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Greetings to all of our friends around the world interested in archaeology.
Welcome to the most unique archaeological society in the universe. We are not only interested in the usual archaeological things - all branches and specialties - but
we take the studies and apply to present society problems in creative ways.
Among other things we are a type of think tank.
This is more fun than a barrel of anthropologists. We have the best tools around for studying the various societal problems....biology/culture(ethnology)/ psychology/linguistics and archaeology...plus history(including military history - on every other page of history), art and art history (much of the story of humanity is in art). In addition, there are over 75 sub-branches of anthropology such as political and even spiritual anthropology. And, all of this is applied in a creative way.
Anyone needing help on various problems, let us know.
Thanks to all the folks around the globe sending in information - books, journals, newsletters, comments.
This all goes into our anthropological "hopper" here at the WAS Information Center.
It should be mentioned, don't anyone be afraid of making mistakes. In fact, the more mistakes the better; this is how we learn.
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We can be reached for help with archaeological first aid and other matters at the following e-mail address: ronwriterartist@aol.com. This is also the address for our Timbertop Studio associated with the W.A.S. and for all art needs.
What with constant destruction of the antiquities by the concrete, asphalt, glacier, more and more population, natural forces, looting, etc. we have our work cut out for us. There are many other challenges as well in our studies, such as - inflation, keeping up with new methodology, finding time to research in a fast paced world. But don't forget, that while we are very scientific, we also believe in having fun.
We also try hard to cut through scholarly gobbledygook. It's a curious fact that strange scholarly language attracts dust. And many of these dust magnets are lost on dingy shelves in departmental innersanctums of universities and colleges...and also in deep stacks of libraries around the world. Basic research is crucial, but communication must be promoted. We often find ourselves in the business of translating "foreign scholarly languages." So, we promote communication - not "impressive communication" in departments...but communication having empathy for another "culture" (even more important - over the ivy walls...where society is in desperate need of help. And, who can help society better than students of humanity?)
Good excavations in the field and life. Sincerely, Ron Miller, Dir. WAS, 120 Lakewood Drive, Hollister, Missouri, 65672 USA. E-mail: ronwriterartist@aol.com
This web site is: www.worldarchaeologicalsociety.com
NOTE; Sometimes incoming e-mails end up in a Spam folder and we lose, but keep trying.
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RULES OF THE FIND -
In case you find something that you believe is important, here are some rules of the find. Take a deep breath! Sit down and think this thing over. You've got to be cool here and DO NOT TOUCH OR DISTURB THE SITE. You don't want to disturb possible associations.
THE RULE OF THE ASSOCIATION:
The rule of the association is one of the most important rules in all of archaeology. The best example was the Folsom Point discovery in Black Horse Draw near Folsom, New Mexico by a black cowboy George McJunkin. He found some bones sticking out of the bank as he was riding by.
Fortunately, he tried to get some bone collectors to come look, but they didn't get out until after McJunkin's death. Eventually word got to the Denver Museum and Dr. Figgins. Excavation revealed extinct giant bison bones and fluted points in association - possibly the greatest find ever in America. It established as true the association of man and beast, 10,000 years ago. Up until this find, it was believed to be an impossiblity - Man in the Americans this far back! The key was the points and bones in an undisturbed matrix. One of the experts called in to verify was Dr. Frank H.H. Roberts head of the Smithsonian. Roberts, my old boss one time, did come and did verify this bomb shell association.
Associations at every dig are important. Various artifacts next to this or that feature or in this or that level (horizontal or vertical)are important associations. So, it is easy to see that if some indiscriminate digger or pot-holer digs at a site, just looking for some goodies, that all sorts of associations will be ruined for all time (I repeat - FOR ALL TIME). What a catastrophe. So, don't touch. Even highly trained archaeologists have to be extremely careful. This brings up another rule:
THE RULE THAT ALL SITES AND FINDS ARE IMPORTANT. Your site doesn't have to be a Folsom site to be important. ALL SITES ARE IMPORTANT...and ALL FINDS ARE IMPORTANT. A tiny flint chip is important. It may show evidence along the edge that it was used as a knife. The type of flint can be traced to a certain ancient flint quarry. Such a man-made object can be tied in to some other find in that level (an association). All finds are clues to help solve archaeological mysteries. Treat these clues with great respect.
So, it is easy to mess things up very easily at a site and lose a lot of priceless knowledge. Let the archaeologists check this out. This brings up still another rule:
THE RULE OF CALLING AN ARCHAEOLOGIST: Do as George McJunkin, call an archaeologist. Call someone at a Univ. Dept. of Anthropology or Archaeology...or someone in the Classic's Dept...or a museum...or the State Archaeology Office at the Capitol...or an archaeology society. You have to be careful here, as some societies are curio collecting societies. There are really some fine societies here in the U.S.A., e.g., The Mass. Archae. Soc., The Alabama Archae. Soc., the Mo. Archae. Soc. and more. If you are in Denmark call the Bog Section of the Danish Natl. Museum. England has some great societies. England has always been a leader in archaeology, and I have personally admired them greatly.
