The fourth episode of Time Team America took the team to Range Creek Canyon in Utah. Range Creek Canyon possesses hundreds of archaeological sites attributed to Fremont peoples. The Fremont Indians occupied not only this area but were spread out all over Utah and also on the borders of nearby states such as Idaho, Colorado and Nevada. They lived here from around 700 CE through about 1300 CE. These people subsisted on a mixture of hunting/gather as well as farming. (More information about the Fremont can be found here and here) The previous owner of Range Creek Canyon, whose family has had possession of the land for generations, deeded the land to the Utah Division of Wildlife Resource, which will preserve and protect its resources. Due to the area's remoteness, very few people knew about the archaeological resources in the area until very recently. The area's dry environment has also done a wonderful job preserving invaluable artifacts and sites that would have otherwise been lost. Without its remoteness, dry environment, and excellent stewardship Range Creek Canyon might not be the amazing assemblage that we know today.
Time Team helped out on a site called Big Village, which consists of several pit houses, some of which can still be seen due to the circular pattern of rocks on the ground surface. The geophysics team really shined through at this site. With their techniques and equipment they managed to find what used to be the walls of one of the pit houses, along with a midden nearby. None of this could be seen on the surface and would have only been found otherwise by pure chance and hours of labor. Another unit that was previously thought to be some sort of a midden (trash pit) turned up evidence of being a structure so the team tried to figure out where the walls are and why it’s a different design than the other pit houses near by.
One of the more intriguing questions they look into at Range Creek is why the Fremont peoples built granaries on the cliff sides. In order to get a better understanding of these granaries a member of the team and a specialist decided to try to create their own granary based off ones present in the area. This is another example of experimental archaeology (which as been discussed more in-depth in a previous post) at work helping to understand how such structures were built and what they may have looked like at the time they were being used. The key difference here is that unlike earlier when experimental archaeology was used to reproduce tools, here you can see it being used to recreate structures through traditional methods. These granaries, as I mentioned before, where built on cliff sides and other places that were rather difficult to get too. They built these granaries all over in visible yet difficult spots to get to as a means of protection in order to ensure that they would always have a source of food for when times when it was not possible to hunt, gather or farm. It is really a quite interesting method of storing food but to learn how it was an effective means of protection you can go watch this episode and see for yourself.
An important thing that this episode shows, which is often lost in the more classical form of archaeological programming, is that fieldwork isn’t always comfortable. Here they had to deal with temperatures surpassing 100 degrees and long hours traveling to and from the site, among other difficulties. At previous sites they had to deal with bugs and rain. Dealing with the conditions at a site is an important reality that I think tends to get overlooked quite often when talking about archaeology. Even with perfect weather the process of excavation is still not always a comfortable one seeing as it involves a lot of physical labor. Having participated in an actual field school I think that the depiction given by Time Team America is probably one of the most accurate you will see through any sort of media, whether it be television or movies. Archaeology tends to be overly romanticized as can be easily seen in movies such as Indiana Jones. The actual practice of archaeology is not even close to what it is commonly depicted as. There is a lot more physical labor and effort that one would assume. Archaeology is also a lot more tedious than most would imagine. Because excavation destroys a site very detailed notes must be taken so that no information is lost. I think its important to realize that archaeology is often not the most comfortable or easy thing to do because it makes what we do have more important. It also makes that next exciting find that much more exciting knowing all the hard work that went into finding it.
More information about Range Creek can be found here.
Time Team America at New Philadelphia, IL and Fort James, SD
Mixing things up a bit now; this post will focus on the third and fifth episodes of Time Team America. Both episodes focused on historical archaeology so the concepts conveyed in each are similar enough to talk about them together. A post about the fourth episode (dealing with pre-historic archaeology) will follow. The third episode of Time Team America had the Team working at the area that used to be the town of New Philadelphia, Illinois. New Philadelphia was the first city founded by an African American, Frank McWorter, in 1836. It was also a place where blacks and whites lived without segregation, which was almost unheard of during that time period. This is an important site to everyone but especially to the founders’ ancestors because it is an important part of their social and cultural history. Time Team was invited here to help find the remains of the schoolhouse that was supposedly built there. Because the area has reverted to agricultural land for many years and was heavily disturbed by plowing the geophysical data was not as helpful as it has been at other sites but they still managed to get a good blueprint of the area where the schoolhouse was believed to have been built.
