Friday, September 26, 2008
New Job!
I recently got a job with ASM Affiliates in Carlsbad, CA. So, I packed up my things and moved down to the Oceanside/Carlsbad area. I'm really excited about the job and so far I've already been working on several projects. I worked on a project in the Sonora Desert earlier this month. It was hot but it was also a blast. I'm looking foward to more work in the future.
Friday, August 1, 2008
Just Back From Guatemala
I just recently returned from a two week venture in Guatemala. I was working with my Professor, Dr. Neff and two other students from CSULB at a middle Formative site in the town of La Blanca.
View Larger Map
We completed an intensive geophysical survey of an area surrounding Mound 1. This mound once towered 25 meters and from the top of it a person could see all of La Blanca and even the Guatemalan Pacific Coastline which is approximately 15 km from the town of La Blanca. However, the mound was leveled in the 70s by a construction company for reasons I'm not quite sure of. We worked in association with Dr. Michael Love of California State University Northridge and several of his students from CSUN. Dr. Love has devoted numerous years of work at the site of La Blanca and along the Pacific Coast of Guatemala.
The main form of geophysical survey we performed was ground penetrating radar or (GPR) using Geonics SIR-3000 with a 400 MHz antenna. We then processed the data using GPR Slice, a software program developed by Dean Goodman that proves extremely dynamic in processing and interpreting raw GPR data. You can find out more about GPR and GPR Slice at www.archaeogeophysics.org
The results from the survey are still being analyzed. We located several anomalies and geometric alignments that may prove to be the original edges of the mound but we have to take into consideration the dampness of the soil which may have affected our results. Changes in aridity in the soil change the dielectric properties of the soil thus affecting the signals received by the antenna resulting in noticible changes in the radargrams. We mainly survey in plantain fields but we also surveyed in an open pasture and a couple of corn fields as well. A word of advice: if you ever have to spend a lengthy period of time in a corn field, make sure and wear long sleeves and something to cover your neck like a bandana. Corn leaves give you small cuts that turn into a rash causing you to itch like crazy.
Outside of all the hard work we put in, we managed to have a lot of fun as well. We stopped in Antigua twice: once on the way to La Blanc and once on the way back to Guatemala City. Antigua has probably the most hospitable climate I've ever experienced. The city is beautiful, there's a descent nightlife, the surrounding mountains are breathtaking, and there's a little hotel called the Rosario that's really cozy and relaxing; not to mention affordable. The only bad thing about Antigua is the countless number of tourists which makes the experience seem more like a theme park than a Spanish Colonial town.
On the way from Guatemala city to Antigua the first time around we were able to stop in Santa Lucia Cotzumalguapa, the small city closest to the site of El Baul. El Baul is the site where I collected the data for my thesis. In January of 2007 and January of 2008 Dr. Neff invited myself and several other CSULB students to work at the site of El Baul. During our visits we befriended a young lad by the name of Chepe. That's his nickname. We tried to send him a care package from the States, but he did not receive it. So this time around we brought the package down to him. He and his mother met us in the park just outside the Catholic Church in the center of Santa Lucia. We were excited to see him again. He seemed to have grown taller between the time we last saw him in January. Chepe was a great help to us those two field seasons. He brought us all kinds of fruit and iced water to help keep us cool while we were working. He even helped to screen on occasion.
During our stay in La Blanca I managed to escape a few times down to the beach. Tilapa was the name of the small beach community there. You could take either the bus or the these small three wheeled taxis from La Blanca down to Tilapa for only 5 Quetzales a person, which translates to approximately 75 cents a person. The waves at Tilapa were pretty huge. There were two breaks. The breaks closer to the shore were a little smaller and pretty descent for body surfing. All along the beach there were shelters with thatched roofs that served cold Gallo Cerveza and fresh fried fish, shrimp, and fries. After a long hard day under the hot Guatemalan Sun, this was the perfect way to wind down, relax, and fuel up for another day of work.
The last two days we worked in La Blanca, the Northridge team began excavation. It would have been nice to stay a little longer to see if any of our observations in the GPR data coincided with something uncovered in the excavations. But alas, there is work to be done here in Long Beach and a life to get back to. Adrian and Maureen, the two other students from CSULB, came back with thesis topics, which is exciting for them. I came back with even greater adoration for Guatemala, its people, and its history.
