An archeologist who is a member of our historical society asked for volunteers among the other members to meet this spring to do an important archaeological survey of an area where there was a wildfire in an open space on the east side of a local hogback last December.
An archaeological survey is collect information about the location, distribution, and organization of past human cultures across a large area. Several published archaeological documents indicate that just after a fire is a more productive time to search for surface artifacts before vegetation begins to regrow. This area in Colorado has shown many past archaeological finds from people. The Ken-Caryl South Valley Archaeological District contains rock shelters that were used by prehistoric peoples from at least the Late Paleo-Indian Period (before 6000 BCE) through the Early Ceramic period (150–1150 CE)
As you can see from this photo, the grass is already growing back...
... among the burned scrub oak remains.
When this 150-acre wildfire occurred last December our community was very fortunate that the winds became milder as time passed and that a single-engine air tanker from Fort Collins was able to drop water on the fire to help emergency crews battle the spread. We were evacuated from our home for a short time during this fire and I learned a few valuable lessons from that experience, which I blogged about in this post.
Sadly, just a few days later, Colorado experienced the devastating Marshall Fire, in which two lives were lost and over 1,000 homes were burned to the ground. There were "Red Flag" conditions that day with drought conditions and high winds and that wildfire moved very quickly for many miles. It even crossed a six-lane concrete highway! The cause of that fire is still under investigation.
On a chilly windy day in early April our community archaeologist, three colleagues from the Colorado Archaeological Society--CAS, an Open Space ranger, and eleven community volunteers arrived to do the archaeological survey, one of the volunteers was my husband. Each volunteer was given a grid area to cover by foot, a GPS, and pin flags to place into the ground if they saw anything of interest so a trained eye of an archaeologist would be able to do a more thorough examination. They slowly walked an area rectangle about 2 miles long and 300 yards wide, looking down for artifacts for around 2 1/2 hours.
#1 (left photo in the collage) A prehistoric stone tool that appears to be a pointed hammer stone.
#2 (middle photo) A prehistoric grinding stone, often called a "mano" in archaeological circles. Parallel scars on the tool caused by grinding are on several surfaces. These manos were used along with a flat stone surface, often called a "metate" to process food and
sometimes paint.
#3 (right photo) A prehistoric stone tool with signs of human manufacture.
All the GPS locations of these artifacts were also recorded in the official report.
A probable fire ring. These are made by people of all past eras.
Some other interesting geological samples were collected by a resident geologist for further study.
The report concluded that the density of artifacts found in this survey was low. It appeared that the prehistoric and historic people did not use the eastern hogback slope to a high degree as they used the west hogback slope and valley where hundreds of artifacts have been found in past surveys and digs.
A couple of years ago my husband and I assisted in an archeological dig on a foothill in our neighborhood. which you can see in this post. A burn pit and stone tools were found in that dig that was carbon-dated to the Early Ceramic Period 150–1150 CE. It is always so fascinating to think that people lived and thrived in our area so long ago! They may even have had interesting visitors, which you can read about in this post about the possibility of Celtic Ogham writings found nearby.
I wanted to be one of the volunteers on this survey, but I had a scheduling conflict this time. A group of friends I've kept in touch with since high school, who all live in different states, were having a Zoom birthday celebration for a friend in the group, and I did not want to miss that. We lost one of our close high school friends last year in a tragic car accident, and we now find that we treasure our Zoom times together even more than ever.
Meanwhile, "Red Flag Fire Warnings" are becoming a common occurrence here. As much as we enjoy assisting with archaeological surveys, I'm hoping that there won't be the need for another burn scar survey in our area anytime soon! We hope May will bring the rains that April forgot in our area.
I'm linking this post to some of the following blog events:
Mosaic Monday, Blue Monday, Through My Lens Monday, Hearth, and Soul Link Party, You Are the Star Blog Hop, Inspire Me Monday, Home Matters Linky Party, Good Random Fun, Nature Notes, Grand Social, Travel Photos, Travel Tuesday, Happiness Is Homemade, Ruby Tuesday, Tuesday's Treasures, Tuesdays With A Twist, Wordless Wednesday on a Tuesday, Wordless Wednesday, Oh My Heartsie Girl's Wonderful Wednesday, Wednesday My Corner of the World, Wonderful Wednesday, Signs2, Little Things Thursday, Thankful Thursday, Thursday Encouraging Hearts and Home, Thursday Favorite Things, Wandering Camera--last Thursday of the month--Friendship Fridays, Friday Features Linky Party, Skywatch Friday, Pink Saturday, Saturday Sparks, Saturday Critters, Sunday on Silverado
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30 comments:
I bet it would be amazing to go on the survey! It must be scary with the red flag warnings.