While the team didn’t end up finding the site of the schoolhouse in New Philadelphia, they still gathered some very important information. This episode offers an important, though often disappointing, lesson regarding archaeology: you won’t always find what you are looking for but also just an important thing to note is that what you don’t find can be just as valuable as what you do find.. They may not have found anything spectacular but it was still possible that they were looking in the right spot. The schoolhouse is believed to have been a structure composed of mostly wood. Due to this, very little material evidence would survive since the town was abandoned around 130 years ago. So even if they were digging in the correct location there may be no evidence left of the schoolhouse especially since the field has been plowed. More information about this project can be found here.
Next, The fifth and final episode of Time Team America had the team working on their last site, Fort James, in South Dakota. Fort James is one of the few forts built from stone in 1865. During its time the land where Fort James was built was considered to be the “Wild West” and was an important part of the expansion of the U.S. This fort was built by a cavalry unit for the purpose of keeping peace between the locals and the Sioux that lived in that area as well. Here the team had the challenge of trying to locate the perimeter of the fort to learn how large it actually was and if it actually followed the plans in which it was supposed to have been built. Sections of the stone walls could be seen on the surface but, for the most part, the wall was buried. Geophysics came in very handy at this site where they were able to find sections of buried walls as well as identify anomalous areas that were not in the original site plans.
What was interesting in the Fort James episode was the use of the geophysics equipment. The most interesting find was a rectangular area not on the plans that the team believed to have been the stables. On the geophysics maps it was clear that something was most definitely there but after digging a unit on a small section of the area nothing showed up archaeologically. The geophysics specialist still believes that this is the site of the stables and what the equipment picked up was soil that was more compacted from the constant presence of the horses in the stables. Of course at this point you can’t say that this was the stable with 100% certainty but there is a good chance that a more extensive archaeological excavation could corroborate the geophysical data. Although the geophysics data wasn't that spectacular at the New Philadelphia site, it did show that items as small as a few iron nails could be detected with their equipment, which is quite amazing to think about.
One thing that was interesting to me about these episodes were the histories behind the areas. They did a great job explaining everything in a fair amount of detail to give the viewer a very good idea of the area and its history. They used a lot of records and oral histories, as well as visual imagery from the team’s artist, to accomplish this understanding of the site. With historic archeology a fair amount can be learned about a site by looking at historical records like newspapers and military documents as well as reviewing the folk and oral histories of an area. This knowledge can be incredibly helpful by directing archaeologists to specific locations or events to investigate . Historical archaeology, like in these episodes, can help to test the accuracy of the records and see if things really were the same as what the records say.
While the team didn’t end up finding the site of the schoolhouse in New Philadelphia, they still gathered some very important information. This episode offers an important, though often disappointing, lesson regarding archaeology: you won’t always find what you are looking for but also just an important thing to note is that what you don’t find can be just as valuable as what you do find.. They may not have found anything spectacular but it was still possible that they were looking in the right spot. The schoolhouse is believed to have been a structure composed of mostly wood. Due to this, very little material evidence would survive since the town was abandoned around 130 years ago. So even if they were digging in the correct location there may be no evidence left of the schoolhouse especially since the field has been plowed. More information about this project can be found here.
Next, The fifth and final episode of Time Team America had the team working on their last site, Fort James, in South Dakota. Fort James is one of the few forts built from stone in 1865. During its time the land where Fort James was built was considered to be the “Wild West” and was an important part of the expansion of the U.S. This fort was built by a cavalry unit for the purpose of keeping peace between the locals and the Sioux that lived in that area as well. Here the team had the challenge of trying to locate the perimeter of the fort to learn how large it actually was and if it actually followed the plans in which it was supposed to have been built. Sections of the stone walls could be seen on the surface but, for the most part, the wall was buried. Geophysics came in very handy at this site where they were able to find sections of buried walls as well as identify anomalous areas that were not in the original site plans.
What was interesting in the Fort James episode was the use of the geophysics equipment. The most interesting find was a rectangular area not on the plans that the team believed to have been the stables. On the geophysics maps it was clear that something was most definitely there but after digging a unit on a small section of the area nothing showed up archaeologically. The geophysics specialist still believes that this is the site of the stables and what the equipment picked up was soil that was more compacted from the constant presence of the horses in the stables. Of course at this point you can’t say that this was the stable with 100% certainty but there is a good chance that a more extensive archaeological excavation could corroborate the geophysical data. Although the geophysics data wasn't that spectacular at the New Philadelphia site, it did show that items as small as a few iron nails could be detected with their equipment, which is quite amazing to think about.