I plan to post pictures from this last trip to Guatemala on Flickr soon. You can link to them via the Flickr link on the side of the page. I'll post a direct link in this blog post as soon as I get them up.
View Larger Map
We completed an intensive geophysical survey of an area surrounding Mound 1. This mound once towered 25 meters and from the top of it a person could see all of La Blanca and even the Guatemalan Pacific Coastline which is approximately 15 km from the town of La Blanca. However, the mound was leveled in the 70s by a construction company for reasons I'm not quite sure of. We worked in association with Dr. Michael Love of California State University Northridge and several of his students from CSUN. Dr. Love has devoted numerous years of work at the site of La Blanca and along the Pacific Coast of Guatemala.
The main form of geophysical survey we performed was ground penetrating radar or (GPR) using Geonics SIR-3000 with a 400 MHz antenna. We then processed the data using GPR Slice, a software program developed by Dean Goodman that proves extremely dynamic in processing and interpreting raw GPR data. You can find out more about GPR and GPR Slice at www.archaeogeophysics.org
The results from the survey are still being analyzed. We located several anomalies and geometric alignments that may prove to be the original edges of the mound but we have to take into consideration the dampness of the soil which may have affected our results. Changes in aridity in the soil change the dielectric properties of the soil thus affecting the signals received by the antenna resulting in noticible changes in the radargrams. We mainly survey in plantain fields but we also surveyed in an open pasture and a couple of corn fields as well. A word of advice: if you ever have to spend a lengthy period of time in a corn field, make sure and wear long sleeves and something to cover your neck like a bandana. Corn leaves give you small cuts that turn into a rash causing you to itch like crazy.
Outside of all the hard work we put in, we managed to have a lot of fun as well. We stopped in Antigua twice: once on the way to La Blanc and once on the way back to Guatemala City. Antigua has probably the most hospitable climate I've ever experienced. The city is beautiful, there's a descent nightlife, the surrounding mountains are breathtaking, and there's a little hotel called the Rosario that's really cozy and relaxing; not to mention affordable. The only bad thing about Antigua is the countless number of tourists which makes the experience seem more like a theme park than a Spanish Colonial town.
On the way from Guatemala city to Antigua the first time around we were able to stop in Santa Lucia Cotzumalguapa, the small city closest to the site of El Baul. El Baul is the site where I collected the data for my thesis. In January of 2007 and January of 2008 Dr. Neff invited myself and several other CSULB students to work at the site of El Baul. During our visits we befriended a young lad by the name of Chepe. That's his nickname. We tried to send him a care package from the States, but he did not receive it. So this time around we brought the package down to him. He and his mother met us in the park just outside the Catholic Church in the center of Santa Lucia. We were excited to see him again. He seemed to have grown taller between the time we last saw him in January. Chepe was a great help to us those two field seasons. He brought us all kinds of fruit and iced water to help keep us cool while we were working. He even helped to screen on occasion.
During our stay in La Blanca I managed to escape a few times down to the beach. Tilapa was the name of the small beach community there. You could take either the bus or the these small three wheeled taxis from La Blanca down to Tilapa for only 5 Quetzales a person, which translates to approximately 75 cents a person. The waves at Tilapa were pretty huge. There were two breaks. The breaks closer to the shore were a little smaller and pretty descent for body surfing. All along the beach there were shelters with thatched roofs that served cold Gallo Cerveza and fresh fried fish, shrimp, and fries. After a long hard day under the hot Guatemalan Sun, this was the perfect way to wind down, relax, and fuel up for another day of work.
The last two days we worked in La Blanca, the Northridge team began excavation. It would have been nice to stay a little longer to see if any of our observations in the GPR data coincided with something uncovered in the excavations. But alas, there is work to be done here in Long Beach and a life to get back to. Adrian and Maureen, the two other students from CSULB, came back with thesis topics, which is exciting for them. I came back with even greater adoration for Guatemala, its people, and its history.
I plan to post pictures from this last trip to Guatemala on Flickr soon. You can link to them via the Flickr link on the side of the page. I'll post a direct link in this blog post as soon as I get them up.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Workin' my way to workin'
Recently I have sent out my CV to a variety of different companies here in California, Hawaii, and North Carolina. I've only gotten one bite from a company near where I live here in Long Beach. I have an interview with them tomorrow. Hopefully I'll get the job. It'll be nice to have some set hours to work for a change.
