addition to the school, Moore wrote the books that are the basic references for these herbs, Medicinal Herbs of the Mountain West. AL SUR From: RPettigrew@aol.com I found the Caral story quite fascinating and your comments right on. I have a special connection to this story since I did an Audio Interview with Ruth Shady last summer. To see that, go to http://www.archaeologychannel.org and click on Audio Interviews. It's in both Spanish and English and associated with text, images, and links. We deliberately wanted to give Dr. Shady top billing but also found it useful to coordinate and obtain resources from the Field Museum. Jonathon Haas was very helpful in the process of setting up the interview. His heart is in the right place, but we face a situation in which the resources are here while the archaeology is down there. I've suggested to Ruth that we arrange ALI-sponsored tours to Caral, which would help to boost the local economy and give her some political support. TOOLS AND TECHNOLOGY From: James Henderson Many prehistoric as well as historic artifacts contain human-applied pigments, which frequently are the sole remnants of life styles or events. Surfaces onto which the pigments have been placed are often difficult to see--much less record--because of weather, accretions, and environmental effects. Dead Sea Scrolls, Native American rock paintings, pottery, mummified tattoos, et cetera are examples. Image recording and analysis now plays an important role in archaeology, because many artifacts must remain in situ. Recently, cross-polarized light photography has been used to capture very faint colored pigments. Digital editing completes the process by improving color saturation and contrast, and the final result is a dramatic improvement over the appearance of the original picture. As examples, the Henderson Cross-Polarized Enhancement procedure recovered 387 Oregon Trail emigrant names (faded axle grease) from a site thought to contain only 92; it recovered a humped-back flute player from a faded pictograph site near Banff Canada; and it recovered the faded berry juice letters of a journal composed in 1840. This two-step hybrid process is slow, but precise. It is applicable when the original pigments are severely weathered, scratched vandalized, and/or covered by soluble caliche. A detailed, descriptive paper can be found at: www.rit.edu/~biomed/news/henderson_paper.pdf It describes the process and the theory behind the technique. James W. Henderson, RBP, Applied Photographic Research, 804 Center Street, Oregon City, OR 97045; 503.655.6817 From: Grace Lichtenstein I feel as tho I'm a bit of an imposter, since I am a journalist, not a scholar and only very occasionally an avocational archeologist. In any event, I am currently in the process of preparing two SW archeology stories -- one for Smithsonian Magazine, about urban archeology in Tucson, and another for Travel and Leisure magazine, on NAGPRA and its implications for public displays of artifacts. Sorry -- don't have pub dates yet for either one; both are in the hands of my editors. I'm a former NY Times Denver buro chief and I still enjoy writing about the Four Corners area. If anyone has a story you think I should pursue... or an upcoming not-for-scholars-only book that should be reviewed, do let me know. Grace Lichtenstein, New York landline: 212.580.3285; New Mexico phone: 505.463.1564; Postal mail: 15 W. 72nd St. Apt. 30-B, New York, NY 10023; Anytime Fax: 240.337.2591 CYBERIA From: Bette Fawley Here are some quick notes about the SAA annual meeting on March 20-24. Make your hotel reservations by January 18th and your name will be entered into a drawing for a one-year membership. (Note: Rooms at the SAA rate are available; be sure to ask for them.) Check out the preliminary program online at http://www.saa.org. Register online at http://www.saa.org/meetings/saa2002/advance_registration_form.asp. We hope to see you in Denver! Bette J. Fawley, Manager, Membership and Marketing Society for American Archaeology, Phone: 202.789.8200 From: Paul Huey Dot and Circle" Underglaze Blue-decorated Porcelain Bowls from China: Their Archeological Distribution as Evidence of a Marketing and Trade Pattern. by Paul R. Huey When I visited Tubac, Arizona, several years ago, I was interested to see the archaeological excavations that were occurring. One of the people on the crew kindly showed me some of the ceramics and other artifacts that had been found, and I was excited to see a piece of blue and white "dot and circle" decorated porcelain. This "dot and circle" pattern is distinctive, and I have been tracing its geographical distribution to determine if it was part of a specific trade pattern. In 1969 at Old Slip in New York City a blue-decorated porcelain bowl with the same distinctive dot-and-circle rim pattern was excavated from a landfill deposit probably of early 18th century date. An example is illustrated in a report on porcelain excavated at Fort Jesus in Mombassa, Kenya. Other sherds of this porcelain type appeared in excavations at Hanover Square near Old Slip, not far from where Frederic Philipse, Robert Livingston, and Captain Kidd lived. These men were active in trade with East