Just Another Shovelbum
I am a recent college grad with a BA in Anthropology. I recently started a Master's Program at the University of New Orleans. I am studying historic preservation and applied anthropology. After being employed as an archaeological technician for a year, I miss it very much and hope to participate in digs maybe over breaks or on a volunteer basis. However, I feel lucky to now be in a field that will allow me to be involved in historic preservation and *not* get ticks or poison ivy! :) I will always be a shovelbum at heart, though. I created this blog for my many curious friends and family, and anyone else, who wants to know what it is really like to pursue a career in archaeology and historic preservation. Scroll down to follow my progress as I find out the answer to that question myself!Just Another Shovelbum
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Travel Blog Posts
Welcome to New Orleans!
Published: September 14th 2008North America » United States » Louisiana » New Orleans
August 28th 2008
I arrived in New Orleans in mid-August. Needless to say, it has been crazy so far! I have been getting used to my new school, my new surroundings, and attempting to get my job off the ground. In the middle of all of this, New Orleans has had 2 tropical storms, 1 major hurricane, and 1 manadatory evacuation! But all is calm now, and barring any more hurricane activity in the Gulf, things should start to return to normal. I came to New Orleans to study historic preservation and applied anthropology at the University of New Orleans. I am very happy with the school so far, and the professors are all very helpful and eager to work with the grad students. The environment has been extremely supportive. UNO is doing a lot of important recovery work ... read more
June 26th 2008
I just got back from an admittedly very cushy job in Victoria, Texas. It was a 6 week long project, but of all places to spend 6 weeks away from home, Victoria wasn't that bad! The beach was only about 45 minutes away, and the hotel had a pool, so I was usually lounging around at one of those two places during my free time. I got a nice tan! The crew had a total of 14 people, so it was a good mix. I worked in the lab doing data entry and recording artifacts that were brought in each day from the field. I was lucky I didn't have to dig, but when I go back in July I will be digging. I also found out that I've been accepted to the University of New ... read more
New Orleans Project... Revisited
Published: May 3rd 2008North America » United States » Louisiana » New Orleans
May 2nd 2008
For my senior project I wrote a paper about historical preservation in New Orleans during the post-Katrina era (you can read about it here if you like). I've always considered that paper as a work in progress because the situation in New Orleans is changing by the day, sometimes by taking a step forward and other times a step back. In any case, I would like to continue this line of study in grad school, so this past weekend I went to New Orleans to take more pictures of buildings on the National Historic Register, and to tour the UNO campus. When I was doing research for my paper, one of the things that I became frustrated with was the lack of pictures and information available for buildings on the NHR. The more well-known, public buildings ... read more
April 22nd 2008
December 16th... between the recent changes at home and the TXDot cutbacks, that was the last time I had earned a paycheck. I wasn't a shovelbum at that point, I was just a bum! But not anymore, the drought is finally over! This past week I was surveying and testing sites on Canon Air Force Base outside of Portales, New Mexico. First off, let me say that northeastern New Mexico is not much more scenic than, say, Lubbock, TX. It is flat, dusty, and makes one realize that when New Mexicans coined the phrase "the Land of Enchantment" they were obviously talking about the other part of the state. Anywhere but northeastern New Mexico! But it also gives a sense of the determination and perseverance that early pioneers must have had to settle on this land ... read more
March 3rd 2008
Before I decided to try my luck at CRM, I was warned that there could be periods of time when projects might be few and far between. With the recent troubles at TXDot, a major source of funding to the CRM firm where I am currently employed, many projects were either put on hold or scrapped altogether. Winter is typically slow for CRM firms anyway. This period of inactivity has also coincided with a major change in my life. My husband and I seperated at the beginning of the year, and I have been preoccupied with the business of setting myself up in an apartment and with the upcoming sale of our house. I have also been practicing with my camera to keep myself from getting too bored. Thankfully I am scheduled to start working at ... read more
November 10th 2007
I'm currently working on an excavation located in Garland, TX. The site is right next to the new Firewheel mall, and we are testing the area in advance of the construction for the new extension to Highway 190. Many people are surprised to know that archaeology is happening right in their own backyard. The most common question is why? What could we possibly be finding? The answer is that much of CRM work is required because of state and federal laws that say that any development on public land has to be tested to determine if any cultural resources will be destroyed in the constuction process, and to try to recover a sample of the material before it is destroyed. What we find depends very much on the region, but in general evidence of human activity ... read more
Project in Lampasas, Texas Hill Country
Published: October 21st 2007North America » United States » Texas
October 20th 2007
After visiting Fredericksburg recently and developing an appreciation for the Texas Hill Country, I was excited to find out that my next project was located in Lampasas, a small town just outside of Fort Hood in Killeen. The area, like most of Hill Country, has lots of limestone outcroppings and the trademark rolling green hills. The limestone makes the creeks particularly beautiful since there is not an abundance of sediments to cloud up the water, so many creeks are clear and clean looking. We actually found the perfect swimming hole in one of the creeks, and after a particularly hot day we went wading around, looking for fossils and artifacts (but not removing them, of course). Lampasas itself is a small town on the edge of the Colorado Bend State Park. What surprised me most was ... read more
Muddy Creek Site in Wylie, TX
Published: August 21st 2007North America » United States » Texas » Dallas
August 17th 2007
I recently began working as an archaeological technician for a local Plano-based company. I am very excited to be working for them because I have always heard good things about this firm, and also because they have several local projects coming up over the next couple of months. My first assignment with them is to perform test excavations near a creek in Wylie, TX. We are finding mostly small fragments of bone, but we did find a large cache of lithics (rock or stone altered by humans) and some projectile points in one of the pits. No one knows the age of the site yet. The reason they are excavating this site is because when they were surveying the area last year they found a really unusual piece of pottery that is not typical for this ... read more
Archaeology... in Vegas?!
Published: August 21st 2007North America » United States » Nevada » Las Vegas
August 14th 2007
Sure! Well, not exactly in Vegas... I have always loved Vegas in spite of any instincts I may have to feel otherwise. In spite of the fact that it represents excess and frivolous spending, in spite of the fact that it glorifies materialism and pretentiousness. It's a fun town. Bright lights, lots of food. It's a great place to get away from everything and live in a make-believe world for a couple of days... and a couple of days is usually all I can take before I start getting a nervous twitch and the mountains just outside of the city start calling my name. On day 3 of our trip to Vegas, my husband and I rented a car and decided to simply head east on I-15. I had vague knowledge of an Anasazi museum that ... read more
July 27th 2007
Archaeology Isn't Always Pretty... Success is going from failure to failure without a loss of enthusiam. --Winston Churchill I debated about whether or not I would include this story, but it is a part of the learning experience of being a new field tech. One of the things that always bothered me about the faculty at my University is that they were not willing to talk about their difficulties as well as their successes in their pursuit of this field. My professors were always supportive, but I think it is important for young archaeologists to have mentors who are willing to share that information with them so that they feel that they are not failures or alone when they have difficulties. This is a tough profession, and it is very competitive. My second job in CRM ... read more
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