In the mean time I've been working on the wiki site archaeogeophysics.org and working in the IIRMES lab running samples on the LA-ICP-MS for Dr. Neff. Pretty soon I'm going to start running the soil samples that my buddies Andrew and Adrian have been helping me prep from El Baul down in Guatemala. I'm hoping to see some differences in the concentrations of phosphorus in the samples. High concentrations of phosphorus may be indicative of areas of bulk food preparation. The areas that I surveyed were areas that showed up in the GPR as having structural foundations adjacent to a large plaza connected to a calzada or causeway. Perhaps some of these structures were used as food markets. I'm anxious to do the analysis and see the results.
My thesis thus far is moving rather slowly. The data I collected in Guatemala for the survey grids is now integrated into ArcGIS. There are a few bugs in the data as a result of human area. Basically just mislabeled coordinates of grids, duplicate grid numbers, etc. These are ambiguities that are easily corrected. I'm afraid that the GPR data that we have may need to be reprocessed. The images I have are a little cluttered and the structures are difficult to isolate.
My goal is to be completely done with the thesis by the end of the summer.
In the mean time I've been working on the wiki site archaeogeophysics.org and working in the IIRMES lab running samples on the LA-ICP-MS for Dr. Neff. Pretty soon I'm going to start running the soil samples that my buddies Andrew and Adrian have been helping me prep from El Baul down in Guatemala. I'm hoping to see some differences in the concentrations of phosphorus in the samples. High concentrations of phosphorus may be indicative of areas of bulk food preparation. The areas that I surveyed were areas that showed up in the GPR as having structural foundations adjacent to a large plaza connected to a calzada or causeway. Perhaps some of these structures were used as food markets. I'm anxious to do the analysis and see the results.
My thesis thus far is moving rather slowly. The data I collected in Guatemala for the survey grids is now integrated into ArcGIS. There are a few bugs in the data as a result of human area. Basically just mislabeled coordinates of grids, duplicate grid numbers, etc. These are ambiguities that are easily corrected. I'm afraid that the GPR data that we have may need to be reprocessed. The images I have are a little cluttered and the structures are difficult to isolate.
My goal is to be completely done with the thesis by the end of the summer.
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Academic Posters and Projects
One of the first projects I worked on during my graduate studies was a multi-analytical approach to determining the chemistry of concretions discovered in a test pit on the coast of Guatemala. The strata that the concretion were found in date to the Early Formative period from around 1800 to 1500 B.C. The hypothesis is that these concretions are calcareous floors made from burned and crushed shell. I used several techniques to determine the chemistry of these floors including loss on ignition, x-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and laser ablation inductively coupled mass spectroscopy. The results of the study showed that the floors were predominately calcium carbonate, silica, and alumina. Diatoms and pieces of shells were seen in some of the images of the floors taken with the SEM.
Analyses of Early Formative Calcareous Floors from Albeño 2 in Escuintla, Guatemala
Another project I worked on was a part of a class called Archaeology Field Research Design and Methods. The class went out to Zzyzx, California in the Mojave Dessert to do geophysical surveys of known sites. One of the sites we surveyed was SBR-05417. Both GPR and Magnetometry surveys picked up some pretty interesting anomalies. We generated a isopleth map of the elevation of the area and plotted the position of artifact clusters in our GPS. The project I worked on involved correlating the position of these artifacts in relation to the anomalies detected with the geophysical instruments as well as the elevation and slope of the landscape. This project was in part a pilot study for the analysis that I am doing for my thesis which attempts to relate artifact densities with potential subsurface structure detected with GPR and Magnetometry at El Baul in Santa Lucia Cotzumalguapa, Guatemala. A link to the poster regarding the Zzyzx data is located below.
Comparing the Spatial Distribution of Surface Artifacts to Subsurface Features Detected with Ground Penetrating Radar and Magnetometry
One of the largest projects I worked on during my academic career at CSULB involved measuring shell temper variability in Mississippian period undecorated ceramics from the lower Mississippi River Valley. The idea is that variability in attributes of shell temper in ceramics is directly related to modes of ceramic manufacture including temper preparation, vessel thickness, and vessel function. Some of the attributes of shell temper is obviously related to function including temper size and density where larger particles and a greater abundance are needed for vessels of greater thickness. But, attributes such as shape and angularity are more likely related to stylistic attributes such as modes of processing temper before introducing it into the ceramic paste and modes of vessel formation (e.g. coiling, piecemeal, etc.).
