Welcome to my Casa Mixteca

Hey everyone...I moved to a new house and we finally have a decent internet connection in the house! Actually, it works great. I gotta get ready to go decir despedidas (say good-bye) to Lindsey, the physical anthropologist who worked this year for the same project as I did last year, but just wanted to give a quick update and let everyone know that I am doing very well.

We started excavations at the Casa Mixteca, a Mixtec house site that is near the "collective" site of Monte Alban (a 20 minute camioneta ride away) and is of course Post-classic and awesome. Right now there's just me, the person technically in charge of the project, a student from ENAH and a worker. We are working in the north room of patio 3, one of the larger rooms, and we hope to finish up tomorrow with that and move onto the next room. Its taking a bit longer, not only cause of the lack of personnel (or human labor) but because its a big room with a lot of erosional fill. Its a lot fun though, and I will post pictures shortly.

In the mean time, here is a great pic of me relaxing during the lunch hour.

Coxitlahuaca...not quite Shangri-la, but close enough for this archaeologist!

What does one see everywhere when they go to Coixtlahuaca, aside from a carpet, literally of tecomates (ceramic sherds)covering the ground everywhere you walked?

Incredible vistas! This valley was amazing and breath-taking. Imagine a place that is very mountainous but the vistas stretch for miles, and the next mountain range you see could be kilometers away. The valley literally spreads out below you.

Here's Dr. Steve Kowalewski and Leonardo discussing something important or another about how we were going to proceed with the excavations that day. It was some crazy work we were doing--I've never excavated and backfilled in one day, and we did this three days in a row! Here we at the top of a large hill--look how beautiful everything looks from this high up.

Coixtlahuaca is for the most part a Postclassic site, and this era is especially famous for its polychrome pottery. I was dying to find one all week--unfortunately I kept picking up a bunch of bi-chromes with varying shades of red. Finally, on my last day up there, I found a fragment or tecomate of a polychrome pottery vessel. Sweet!

Here I am in the unit on Friday. Okay, so this picture is a bit posed--we had already done all the work, and photographed and did the plan drawing. But I couldn't resist getting a shot of myself as a working archaeologist!

Here is Rodrigo and Jorge, the team from UNAM (the big university in Mexico City) that was doing some of the electromagnetic testing of the site. It was there data that we were using to pick where we were going to excavate, to see how good the results of the electromagnetic testing is. We got mixed results--where we dug on Thursday and Friday the data worked very well.

And finally, a picture of the crew, from Monday. From L-R, its me (of course!), Leonardo, our two young helpers Xochitl and Blanca, and Dr. Steve Kowalewski. Marisol, the other archaeologist on the team, took the picture.

Though I was only up there for a week, I had a great time and met some wonderful people. Working with Steve was great--and he's invited me to come work with him next year from Jan-June--so want too! Just gotta figure out how to skip out on my classes :P. Plus, I had to lead my own units--I was put in charge! And that was exciting enough. Now I can say that I lead a crew, albeit briefly.

Can't wait to go back!

Politics, a dance of swords, and bits of life.

Its official. I am working with the team at Monte Alban, doing some work on the Casa Mixteca. Originally excavated as a rescue project in 1999, we're now going back to it to see what was missing from the drawing plans, topographic information, and other misc. things of the site report produced then and fill in the gaps. Having reviewed through all the informes from 1998 to last year yesterday, I know that in 2008 they set the goal to take a new look at the site with the idea of doing some preservation work, since it seems to be in an area of high erosion and danger from the ever expanding mancha urbana (basically, urban stain).

So again, not exactly what I was hoping to do this summer, but the main thing to remember is that my own project comes first, and all this stuff was for experience and so I could get my FM-3. I'm not sure what exactly I did wrong--Ron (Dr. Spores) says its a jugdemental thing and not a logical thing and I should put it behind me, but I still can't help wonder if it was something I did in the past year, or in the three days between my meeting with the Dra. and when I first heard the rumor that I would be pulled to Monte Alban.

However it happened, it sounds like things aren't incredibly exciting nor peachy up in Tepos. Next year should be better...and hey, unlike some people I know (who shall remain nameless) I've haven't been blacklisted from Oaxacan archaeology! In fact, I have been invited to work in the very bosom of the political firestorm! Perhaps its a keep your enemies close thing, but everyone who works here tells me that this is a good thing, and a way to prove that I am a good, loyal worker...unlike some people I know. Cheers!

Been a while, head in strange space...

Sorry for the long silence on posting. Most of the blame can be laid at the feet of simple exhaustion at the end of a long day of fieldwork and an impossibly slow internet connection during my week at Coixtlahuaca--which occupied my time from May 31-June 5. Digging there was fun, and I promise to post pictures soon of a wonderful and awe-inspiring landscapes and vistas, plus some great archaeology.

View of the valley from one of the sites we worked at.

The week in Coixtlahuaca was followed by my birthday, which was a mixture of sadness and happiness, but thankfully landed more on the latter side of the divide. I had a lovely dinner with Dr. Ron Spores and his brother and sister-in-law, then went out with friends where we danced till 2:30 in the morning! My hair was wet when I took it down before going to bed!



Sunday--the actual B-day--was rather quiet, though a friend of mine that I had met in Coixtlahuaca did come down to Oaxaca and we went out to a bar or two. At the second the bartender invited us to a free mezcal and beer, which was nice. He tried to send another one, but we said thanks but no thanks. Er. Then we went home, watched a movie and passed out. My friend left the next day to Mexico City.

And I left to go to Nochixtlan to help out a friend for the week. Unfortunately, while at the top of the Cero Jazmin, I received a phone call from Bertha, indicating that I had received an email from Dra. Nelly Robles, and that it would be best for me to come back to Oaxaca asap and get stuff straightened out and started up with her.

Well, its the second day. I'm awaiting "instructions" so I can know what the hell I'm doing. Sigh. And my mentor, Ron, is happy about it. I don't think he's going to charge in like a white knight, and I don't know if its going to do much as it seems I am being unfairly selected to be jerked around (which is right now too depressing to relate but I promise a post on this later), but its nice to know he cares. We'll see what happens.

Since I seem to be stuck at an impasse, I have decided to concentrate on what actually matters at the moment, which is my ball court project. On Sunday a friend and I are going up to meet with a Señor who seems to be heavily involved in arranging pelota mixteca or ball game matches, and there's supposed to be a tournament in this one village, which I am looking forward to. I also need to start hitting up some ball courts, though since I did limit myself to at least three, I don't think I should have too much trouble accomplishing that task.

Till next time, I promise that a post will follow this one very shortly.