Call the Berlin Museum and Antiq. Authority in Italy...or
The Cairo Museum...or the Louvre in France...or the Univ. in Lima...or the Albright Center in Jerusalem..or the Russian Dept. of Sciences...or the Bejing Museum (it's impossible to list all here, but you get the idea).
In the meantime, there is another rule:
THE RULE OF PROTECTING THE SITE. Protect it from animals, people and the weather. If you really think it is important, put a fence around it. Cover it with a tarp...don't tell anyone except an archaeologist. Some pot-hunters can get downright ornery, so, be careful. They get desperate for goodies - the fancy pots, etc. (totally ignoring and trampling those tiny clues and associations mentioned earlier). They get dollar signs in their eyes, and their brains short circuit.
If it turns out that your find is nothing of archaeological importance, that is fine. What a great learning experience. Everyone is constantly learning in archaeology...even the best of the archaeologists. You are learning about real scientific archaeology now. Great! This trying and interest is wonderful. It is much appreciated, because, unfortunately, there just aren't too many people who care. Thanks much for caring about the story of the past in whatever part of the world you are in.
THE RULE OF WRITING AND RECORDING IN ARCHAEOLOGY.
Writing and recording is of utmost importance in archaeology. An archaeologist will be looking at your find in many different ways and one important way is that of writing and recording. He or she will at first be taking mental notes such as: the site is close to a little gully that empties into a larger stream. And perhaps 100 yards to the northeast is an old farm shed. If the archaeologist decides to excavate there will be much record keeping on site forms and much entered into a portable computer. Each level down will undergo a detailed exam of the horizontal and vertical profile and depth of any finds and features...and entered into the site record. The archaeologist knows that excavation will actually destroy the site, so very detailed records must be kept. He or she has only one shot at it. The name of the game is observation and recording. And besides written notes there will be art and photos.
There will also be a daily log written - as a ship captain's daily log.
Then, finally, there will be a formal report written, which will probably appear in some journal to be shared with other scholars.
Also, along the way there might be "popular accounts" written for local newspapers or some other publications.
So, archaeologists do a lot of writing and recording and various written analyses. Your site will be documented in such a good way that if need be it could be reconstructed someplace else. Again, don't touch any of this scene before you.
THE RULE OF SCIENCE IN ARCHAEOLOGY.
All of the above rules are really science in action. Archaeology is a science. Science is the way we all must go. This scientific approach will capture vastly more information than just indescriminate pot-holing or curio collecting. This scientific organized approach was invented by Aristotle. The more all of us can study science the better.
Ron Miller, Mar. 26, 2007
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INTERESTED IN HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY? The Ritchey Mansion, Newtonia, Missouri is a great historical archaeology site. The mansion was built by Ron's Great Great Grandfather Judge Matthew Ritchey, before the Civil War. The mansion was the center of two important battles. The first all Indian outfit saw action here. Soldiers fired behind the old stone wall running in front of the house. At times, both sides used the house as headquarters. Many names stayed here...Gen. Sterling Price of the South, and Belle Starr when a hell-raising girl was held here by the north because she spied for the South. Later, she stayed here on way to her trial. A Medal of Honor was awarded nearby. Ron's Grandfather Ritchey Rice and his brother Ben gathered mini balls thereabouts. Ben fought in the Spanish American war and saved his Captain's life. And Ron's Mom Nadine, when a girl, gathered lillies nearby and placed on graves in the family cemetery. Warren Cook,who was the first Administrator of Skaggs Hosp., Branson, told of his Grandmother, when a young girl, fastening a hide to the back of a wagon and driving it past the mansion like wildfire, kicking up a cloud of dust...and scaring away the officer's horses! A fascinating place with much history. An Assoc owns and is restoring the famous old home. They need much help. For information write: Newtonia Battlefields Protection Assoc., 416 East Hickory, Neosho, MO 64850.
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Your writer in front of home sweet home for a summer helping excavate an Arickira village at confluence of Cheyenne R. and Missouri R. in South Dakota 39ST1, up stream from Pierre. This was a Smithsonian/Park Serv. River Basin Salvage dig back in 1951. The late Dr. Waldo Wedel of the Smithsonian was dig director. It's eerie to contemplate that this site is now under hundreds of feet of water...Lake Oahe. Our tents had been used by Frank H. H. Roberts on his Lindenmeier dig in Colo. This was the second Folsom site. Roberts, head of Smithsonian archaeology, was our big boss and visited our dig to check on things. I met him when Dr. Wedel brought him around to check on the dig I was assigned to spruce up, an old rectangular house site (c. 700 or 800 years old). Believe you me I had those profiles as neat as could be!. Great old archaeological memories.