In this project I tested both functional and stylistic attributes of shell temper in these ceramics using a small digital microscope and the open source software ImageJ to quantify temper variability. The most interesting observation that I made in this study was a significant correlation between the distribution of temper variability among assemblages (collections from particular sites) and the distribution of decorated ceramic types from the same collections. Sites that shared similar distributions of ceramic types also exhibited similar distributions of temper variability.
The poster that I generated from this research project was presented at the 2008 Annual Society for American Archaeology conference in Vancouver, BC. A link to download the poster is listed below.
Digital Images Processing of Shell Temper Variability in Late Prehistoric Ceramics from the Lower Mississippi River Valley
Analyses of Early Formative Calcareous Floors from Albeño 2 in Escuintla, Guatemala
Another project I worked on was a part of a class called Archaeology Field Research Design and Methods. The class went out to Zzyzx, California in the Mojave Dessert to do geophysical surveys of known sites. One of the sites we surveyed was SBR-05417. Both GPR and Magnetometry surveys picked up some pretty interesting anomalies. We generated a isopleth map of the elevation of the area and plotted the position of artifact clusters in our GPS. The project I worked on involved correlating the position of these artifacts in relation to the anomalies detected with the geophysical instruments as well as the elevation and slope of the landscape. This project was in part a pilot study for the analysis that I am doing for my thesis which attempts to relate artifact densities with potential subsurface structure detected with GPR and Magnetometry at El Baul in Santa Lucia Cotzumalguapa, Guatemala. A link to the poster regarding the Zzyzx data is located below.
Comparing the Spatial Distribution of Surface Artifacts to Subsurface Features Detected with Ground Penetrating Radar and Magnetometry
One of the largest projects I worked on during my academic career at CSULB involved measuring shell temper variability in Mississippian period undecorated ceramics from the lower Mississippi River Valley. The idea is that variability in attributes of shell temper in ceramics is directly related to modes of ceramic manufacture including temper preparation, vessel thickness, and vessel function. Some of the attributes of shell temper is obviously related to function including temper size and density where larger particles and a greater abundance are needed for vessels of greater thickness. But, attributes such as shape and angularity are more likely related to stylistic attributes such as modes of processing temper before introducing it into the ceramic paste and modes of vessel formation (e.g. coiling, piecemeal, etc.).
In this project I tested both functional and stylistic attributes of shell temper in these ceramics using a small digital microscope and the open source software ImageJ to quantify temper variability. The most interesting observation that I made in this study was a significant correlation between the distribution of temper variability among assemblages (collections from particular sites) and the distribution of decorated ceramic types from the same collections. Sites that shared similar distributions of ceramic types also exhibited similar distributions of temper variability.
The poster that I generated from this research project was presented at the 2008 Annual Society for American Archaeology conference in Vancouver, BC. A link to download the poster is listed below.
Digital Images Processing of Shell Temper Variability in Late Prehistoric Ceramics from the Lower Mississippi River Valley
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Current Work
I'm currently working as a research assistant at the Institute for Integrated Research in Materials, Environments, and Societies or IIRMES. I help run the laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer, a machine that is able to measure the chemistry of solid samples such as ceramic and obsidian artifacts. I'm also working on a wiki website in colaboration with caltrans, my professor and a fellow student that will provide people information on archaeogeophysic techniques and step by step instructions on conducting surveys with geophysical instruments, processing data, and data analysis.
I will be going to Pacific Coastal Guatemala in July to assist in conducting a ground penetrating radar survey of an archaeological area of interest named La Blanca. This will be my third visit to Guatemala and I'm extremely excited about it.
This blog will document the progress of my work as an academic and archaeologist and provide people information about my work and potentially assist others in their academic and archaeological pursuits. I'll be adding more information about myself and my work in the next few days.
I will be going to Pacific Coastal Guatemala in July to assist in conducting a ground penetrating radar survey of an archaeological area of interest named La Blanca. This will be my third visit to Guatemala and I'm extremely excited about it.
This blog will document the progress of my work as an academic and archaeologist and provide people information about my work and potentially assist others in their academic and archaeological pursuits. I'll be adding more information about myself and my work in the next few days.
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