One thing that was interesting to me about these episodes were the histories behind the areas. They did a great job explaining everything in a fair amount of detail to give the viewer a very good idea of the area and its history. They used a lot of records and oral histories, as well as visual imagery from the team’s artist, to accomplish this understanding of the site. With historic archeology a fair amount can be learned about a site by looking at historical records like newspapers and military documents as well as reviewing the folk and oral histories of an area. This knowledge can be incredibly helpful by directing archaeologists to specific locations or events to investigate . Historical archaeology, like in these episodes, can help to test the accuracy of the records and see if things really were the same as what the records say.
Time Team America at Topper, SC
In the second episode of Time Team America the team moved to the Topper site in South Carolina. This site is a controversial one due to possible evidence of human activity as far back as 50,000 years ago, which is far older than the earliest accepted habitation of North America. The most common theory is that humans first inhabited North America around 13,000 years ago. These earliest people are known as the Clovis people. The Topper site is a Clovis site, meaning Clovis points and related technology were documented in situ (in the ground as they were left), but it also appears that there may have been a much earlier occupation below the Clovis levels. Artifacts have been found well below what was the ground surface 13,000 years ago, which means that they were deposited more than 13,000 years ago. Not all archaeologists believe that these artifacts that were found are human made though and its possible they may just be natural rocks. More information about this site and the controversy can be found here and here.
This episode was of particular interest to me. While I am nowhere close to being an expert on the subject I do think it is quite possible that there were people in North America in pre-Clovis times, so learning about a site that holds evidence of earlier people is quite interesting. The problem with most of the evidence of pre-Clovis peoples is that the artifacts are hard to definitively say they were made by humans. In order for archaeologists to agree that people were in North America in pre-Clovis times something significant needs to be excavated. The site would have to contain indisputable artifacts, in an undisturbed context, and with unassailable radiometric dates older than 13,000 years BP in order to be considered evidence for the existence of Pre-Clovis people in North America.
Another thing of interest in this episode is the use of experimental archaeology. Experimental archaeology is the process of recreating past processes to produce artifacts or features in the same manner or form as they were by prehistoric people. Experimental archaeology serves as a method of learning more about the people, materials, and techniques used to produce prehistoric technology. Knowing how past people did things adds an extra level of information to help in better understanding life hundreds and thousands of years ago. In this episode they had a flintknapper making replicas of the tools that had been found at Topper. They also made and practiced throwing rabbit sticks to test a theory about wood working at large quarry sites and the effectiveness of the hunting system. The cool thing about experimental archaeology is that it gives good insight into how these ancient tools were made and how they may have been used. In some ways it also provides a direct connection with the past. You get to use technology that prehistoric people used and it gives you a much better picture of what life was like for them.
One more thing that caught my interest here was the context again. Depending on how an artifact is positioned in the ground can give clues as to how it got there. If it was simply dropped and forgotten it should be laying horizontally on the surface rather than vertical or in some other unnatural position. This bit of information at first might not seem incredibly important and it may not be in every case but it goes to show another aspect of how important it is to record of even the smallest details in an archaeological context.
This episode was of particular interest to me. While I am nowhere close to being an expert on the subject I do think it is quite possible that there were people in North America in pre-Clovis times, so learning about a site that holds evidence of earlier people is quite interesting. The problem with most of the evidence of pre-Clovis peoples is that the artifacts are hard to definitively say they were made by humans. In order for archaeologists to agree that people were in North America in pre-Clovis times something significant needs to be excavated. The site would have to contain indisputable artifacts, in an undisturbed context, and with unassailable radiometric dates older than 13,000 years BP in order to be considered evidence for the existence of Pre-Clovis people in North America.
Another thing of interest in this episode is the use of experimental archaeology. Experimental archaeology is the process of recreating past processes to produce artifacts or features in the same manner or form as they were by prehistoric people. Experimental archaeology serves as a method of learning more about the people, materials, and techniques used to produce prehistoric technology. Knowing how past people did things adds an extra level of information to help in better understanding life hundreds and thousands of years ago. In this episode they had a flintknapper making replicas of the tools that had been found at Topper. They also made and practiced throwing rabbit sticks to test a theory about wood working at large quarry sites and the effectiveness of the hunting system. The cool thing about experimental archaeology is that it gives good insight into how these ancient tools were made and how they may have been used. In some ways it also provides a direct connection with the past. You get to use technology that prehistoric people used and it gives you a much better picture of what life was like for them.