Africa, Madagascar, and the Indian Ocean. Subsequently, sherds of this porcelain were excavated from a Philipse Manor farm house site north of New York City, while other examples have appeared in South Africa and in Aden. In North America this porcelain has also been found at 18th-century Spanish and French sites. These include not only Tubac but also Louisbourg, Crown Point, and Fort Ticonderoga, each with a history of pre-1760 French occupation. But this porcelain so far as I can determine has not been found at English colonial sites (such as Williamsburg, Virginia) except in New York, suggesting an interesting distributional pattern. Tubac, of course, was a Spanish presidio beginning in 1752, but Spanish missionaries had been active in the immediate area since as early as 1691. Fortunately, it has been possible to identify the Chinese kilns which produced this "dot and circle" type of porcelain. Helen Espir of the Oriental Ceramic Society on a trip to China in 1988 observed waster sherds of the "dot and circle" bowls at kiln sites in Dehua, Fujian Province, and Chuimei Ho of The Field Museum in Chicago has also identified waster sherds at kiln sites not only at Dehua but also at Anxi, Yongchun, and Lonjuan in South Fujian. Dehua, however, is most famous for its blanc de chine porcelain, represented predominantly by figurines that were exported. Blanc de chine figurines from Dehua have appeared at English colonial sites such as Port Royal, Jamaica, which was destroyed by earthquake in 1692. In New York State, the base of a Dehua blanc de Chine figurine was also excavated at Clermont, which was the upper Hudson Valley estate built about 1728 by Robert Livingston, Jr. Other examples of blanc de Chine porcelain have been excavated in Mexico City, at Cape Town, South Africa, and at the early 18th century French site of Old Mobile, Alabama. This porcelain was probably traded at Amoy or Formosa to Europeans. The Dutch, however, had been excluded from Amoy and Formosa from 1657 until 1681 or 1682, after which the trade with the Dutch in Indonesia revived. English merchants attempting to trade at Amoy in 1695 encountered great difficulty in buying silk and other goods due to a general embargo there. The French, however, were at Canton in 1698, and in 1699 an English ship also reached Canton, after which the direct English trade with Canton steadily increased while interest in trade with other Chinese ports declined. In 1722, the Chinese merchants invited the English to move their trade to Amoy. The English were tempted but desisted and remained at Canton. The Dutch in Indonesia did not welcome the English as they passed through the Malay Archipelago en route to China. The English complained that the Dutch discriminated against them since the Dutch general there "refuses not that Privilege to the Portuguese, or any other Nation of Europe." I am wondering if the "dot and circle" Chinese porcelain represents a facet of the 18th-century China trade from which the English were excluded. It is noteworthy that examples of blanc de chine porcelain, to my knowledge, have not been found in centers of English colonialism such as Williamsburg. Where blanc de chine or "dot and circle" porcelain have been found in "English" sites are in places where there was a great population mixture, specifically of Dutch or Spanish. Perhaps the "dot and circle" porcelain represents a ceramic ware that was outside the net of an English East India Company Canton-centered trade monopoly but was occasionally smuggled around it by the French, Dutch, or Spanish. It's just a theory. Much good research can be done by analyzing occurrence distribution patterns, but the dating of "dot and circle" porcelain is still in question. I believe it dates from the first half of the 18th century, or the late 17th century. In South Africa it is believed to date from the 1780s. Has anyone found this in other sites in the Southwest, or in Mexico, and what would be its date? Getting data on dated contexts for this ware has been frustrating and is my number one goal. To look at a good example of a bowl identical to the one found at Old Slip, go to: http://www.interart.ca/ceramics/ItemC0021-25.html. This bowl was found in Indonesia, I believe. Paul Huey New York State Bureau of Historic Sites Peebles Island Box 219 Waterford, N.Y. 12188 USA ***************************************** Contact the Newsletter Editor: swa@dogyears.com (e-mail) www.swanet.org (url) 602.882.8025 (cell phone) 603.457.7957 (digital fax) 775.269.0943 (digital fax) Post letter mail and other media to: Southwestern Archaeology, Inc., P.O. Box 61203 Phoenix AZ, USA 85082-1203. SWA invites you to redistribute SWA's "Got CALICHE?" Newsletter. We also request your timely news articles, organizational activities and events, technical and scientific writings, and opinion pieces, to be shared with our digital community. Free Subscription . Thanks for reading today's edition! Southwestern Archaeology, Inc. (SWA) - A 501(c)(3) customer-centric corporation dedicated to electronic potlatch and digital totemic increase rites that focus and multiply historic preservation activities in the Greater Southwest. 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