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I'm down in a bisection of the big moat that ran all the way around the village (on the outside of the pallisade). Dr Wedel told of old historical accounts of early whites having horse races in this moat. My tent mate Stewart Shermis, a medical student from Berkley, and I were assigned to do this trench. This was BB (before backhoes). We had some adventures during our excavations here. A big, fat, green, prairie rattler slid down the slope of the dirt pile right in the middle of us. We invented a new dance...the archaeological stomp! Fortunately, shovels are the best anti-snake device known.
Also, a field mouse fell down on top of Shermis during a break. But it was fascinating to see the outline of the original moat show up on the verticle profile. Just think, it was also BB for the Arickira also. They had to dig the entire moat with bison scapula shovels! And, of course, they dug out all of their semi-subterranean houses this way also....and the same for numerous bell shaped cache pits too. This was a digging bunch of people!
Of interest to rodeo fans, the Tibb's Ranch was close by, just up the Cheyenne a ways. This was the home of Casey Tibbs, the famed national champion rodeo rider. We met his folks, but he was out on the rodeo circuit. We did meet his boyhood friend and neighbor, Billy Myers, who visited. And, every couple of days or so we would take milk and blitz cans over to their backyard and get water from a great spring there. We would take turns at this detail. I loved to do this as I got to talk with Mr. Myers, Billy's dad. He told me great old stories of how his son and Casey used to practice calf-roping in the field right in back of the Myer house. Great land up there..."Dances with wolves country."
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STEVE MILLER & THOMAS HART BENTON
Here are Steve Miller and Thomas Hart Benton at "The Art Show of the Ozarks" College of the Ozarks, (near Branson, Missouri). Steve founded this art show, and his friend Benton came down from Kansas City.
Steve was Artist-in-Residence at the College, also taught art and was Director of the Museum. He was a national illustrator. Among others, he illustrated Robert Page Lincoln's classic in the field "Black Bass Fishing" (Stackpole), and also the Rev. Guy Howard's "Give Me Thy Vineyard," $10,000 Zondervan prize-winner. Steve, my Dad, was an all-round artist. He and his brother John were pioneers in American silk screen. Some of his hand cut screens were exhibited in the Naz-Dar office in Chicago.
His oil painting Ozark Still Life (some hill men hauling parts of a still in moonlight was hung beside a painting by Dwight Eisenhower, in Mrs. Alton Jones Home out east
She was heir to Mobile Oil. Dad also set up the Design Dept at Stephens College, Columbia, Missouri. He was an expert in all phases of commercial art and studio-academic art. He was also a Trustee of the Missouri Archaeological Society. When Dr. Carl Chapman needed funds for archaeological study in the Table Rock Basin (the giant dam was going up and much archaeology would be lost) Dad contacted Dewey Short, long time Congressman in Washington. Short had many levers of power and almost instantly the funds appeared through the Natl. Park Service. Short was a scholarly type congressman, having studied in Europe and immediately saw the importance of saving the story of the past.
Benton, famed far and wide, and who appears in all the college text books on art, painted the murals in the Governor's Lounge of the Capital in Jefferson City, Missouri. His last mural, The Sources of Country Music is in the Country Music Hall of Fame, Nashville. Your writer helped him line up models during his stay here (just a short distance from the WAS Hq.). This was Benton's last mural. Upon completion of this mural in K.C., Benton passed away. Shortly thereafter a big painting of his arrived as a gift to the college "The Return of the Joads" (It had been used as an illustration. I believe it was for Grapes of Wrath, but I better double check). Benton often visited the Miller home. He went to school at Neosho with my Grandmother and her brother and three sisters there. He and "Gee Gee" liked to talk old times - things like knowing a young butcher at Neosho named M.B. Skaggs who would go on to found the Safeway grocery chain and drugstore chain. Benton also liked archaeology. He had been to Pompeii and Herculaneum. I had just received Joseph J. Deiss' book on Herculaneun for review when he was working on the Sources of Country Music, and I gave it to him. He enjoyed very much as also journals of the Mass. Archae. Soc. He and his wife Rita had a home at Martha's Vineyard. The late Dr. Maurice Robbins, Pres. of the Mass. Society, one of the leading societies in the country, and I had been archaeological pen friends, and we exchanged publications. Robbins had also written: The Amateur Archaeologist's Handbook published by Crowell. "God works in mysterious ways!" as the saying goes. I did an article on my memories of Benton, and this appeared in the Christian Science Monitor (see: "Thomas Hart Benton looks at our sunset and talks with Dad," Home Forum Page, Wed., Oct. 9,1985). The editors also got Barbara Rose, expert on art from Boston Univ. to do an article on Benton and Jackson Pollock that appeared on the opposite page. Quite a Benton panorama. I still have more memories of Benton. Listening to he and Dad and Charles Banks Wilson (Indian artist from Oklahoma who did paintings in the Oklahoma Capital) talk about art in the living room was quite an experience and education! Out of those discussions came the phrase "pattern makers" to describe modern artists and art. I don't know which one created the phrase. Lots of great 'ole memories. Ron
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