One more thing that caught my interest here was the context again. Depending on how an artifact is positioned in the ground can give clues as to how it got there. If it was simply dropped and forgotten it should be laying horizontally on the surface rather than vertical or in some other unnatural position. This bit of information at first might not seem incredibly important and it may not be in every case but it goes to show another aspect of how important it is to record of even the smallest details in an archaeological context.
Time Team America at Fort Raleigh, NC
The team worked on 5 different sites located around the U.S., from Utah to the Carolinas. These sites ranged from several hundred years old to some of the earliest evidence of humans in North America, that are at least 13,000 years old with the potential of being even older. The first of these 5 sites that the team worked at is the Fort Raleigh site in North Carolina on Roanoke Island. This site is where the first Europeans arrived to settle America. The first group of English settlers arrived in 1585 but soon abandoned their fort to return to Europe. The second group came 2 years later and set up their village near the fort left by the previous group. This is what Time Team came to help look for. The exact location of this village isn’t known so the team was trying to find it. Because they were looking for a village site they hoped to find post holes, which would indicate that buildings were once present. As well as looking for evidence of buildings they were looking for more domestic materials, such as buttons from womens clothing or childrens toys, that would help to determine that it was in fact a village rather than something else such as a fort. Along with looking for these items they hoped that what they did find would help give them a better understanding of the dates associated with the site.
They did a really good job explaining the history behind this area, which was helpful in understanding the importance of the site and the reasoning behind trying to learn more about it and actually locate it. They also did a great job in showing the digging process starting with a backhoe (to remove a layer of sand that had blown in since the 1587) and then moving to the shovel and trowel. What I thought was really interesting was the pottery sherds they found. To most people you wouldn’t be able to tell much about a piece of pottery no bigger, in some cases, than a stack of three quarters. The team had brought in pottery specialists who knew the pottery of the period and could tell numerous things such as what kind of object it was and where it came from all based off of the glaze and type of clay used. Some of the pottery sherds that were excavated were determined to be from places such as London and Venice.
Another thing that caught my interest with this episode is when they talked about context and how important it is. They found prehistoric (Native American) pottery along with pottery brought from Europe, which wasn’t unexpected because they knew the settlers used pottery from the areas original inhabitants. They then found part of a pipe that dated later than what should have been found in that layer of soil, which hinted to them that they could be digging in the plow zone, which is the layer of soil that has been mixed up by a plow, thus destroying the original layers which in turn makes the stratigraphic information difficult to interpret.
More information about Fort Raleigh can be found here.
They did a really good job explaining the history behind this area, which was helpful in understanding the importance of the site and the reasoning behind trying to learn more about it and actually locate it. They also did a great job in showing the digging process starting with a backhoe (to remove a layer of sand that had blown in since the 1587) and then moving to the shovel and trowel. What I thought was really interesting was the pottery sherds they found. To most people you wouldn’t be able to tell much about a piece of pottery no bigger, in some cases, than a stack of three quarters. The team had brought in pottery specialists who knew the pottery of the period and could tell numerous things such as what kind of object it was and where it came from all based off of the glaze and type of clay used. Some of the pottery sherds that were excavated were determined to be from places such as London and Venice.
Another thing that caught my interest with this episode is when they talked about context and how important it is. They found prehistoric (Native American) pottery along with pottery brought from Europe, which wasn’t unexpected because they knew the settlers used pottery from the areas original inhabitants. They then found part of a pipe that dated later than what should have been found in that layer of soil, which hinted to them that they could be digging in the plow zone, which is the layer of soil that has been mixed up by a plow, thus destroying the original layers which in turn makes the stratigraphic information difficult to interpret.
More information about Fort Raleigh can be found here.
An Introduction to Time Team America
Time Team America is a new “science-reality” series on PBS. They did a short series of five episodes this summer starting in early July and finishing up in early August. Time Team America has a website on PBS.org that you can find here. On their website you can watch all the complete episodes, find additional information and videos about each site, find information about each of the team members and even information about archaeology in general . Most of these extra online videos and content are quite helpful to get a better understanding of what Time Team America is doing. They send a group of archaeologists and other specialists to a site that is in need of help with such things as finding site boundaries, finding evidence of structures or to just get a better knowledge of the context of a particular site. The team gets three days to assist the archaeologists already on site, in an effort to answer certain questions posed prior to their visit. The team is able to bring in equipment, which is usually unavailable, and fresh minds to help archaeologists answer questions and uncover information that will lead to new insights about the site. While the main questions the team are trying to answer will of course vary from site to site, the main goal is to learn as much as possible and to leave more questions and hopefully more information so that future excavations on each site might be more successful.