I am so sorry your area has suffered from fires, but how interesting to be able to participate in an archaeological dig!
It sounds like an enjoyable experience to look for these treasures. I do hope that you will get rains and the wildfires will end.
What a fascinating post. I'm a 'recent history' buff, but as a kid we found all sorts of Indian bits/pottery/tools/arrowheads on the block where I lived. It turned out the land was a village and ceremonial ground on a bluff overlooking a river valley. Always fascinating, I hope you post more, as it is so interesting. Sandi
That looks a big fire!! #RubyTuesdayToo
What an interesting post must be awful to see wildfires lets hope the rain arrives soon
Have an archaeologicaltastic week 👍
loved the old finds - praying the wild fires stop
Pat - how wonderful that you and your husband have had the chance to participate in these activities. A terrific learning experience and a way to give back to the community. It's not quite the same thing, but we always pick up trash along the highway in the spring, before the grass gets too tall and obscures the trash. We are a messy species! Thanks for linking to Mosaic Monday!
The wildfires are so scary. They have done control burns on two of our favorite trails but I'm glad they do it and it greens up in no time. The finds are so interesting! Thanks for sharing!
I hope you don’t have anymore serious fires. I heard reports today about a fire near Flagstaff.
The archaeological survey sounds interesting. I used to volunteer in an archaeology program, mostly dealing with historical artifacts.
Sounds like an amazing experience to look for these treasures.
Let us pray that the rains arrive soon.
Happy Tuesday!
I am so sorry for your loss. It's wonderful that you found a way to stay in touch with your high school friends. Red Flag warnings are getting common here in California too. This year has been so dry, we can only hope that the fires won't be as bad as last year. Glad to hear that you were safe. Volunteering for an archaeological survey sounds amazing. Thanks so much for sharing the photos and the experience with us.
-Soma
That sounds like such a neat day of exploring! Were they taught possible things to look out for because I would have thought those rocks were just.. rocks. I hope you get some much needed rain soon.
I wonder how often I may have passed "archeological finds" without realizing what I was seeing!
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What a fascinating post with all the looking for past people. Thanks for sharing.
This is fascinating. A wonderful way to learn of the history of your region and to touch something so very old! I love that this is something you do, but I would have done as you did this time because you must be with friends. Our time together can be very short.
I hope you (and all) are safe from these wildfires in the coming year(s).
How fascinating.
Doing such surveys at that time makes sense.
Sorry to hear about the fires. Yet it is remarkable that you were able to dig some archaeological finds,
Archaeology is fascinating! It must be easier to do digs after a fire, I'd never thought about that before. But sad (and scary) to have wildfires in the first place.
fascinating.
I like the top shot.
That's interesting as all get out. I am familiar with one project here in Oklahoma where a fire was intentionally set ( a controlled fire!) to facilitate a similar archeological survey.
It's amazing about what went on before us. In my personal life and as a pipeline engineer I have been many places where I would think nobody had ever been before and there is always lots of evidence of people.
What a cool experience.
Worth a Thousand Words
Oh man, I love this kind of stuff! What's interesting is 99% of people would walk right by all three stones in your photo collage. You really need to develop a trained eye to see them. Two hikes ago I was with a friend and started seeing a lot of chipped and flaked stones ("lithic scatter"). I told him to keep is eyes open for a shelter. Sure enough, within a few hundred yards we came across a shelter an some beautiful pictographs!
What an interesting post. I think it would be exciting to do this kind of thing. It's sad though about the fires and I pray that you don't have hem again this year.
Greetings and Salutations, Pat! I am so proud that you were a volunteer. Amazing Archaeology find. Glad you are safe.
I do hope that you will soon get rain and the wildfires will cease.
All the best Jan
What interesting finds after the devastation. Praying for lots of rain this month for you and for the part of the West where we're from also. I just read that last year Oregon had the driest Spring ever (since records have been kept) and it was the second summer in a row with terrible fire conditions. It did rain a lot there last month, but climatologists said it was not yet enough to make up for the drought conditions.
We even had a warning here not to burn, but we don't get wild fires here in my part of NY. So sad.... But looking for and finding artifacts must be really exciting and has always interested me....
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