Mud, Cow Poo and Geophysics

Well, here I am again doing more surveying at Battle Mound for my thesis. This Caddo mound site is enormous and it seems endless but I'm getting good results. This past week has been one of the oddest, in terms of weather. The first day was spent discovering that the cows had completely destroyed the grid that was left from last November. It was expected that some of the PVC corner pipes would be missing, but out of 160 or so, only three remained. The rest were scattered about, often far from where they were placed. With help from Jamie Brandon and Clay Newton, we were able to reorient ourselves and this time we set the datum within the fenced area at the north base of the mound. After taking care of that situation, we were ready to head out the next day and start collecting data.

One problem. An ice storm in Magnolia hit that night and going out to the site was made impossible - not to mention very cold. So, it was a day spent at the Arkansas Archeological Survey working on getting the details worked out with the Trimble GeoXT that I am testing. Did I mention that ice storms in SW Arkansas are rare?

Anyway, the next day we headed out late because it was still wet and cold out. We were concerned about getting to the site with all the wet weather but with a little high school 4x4 knowledge, I drove the big Dodge survey truck out to the site with no problems. The site was very muddy and after slushing around a bit, the first set of grids were set up to start collecting. I collected 19 grids that day - spaced at .5 meter transects - over an area that had previously resulted in high daub concentrations during surface collections.

Today I collected an additional 28 grids (again at .5 meter) and my feet are killing me. It was another day of slushing around in the mud either collecting GPS data or collecting Mag data. Unfortunately, my cheap rubber boots DO have a metal shank in them so I was unable to use them during mag survey - which has led to wet feet and mucho blisters while surveying in my non-waterproof tennis shoes. Oh well. This morning at the site was very nice with a low fog. It was still and quiet. Birds could be heard from far away either chirping or banging their beaks on trees. Cows in both distant and near fields could be heard moo'ing and every now and then duck hunters would release a rapid fire of ammo, echoing the air with noise.

Tomorrow is my last day for this visit and I expect to collect an additional 22 grids in some key areas. This puts me shy of almost 70 grids that I had hoped to do but the weather (and my feet) just didn't hold out.











Oh, one other thing. It's amazing how destructive cows are to the environment. Sure, I realized this from various images but I never saw first hand until walking around the site and seeing the areas where the cows have turned areas into a muddy mess, damaged trees with their scratching and rubbing and created deep grass-less trails throughout the site. This doesn't even take into consideration the smell of cow feces that permeates the entire site and is deposited in every imaginable spot. It's too bad. This is an important Caddo site that should be preserved better.

Random Notes

So, over the course of a few weeks I've sent myself some random notes that I have been meaning to post up here regarding Battle. I'm finally going through and catching up on emails so now I can delete this one.

A statement of settlement systems taken from Banning 2002: Understanding settlement systems requires that we go beyond the simple documentation of where sites occur and attempt to understand how they may have operated in a settlement system. At a minimum, this usually means gaining some sense of the site's function.

Also, I think I might have mentioned this before but the Red River is highly dynamic and understanding the influence of geomorpholocial processes in the region is imperative. I need to speak with Dr. Guccione.

I made a note to myself to create a 3D elevation model using ArcScene. Not sure how to approach that but I think it would be good to include.

Lastly, a note from Jamie on Battle Mound old aerials - "I seem to have a set on aerial "indexes" which has thumbnail sized pictures of each aerial in my station territory...this would be handy for figuring out which aerial you need, but little else."

All for now.

Trimble R8 GNSS

More notes...

The Trimble R8 GNSS requires more investigation. Given the possibility of mounds within the plow field, hardly visible when doing a walking survey, it has been suggested that I investigate using Real Time Kinematic (RTK) with accuracies in the mm. Spec sheet is here.

CAST does not have this new roaming unit but does have an earlier RTK unit. A couple places do rent the Trimble R8 GNSS:

Martin Instrument Survey Solutions in Austin.

This requires more research.

Arbitrary Notes

Well, since I should gravitate toward some aggregated method of jotting down notes regarding thesis thoughts, I figure what better place than this newly adopted blog. It also serves to be accessible anywhere and notes can also be added from anywhere - granted the all important internet connection.

So, here is a cut and paste from an email I keep sending and resending myself of random thoughts and notes regarding thesis methods. I can now delete that email.

- Include aerial imaging.. thematic mapper and LIDAR from CAST

- Chapter on geomorphology of the red river with evidence of meander of the river over time.

- Handbook of Geophysics in Archaeology

- GCD, Tom Jones, Terran Map, Crenshaw, Hatchell. A comparative study looking at intrasite settlement patterns of the Battle Mound site to support or not support the Terran Map observations. Where they out of it? Is GCD and other sites frontier sites with anomolous settlement patterns? Can specific settlement patterns be determined or are they so highly variable (single mound, hamlets, etc. as depicted in the Terran Map) that a pattern cannot be determined. What does this tell us about the Caddo culture and how they might have viewed their instrasite landscape?

Visit to Battle Mound & Crenshaw

Over the weekend I headed down to Magnolia, Arkansas to take a look at a couple mound sites that I am strongly considering for my thesis - Battle Mound and Crenshaw Mound. I plan on doing a geophysical survey at one (or both) of the sites. Battle Mound is a single mound site (although multiple mounds are to have existed) and Crenshaw has multiple mounds. I was able to meet the land owners at Battle and they are receptive to me doing research on the site. A recent email from Dr. Jamie Brandon brought news that land owners at Crenshaw are also receptive to me doing research there. My plan at this point is to gather as much historical information about both sites and in the coming months, make another visit to do some preliminary geophysical grids to get a better understanding of instrument capabilities and any issues I might encounter. I am concerned about the numerous historical occupations at Battle and the inevitable metal trash that would accompany them. However, I am anxious to get started and have many ideas about how to approach this research project floating about in my head as a result of my productive visit.