The team has a regular group of ten experts/specialists from fields that vary from the obvious one of Anthropology (including several professors, research faculty, a Native American Studies Director, and several archaeologists with experience varying from 30 years to that of a graduate student), to Geophysics experts, to an artist (who also happens to be the show’s host). Along with the group that make up the team they bring in specialists to aid in the process of advancing the knowledge of the site.
The most prominent of the high-tech methods used by the team is the collection of geophysical data; a practice still uncommon on most archaeological digs. The team has two Geophysics specialists that use tools such as Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR), resistivity meters and magnetometers to map out what lies below the ground surface. It’s actually quite surprising at what these devices can detect below the surface. Unlike a general surface survey, which involves looking for artifacts or features that are visible on the surface, that in turn suggest fruitful areas to dig. Geophysical testing devices can point to areas that the team would otherwise overlook due to the lack of surface indicators.
One of the great things about this particular show is that it’s not like a lot of the other shows about archaeological sites and archaeology. Time Team America shows the actual process of archaeology and its not just site-seeing like a majority of other shows out there. They show parts of all the processes from the not so exciting details of mapping and very tedious note taking, to the various methods of digging whether it be shovel and trowel or large machinery such as backhoes, and then of course there is the more exciting aspects of seeing artifacts that are found through the process. Undoubtedly, Time Team America makes archaeology look far more exciting than it usually is, but it provides much more information about what the site actually means. Along with providing a good view of actual archaeological work, they provide great visualizations of what the sites and artifacts may have looked like. While these visuals may not be correct in every aspect, they definitely help the viewer to get a better general understanding of the time periods, people, and sites that the team is investigating.
Overall I was quite impressed with this show. It gave a good perspective of the actual process of archaeological fieldwork. They gave an accurate view of a lot of different aspects of conducting archaeological work, which was nice to see along with seeing the sites and the artifacts that were found. It was nice to see a show that was more than just sight seeing. Along with being a very informative show it was actually entertaining to watch as well, which is always a good thing.
More information on Time Team American and all five of the sites can be found on the Time Team America website.
The team has a regular group of ten experts/specialists from fields that vary from the obvious one of Anthropology (including several professors, research faculty, a Native American Studies Director, and several archaeologists with experience varying from 30 years to that of a graduate student), to Geophysics experts, to an artist (who also happens to be the show’s host). Along with the group that make up the team they bring in specialists to aid in the process of advancing the knowledge of the site.
The most prominent of the high-tech methods used by the team is the collection of geophysical data; a practice still uncommon on most archaeological digs. The team has two Geophysics specialists that use tools such as Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR), resistivity meters and magnetometers to map out what lies below the ground surface. It’s actually quite surprising at what these devices can detect below the surface. Unlike a general surface survey, which involves looking for artifacts or features that are visible on the surface, that in turn suggest fruitful areas to dig. Geophysical testing devices can point to areas that the team would otherwise overlook due to the lack of surface indicators.
One of the great things about this particular show is that it’s not like a lot of the other shows about archaeological sites and archaeology. Time Team America shows the actual process of archaeology and its not just site-seeing like a majority of other shows out there. They show parts of all the processes from the not so exciting details of mapping and very tedious note taking, to the various methods of digging whether it be shovel and trowel or large machinery such as backhoes, and then of course there is the more exciting aspects of seeing artifacts that are found through the process. Undoubtedly, Time Team America makes archaeology look far more exciting than it usually is, but it provides much more information about what the site actually means. Along with providing a good view of actual archaeological work, they provide great visualizations of what the sites and artifacts may have looked like. While these visuals may not be correct in every aspect, they definitely help the viewer to get a better general understanding of the time periods, people, and sites that the team is investigating.
Overall I was quite impressed with this show. It gave a good perspective of the actual process of archaeological fieldwork. They gave an accurate view of a lot of different aspects of conducting archaeological work, which was nice to see along with seeing the sites and the artifacts that were found. It was nice to see a show that was more than just sight seeing. Along with being a very informative show it was actually entertaining to watch as well, which is always a good thing.
More information on Time Team American and all five of the sites can be found on the Time Team America website.
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