Mapping and GPR at Nim Li Punit in the Toledo District, Belize

Since last I made an entry in the blog, I've started a PhD program at the University of California, San Diego.  I completed my first two years in the program.  During the spring quarter of my first year I collected data for a second Masters thesis for the program at UCSD.  I'm worked with my advisor, Dr. Geoffrey Braswell at the site of Nim li Punit in the southern part of the Toledo District in Belize. During the month of May we mapped the site core with a Nikon total station and Trimble GPS unit and generated a topographic map with Malerized representations of the site's structures.

Three-dimensional model of the topography of Nim li Punit, Toledo, Belize created in Surfer from the 3,450 points collected with the total station.

Malerized map of structures in the site core of Nim li Punit, Toledo, Belize overlaid on 20 cm isometric contours

 Additionally, we conducted GPR surveys of the site plazas and a few of the structures using the same GSSI SIR-3000 GPR unit that ASM Affiliates Inc. (ASM) supplied me with to do the work at Kaminaljuyu.  We were hoping to identify possible locations of tombs at the base of the structures similar to those previously uncovered at the site, but the results did not yield any anomalies that demonstrated any regular geometry that would indicate the presence of a tomb.  There are some linear anomalies in the data that may represent retaining walls in the plazas used for holding fill.  There are some other anomalies that may be worth investigating in the future as well.

Location of GPR survey grids at Nim li Punit, Toledo, Belize.

The last task was to analyze all of the obsidian that had been recovered from the excavations at both Lubaantun and Nim li Punit by Dr. Braswell and his students in previous years using a portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometer also provided by ASM. The results indicated that the majority of obsidian at both sites came from the sources of El Chayal and Ixtepeque with both sites have a small percentage of Ucareo obsidian.  Lubantun had one piece of Zacaltipan obsidian, and Nim li Punit had three pieces of Otumba, one of San Martin Jilotepeque, and one piece from Pachuca.

Counts and percentages of obsidian sources represented in the artifact assemblages from Lubaantun and Nim li Punit.

PCA including source reference groups.

Bivariate plot demonstrating San Martín Jilotepeque as a possible geological source for just one unknown sample.

Canonical discriminate analysis showing the distribution of source materials represented at the sites of Lubaantun and Nim li Punit.

I finished my Thesis during the Winter and Spring quarter of my second year.  The title of the thesis is Nondestructive Geophysical and Archaeometric Investigations at the Southern Belize Sites of Lubaantun and Nim li Punit. but the thesis is not published as I already have a Masters from Cal State Long Beach and UCSD does not give second degrees in the same discipline.  But, if anyone would like a copy I will be more than happy to send a pdf of the thesis via email.    

THESIS COMPLETE, MASTERS ATTAINED

So, I finally completed my thesis entitled, Distributional Archaeology and Subsurface Structure Function at El Baul, Cotzumalguapa, Guatemala. As I mentioned before, I presented a paper of some of the results from my thesis at the recent SAA conference in Atlanta, GA. I'm glad to have the thesis complete, but there is still a great deal of work that can be done using the data I collected. Perhaps if I should decide to continue in academia I may be able to continue working in Guatemala. The full potential of studies similar to the one I conducted at the site of El Baul has yet to be realized. Using geophysical prospecting, the distribution of surface artifacts, and soil chemistry it is possible to map site structures and determine structure function without costly excavations. From data such as this, predictive models could be generated to determine the locations of particular types of structures associated with particular kinds of prehistoric cultural activities.

I may get an opportunity very shortly to conduct a similar study on a known site at Camp Pendleton. We will be conducting GPR, magnetometry, coring, surface survey, and subsurface testing. The results should be interesting. These types of studies that incorporate what Kvamme (2005) has referred to as "data fusion" should be the next great wave in archaeological investigation.

Recent Endevours

It's been a while since I've last updated the website. A lot has been going on since my last post. I have started working for a CRM firm in Carlsbad, CA, ASM Affiliates Inc. I really enjoy working for this company. I have the opportunity of putting some of the geophysical skills I obtained at CSULB to use. ASM has the same ground penetrating radar equipment that CSULB uses. I got a chance to do a geophysical survey in the Sierras on a cabin dating back to the 1860s had been inundated after the damming of Caples Lake. I've also been involved in various other projects at ASM. My info page on the company's website is located at this address: http://www.asmaffiliates.com/jdaniels.htm

I also had the opportunity in January to return to Guatemala to work at the site of El Baul. This year we worked in an area just west of the acropolis and an area several hundred meters north of the acropolis. The GPR data we recovered in the area several hundred meters north of the acropolis revealed the causeway that was revealed in the area south of the acropolis continues further north and is larger than was originally thought. The area west of the acropolis revealed multiple structures and a portion of the collapsed wall of the acropolis.

In April, I will be attending the Society for American Archaeology Conference in Atlanta, Georgia. Along with several of my fellow students and colleagues I will be presenting a paper for a symposium I organized entitled, "Innovative Analytical Techniques in Pacific Coastal Guatemalan Archaeology". My paper will be a summation of my graduate thesis.

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.

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.

Just added CV

Check out the links section of this blog and you can download my CV.

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.