Monday, September 25, 2017
Two dates after my 54th birthday, I traveled north with three co-workers to start my next project, a big, lengthy archaeological survey of National Forest land. They are thinning trees and bushes to help prevent forest fires from affecting three communities.
The terrain varies from rocky slopes to areas overgrown with manzanita, scrub oak, and super thorny mesquite.
Looking north toward the Mogollon Rim.
Lots of archaeological sites to document. A lot of small 1000-year-old farmsteads with single rock masonry rooms. Also present, quite a lot of rock art carved onto boulders.
The terrain varies from rocky slopes to areas overgrown with manzanita, scrub oak, and super thorny mesquite.
Project area.
Over the course of seven days, 62 hours in the field, we walked 41.5 miles. At times my feet and legs hurt badly, but by the end that had mostly stopped.
Lots of archaeological sites to document. A lot of small 1000-year-old farmsteads with single rock masonry rooms. Also present, quite a lot of rock art carved onto boulders.
No one really knows what the symbols meant to the people who carved them.
On the seventh day, a surprise find- a plane crash site. Scattered all over a west-facing slope in a large area were pieces of frame, aluminum skin, various parts, and aviation oil cans.
Frame fragments.
We will be researching this to find out what happened to the plane.
