Climate Studies at ENMU – Week 3 Update

Separating Sediments By Particle Size:

This week the climate class began separating their samples by filtering the sediment through a series of nested screens to isolate the sand, silt, and clay particles. Some of the samples were quite loose and were able to be screened dry, but most of the samples were extremely compact and required water screening.

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The process for separating the wet sediments is similar to the dry, but the water is the mechanism moving the samples through the screens rather than motion. It is complicated to capture the silt and clay after screening, because if a pan is used at the bottom of the series of screens, the water has no place to escape. As a result the amount of silt and clay is the difference of the original sample weight and the remaining sediments.

Determining The Amount Of Organics In The Samples:

The class also began determining the amount of organic material present in each of the samples. This was done by weighing the samples, then heating them in a kiln for two hours at 200° Celsius, then subtracting the before and after weights.

The samples cooling before being weighed to determine organic content.

Climate Studies at ENMU – Week 2 Update

The climate studies class at Eastern New Mexico University has resumed, instructed by Dr. David Kilby, and funded through a grant from  New Mexico NSF EPSCoR. The class spent the Fall 2011 semester collecting sediment samples from various locations in Eastern New Mexico, including various locations at Blackwater Locality #1. The Students are now analyzing the samples in ENMU’s new geoarchaeology lab.

The students are describing the samples using the Munsell hue test, a standardized way of describing the color of the sediments when they are dry, moist, and completely saturated. They are also testing the plasticity, carbon content, and calcium content of the sediments using various tests including the amount of effervescence after the application of acid (pictured above).

For more information click below:

Climate Studies at Eastern New Mexico University

Flintknapping Is Now Front Page News!

Tommy Heflin demonstrating how to make an obsidian point during the Cynthia Irwin-Williams Lecture Event.

After meeting local flintknapper, Tommy Heflin, at the Cynthia Irwin-Williams Lecture Event in February, a Portales News Tribune reporter was inspired to follow up with Tommy and published an article about him. Tommy is a Portales Native, and skilled in primitive technologies, he is willing to share his knowledge with anyone who is willing to learn and shows interest. Tommy also volunteers at the Blackwater Draw Site in excavating and demonstrating his skills.

Below is the Portales News Tribune article about Tommy Heflin:

http://www.pntonline.com/articles/portales-28588-flintknapping-share.html

From the log of the Starship Enterprise

In January of 1967, an episode of Star Trek entitled “The Galileo Seven” aired, and caught the attention of Dr. George Agogino, a past Director of the Paleo-Indian Institute at Eastern New Mexico University. In the episode, Spock and his crew crash-land on a hostile planet with “caveman” like creatures lurking around, and throwing spears at the crew. Dr. Agogino saw a morphological resemblance between the spear points used in the episode and Folsom points, so he decided to send a letter and request that the spears that were used in the television show be donated to the Blackwater Draw Museum. A few months later Robert Justman, the associate Producer of Star Trek received Agogino’s request, and was enthused to answer it.

Justman noted that the spears were based on the Folsom points that had originally been found in New Mexico in the late 1920s, but he made sure to address the “dramatic license” that was practiced by enlarging the spears to 15 feet in length. Nonetheless, Agogino was still thrilled at the possibility of having Folsom themed Star Trek memorabilia on display.

Below is a scene out of the episode featuring the spears:

Many letters went back and forth between Agogino, Justman, and NBC, mainly addressing shipping and logistics of mailing 15 foot spears, but eventually the spears made their way to Portales, New Mexico, and then to the Blackwater Draw Museum where they are still proudly on display.

Star Trek prop spears on display in the Blackwater Draw Museum.

13th Annual Cynthia Irwin-Williams Lecture

Every spring Eastern New Mexico University’s Department of Anthropology and Mu Alpha Nu (Anthropology Club) host a lecture series held in honor of Cynthia Irwin-Williams, a past professor of anthropology at ENMU. The event is free and open to the public.This year’s presenter is Dr. Ted Goebel who will be speaking on the topic of peopling of the Americas. Dr. Goebel works in a number of locations such as Siberia, Alaska, California, Oregon, Utah, and Idaho, he also works on a number of different materials collected form archaeological sites such as coprolites, ancient insect remains, and lithic tools. For more information about Dr. Ted Goebel click here.

