PADO North?

After a two year hiatus from excavating (during which time we've been busy writing up our results from the last several seasons working in Honduras), Bill and I will be undertaking a new project this summer.

This is a bit of a departure for us, as we won't be working in the Jesus de Otoro valley, nor in Honduras. Instead, we're heading north to Missouri and the site of Smiths Fork.

Missouri? Yup. You heard that right.

Due to increasing instability in Honduras and liability issues associated with taking students there at this time, we're shifting our efforts and our field school closer to home.

Though the location is quite different from what we're used to, some of the issues and questions are intriguingly similar -- the site we'll be working at has been identified as belonging to the Steed-Kisker phase, a cultural group  living along the margins of the Plains Village and Mississippian worlds. Themes relating to group identification, peripheries and cores, and borderlands have always been of interest to us and we're excited to see how these issues play out at Smiths Fork.

Also, at the end of the day, archaeology is archaeology, and we're looking forward to getting our hands dirty again. We'll be working in conjunction with the Army Corps of Engineers and collaborating with local archaeologist Doug Shaver. All in all, an exciting new chapter for us.

We'll miss Honduras, though. In fact, if anything, we'll be living a fair bit rougher than we ever did in Latin America -- camping out at the site for several weeks as we uncover a previously identified Steed-Kisker lodge house.

The site we'll be working at is located at Smiths Fork, near Smithville, MO. Steed-Kisker sites like this one date from A.D. 950-1400 and tend to be situated on terraces overlooking tributaries of the Missouri, Platte, and Little Platte rivers. Hunting, gathering, and agriculture are facets of the Steed-Kisker subsistence strategy and crafts include the production of Platte Valley Plain and Steed-Kisker incised wares.

We're excited to see what we turn up at Smiths Fork and will post more photos and updates from the field once the season officially gets underway, but for now: stay tuned!

Next up: Site Layout at Sinsimbla

...and with that, there is nothing left but to write up the results!

Signs of progress

Although we're back to classes, it does not mean that we've been (completely) idle with our research at Sinsimbla. Over the past several weeks we've been converting our field notes and drawings into a more formal statement of our work in July.

Here's a good example of a work in progress. This is a contour map of the structures at Sinsimbla. The contour lines denote a 0.5 meter change in elevation. The large pyramid on the east side of the main plaza, Structure 1, stands 10 meters (30 feet) above the modern plaza surface.

Stay tuned. We'll post more images as they are completed.

Hurry up and wait

Well folks, this is it for our time in Honduras. The artifacts are analyzed. The project house (aka the Barbie Mansion) is closed. Our equipment is in storage. The recuerdos have been given and the despedidas are over.Now that the odd bit of excavation equipment is in the possession of airport security (Sandra left a nail in her carry-on), all that's left is for our flight to begin boarding.

The last few days have been a blur of tying up loose ends. We'll be sure to send along updates with the research at Sinsimbla as it develops. Until then, que lo vaya bien.

We interupt the analysis for a trip to Los Hoyos

Monday found the remaining members of the project in the lab. Sandra, bless her heart, is learning the ins and outs of the PADO ceramics. This is made all the more difficult by the poorly preserved surface of the sherds recovered this year. Bill has blown through the obsidian and chert from the past two seasons.

One of the intriguing aspects of the sites in Jesus de Otoro is that they are relatively close to an obsidian source near the highland town of La Esperanza. Nearly all of the obsidian analyzed so far can be sourced to La Esperanza. So, along with Don Nery Fiallos, we decided to spend this morning visiting the pre-Columbian obsidian mines, Los Hoyos ("The Holes").

Our first stop of the morning took us to the Casa de Cultura of La Esperanza. This was supposed to be a brief pause to collect an old friend of Nery’s, Don Francisco the director of the Casa de Cultura. One thing led to another and we spent quite a while exploring the interpretive center for Lenca culture, arranging for a more robust vehicle for the next stage of the mountain drive, and participating in an impromptu interview for the local television station.


For the record, this is the second time in as many weeks that Bill has been interviewed on camera. Either his Spanish has improved or, like a horrible car accident, Hondurans cannot look away.

The obsidian outcrop is located in the mountains to the north of La Esperanza-Intibuca, and surrounding the town are many modern Lenca communities.

Actually, the footpath to the obsidian mine begins at an elementary school. The head instructor arranged for our “guides” to skip class and take us to the site. As you may well imagine, they were eager to show us every aspect of the site and felt little urgency to get back to class.

Los Hoyos is a series of shaft mines. Each shaft is roughly 1 meter in diameter and between 2 and 10 meters deep. Scattered about the surface is a dense concentration of core preparation debris (i.e. mounds of jagged broken glass). We visited two of the outcroppings, separated by about 1 kilometer of highland agricultural fields (corn, potatoes, and broccoli).


Los Hoyos is another addition to a growing list of what makes the archaeology of the Jesus de Otoro valley and surrounding areas so interesting.

And then there were two ...

We took the students to the airport today to return to the US -- well, Bill did. Sandra has been down for the last 24 hours with an intestinal "something" that seemed to afflict half of the group at the same time. The plane ride home should be interesting, to say the least. Still, it was a great field school season for Team PADO.

Yesterday we took the non-sick students to Comayagua, a city that was once the colonial capital of Honduras. Our first stop was the history and archaeology museum, which is housed in what served as the president's residence. The museum offers a complete history of the Comayagua valley -- including Pre-Colombian ceramics that allowed the students an idea of the complete versions of the broken pots we've been finding in the field.

After the museo we went to a local restaurant where we had lunch and then turned the students loose on the town to check out the interesting shops and the colonial period churches. While out and about, the students purchased a farewell cake that was served at the going-away dinner last night at our favorite Jesus de Otoro restaurant, Restaurante del Valle.

Though the students are gone, the blogs will continue. We have hours of video footage that will be posted over the next few months and, of course, we'll keep you abreast of our activities as Bill and I analyze artifacts, pack up the houses and prepare to head back to Kansas City.

The Gringos Are Filthy

A day of backfilling, mapping in the sun and no running water. Guess how we smell? You probably don't want to think too hard about it. Long story short, we stink. But we're done. By 11 a.m., all the drawings were done, the units were backfilled and everything was as we left it -- well, pretty much. Before we filled in the units, we placed 2011 Kansas quarters in the bottoms of the pits and covered them with plastic.

And all in all, it's been a pretty good day. We got done with work a little earlier than usual, the landowner, Doña Florentina, brought cookies and Coke to the site as a farewell treat and we had chicken and rice for lunch.

Last night, the Mayor's office, the Consejo de Cultura and Doña Florentina, the landowner, held a dinner to thank us and to recognize the contribution that our work has made to the community.

And, as if the season weren’t exciting enough, the students tested the mettle by fording the Rio Grande Otoro via the hammock bridge. The Directors, however, did not.

Tomorrow, we take Comayagua by storm. Stay tuned.