This will hopefully be the first of a few posts today or tomorrow, outlining what I've been up to for the last few weeks.

I've never really explained in a post as to why I don't really do what people think I do for a living. It has been my experience that a large percentage of the population is confused about the differences between paleontology, geology, and archaeology. I suspect it is because we tend to dress the same in the field. In general, paleontologists study dinosaurs, geologists study rocks, and archaeologists study artifacts left behind by people no longer living.

In particular, I'm an historical archaeologist. The time period I prefer to study begins when Euro-Americans first settled a region in the US, stretching up to a point 50 years in our past. Here in southern Nevada, that's roughly between the years 1855 and 1955.

The end of May found me in Lincoln County, Nevada. Running back and forth between the towns of Alamo, Caliente and Pioche (feel free to pull out your atlas). Much of Nevada is still owned by some branch of the Federal Government (BLM, Forest Service, DOD, DOE, etc.). As such, Federal law dictates that prior to sale or development of said land, the property must be examined by trained professionals to identify and evaluate the importance of any resources on the land. This could include archaeological resources such as an historic frontier homestead or a prehistoric Native American campsite. It could be the presence of protected plant or animal species, like the desert tortoise or bear paw poppies. Mineral resources need to be identified, as well as protected soils (yep, there are endangered soils out there folks). These are the projects that acount for 95% of my job. In the case of Lincoln County it was the locations for some proposed cell phone towers.

our crew consisted of archaeologists and a biologist. We were taking care of two surveys at each location simultaneously. Since cell phone towers have better range from higher points, we got some good views which is part of the fun of the job. I've added some links to a few pictures in a gallery here. You can click on the pics to expand them. There are also some pics of barbed wire fences, which were the focus of much of my attention. If it is more than 50 years old, and made by the hand of man, it qualifies as historical. So archaeology isn't just golden idols and lost arks. But sometimes there are snakes, but usually not a room full. So if you are interested, take a look.