The lecture will be held on February 24, 2012 at 7:00 pm on the Eastern New Mexico Campus in the Jack Williamson Liberal Arts building (room number is TBA).

Born April 14, 1936 in Denver, Colorado, Cynthia Irwin-Williams developed an early interest in archaeology along with her brother, Henry.  When she was only 12 and her brother 14, both began working part-time at the Department of Archaeology in the Denver Museum of Natural History and formed an association with the curator, Dr. H. Marie Wormington.  These youthful pursuits led to Cynthia’s interest in the Archaic period and to professional publications on the Magic Mountain, Lo Daiska, and Agate Bluff sites around Denver.

Cynthia attended college at a time when women were still expected to be homemakers.  If they did decide to pursue higher education, they definitely were not expected to become archaeologists.  Yet, Cynthia did enroll and graduated form Radcliffe College with B.A. and M.A. degrees in Anthropology in 1957 and 1958, respectively.  In 1963 she received her Ph.D. in Anthropology from Harvard University. Cynthia once remarked about how she was forced to sit in the hallway during courses at Harvard as one of her professors did not believe that women should be enrolled in archaeology courses!

Cynthia persevered and quickly made her mark as a professional, having a towering grasp over specialties that ranged from archaeology to related aspects of geology, paleontology, climatology, remote sensing, desertification, and desert reclamation.  From 1963-1964 Cynthia lectured at Hunter College in New York,  From 1964-1982 she taught at Eastern New Mexico University and in 1978 she was awarded the Llano Estacado Center for Advanced Professional Studies and Research Distinguished Research Professorship.  Cynthia served as President of the Society for American Archaeology from 1977-1979, only the second woman to hold this position.  In 1982 Cynthia became executive director of the Social Science Center, Desert Research Institute of Reno,Nevada.  From 1988 until her death in 1990, she held the title of Research Professor, Quaternary Science Center, DRI.

A truly remarkable woman, multilingual (English, Spanish, French, Russian), with over 60 publications and 30 years of professional experience, Cynthia is considered to be a role model for women who aspire to scientific careers.  This is why the students of the Anthropology and Applied Archaeology Department have named a lectureship series in honor of Dr. Cynthia Irwin-Williams.

(Biography acquired from ENMU Anthropology Archives)

A Surprise Find

Sometimes in archaeology things don’t always go as planned, and sometimes the past hides gems under our noses (or boots).

Last November, students working with ENMU faculty as a part of an NSF New Mexico EPSCoR grant gained experience in climate change research. The purpose of the study is to better understand the Pleistocene to Holocene transition, and to apply the results to modern climate changes. Students collected pollen, phytolith, diatom, ostracod, and stable carbon isotope samples from a variety of sites along the eastern border of New Mexico. One of the areas that was of interest lies a few hundred meters south of the main portion of Blackwater Locality #1 known as Locality X. This locality has been surveyed and excavated sporadically over the last few years, and is mainly composed of lithic debitage.The climate study group was attempting to relocate a unit that was dug during the ENMU 2010 Field Session, which can prove to be a daunting task, even with good notes and today’s technology. The students did locate the unit, but in the process disturbed an adjacent unexcavated unit. During the screening of the disturbed dirt, a small arrowhead surfaced and revealed more information about this locality.

Much of the early work in Locality X was limited to surface collection and limited coring.  This southern portion of the site has yielded Paleoindian, Archaic, and Late prehistoric components including an anomalous metate fragment on the surface, arrow and dart points, and a graver.  Although we tend to focus on and highlight the Paleoindian components of the Blackwater Draw site, we always keep in mind that the occupation ranges from Clovis-age deposits through Proto-Historic and even Historic Native American settlement.  The arrow points found scattered on the southern landscape of the site probably indicate hunting that occurred around the outflow channel and dunes between the ancient lake bed and the draw.