Adventures at the museum

Soooo...I was at the Columbia Gorge Interpretive Center yesterday for my usual volunteer hours and while looking at a shelf full of books, I nearly had a coronary. There it was! A whole book on Clahclehlah! I'm sure the guy thought I was nuts cause I immediately stopped what I was doing and was like "can we use these books?" Valid question right since they are on a shelf in what appears to be a lunch/meeting room. The answer was yes so now I am carving out time in my schedule to go down there and use said book for oh...a few hours.

For those of you who don't know, Clahclehlah was a Native American village for the Cascade Chinooks that was located at the present site of the Bonneville Dam's second powerhouse. Very little, and I mean very little has been written on the village. Lewis and Clark both mentioned it since they stopped and stayed there, I had a professor from Missouri email what information she had from a report she had written and I have found excerpts about it in a couple of books that date back to the 1950's. I have no rhyme or reason for it, but I am VERY drawn to this village and have been wanting to research and write about it for a long, long time. (2 years long....) I thought a few months ago that I had found a whole book on the topic at the library for the Army Corp of Engineers but was told that it was classified and I would have to get permission. Needless to say, I have heard nothing since. So imagine my surprise when I look over and there is a small, old, 3 ring binder with sticker letters along the side spelling out Clahclehlah. I want it, I need it, I must read it. It is now officially on my bucket list. I shouldn't be surprised though because the interpretive center is the best place to get that info. They even have a display on Clahclehlah set up there. (See picture below).

Not to mention they have a vast array of information and displays on the Cascade Chinooks and the Corridor of Commerce. They have now just become my favorite place in the whole world. So of course, my agenda today includes calling and seeing what day is best for me to come in and read this little jewel front to back. I really wanna write a book on it that other people can access. I am so dismayed at times by the lack of books I find on this area. Many of the ones that are written are academic in nature. Its time to have something that appeals to the general public. And there's no topic that I love more than the Cascade Indians.

Speaking of which...

Before I spazed out over a book (happens more often than is probably normal) I was reading a pioneers account of the Native American attack by the Yakima tribe on a local settlement. As I was reading along, I came across a very short paragraph about the fact that when the military arrived to help out the settlers, they rowed out to an island, rounded up all of the Indians, took over the place and held them all prisoner. The pioneer writer did not say that these Indians were apart of the battle, just that the island was where they lived and they were taken hostage. Later on during the letter, I read that these natives were of the Cascade Indian Tribe, NOT the Yakima. Among them was Chef Chenoweth. (Sorry! I looked for a photo of him and was unable to locate anything).

Now in the past I have read that Chenoweth was hung because he and his people violated a treaty. According to the letter I was now reading, that was what he was charged with by the military men who were hanging him. But at NO TIME did the pioneer state that the Cascades participated in the raid. The entire time, he stated it was the Yakima Nation that was responsible. As a matter of fact, from numerous other books I have read on the subject, the Cascade Indians were actually friendly with the settlers and helped them out. So, I was confused a little bit about this and hoping that I wasnt really reading what I thought I was reading, which turned out to be the case. Let me explain.

First thought after I read this was, "OMG! They hung him and 7 other men from the Cascades just because they were Indians! Not because they participated in the raid! Why would anyone with a shred of decency do such a horrific thing?" Of course as an Anthropologist, I know why but sometimes I like to block that knowledge because it sucks what we did to innocent people. I finished the article hoping I was wrong and moved on. Next folder was a stack of obituaries on the Underwood family, including Chef Chenoweth's granddaughter, who was an Underwood. Included as her obituary was a telling of her life and her connection with Chenoweth and how he was hung for violating a treaty he did not violate, in place of the Yakima Indians that were not captured. Needless to say, I wanted to bang my head on the table. I hate, HATE reading stories like this. Really!! How barbaric can people get? We profess justice but yet we hand down injustice. One of my biggest soap boxes of all time.

Hence, my purpose in writing this blog with Chenoweth in mind. If you think that he was guilty and hung for treaty violation justly, then you have been misinformed. As far as any records I have read (granted I admit, I have probably not read everything...but I have read a lot...a...lot...) Chef Chenoweth was the head of the Cascade Tribe and was a great man who sought to not only protect the interests of his own people (which he had every right to do) but also worked with the settlers helping them during their times of need while attempting to survive in the still untamed Pacific Northwest. He was not a criminal. He did not commit any crime that would have justified being hung. Period. End of story. You have evidence otherwise...prove it. Im from Missouri...we have a saying down there..."show me." I have not found anything to suggest otherwise.

Sigh* I will step off my soap box now and move on. One day I may write a book on the Cascade Indians too, or include that in my book on Clahclehlah. Either way, these are all subjects that I am greatly passionate about. I hope this post stirs up a curiosity in you too!

Check out the Columbia Gorge Interpretive Centers Exhibits page...heck...better yet...stop in for a visit sometime. (link)

Happy Reading!

Rachel B. 

Kennewick Man and Arrowheads and Hikes, oh my...

So yesterday was an interesting day in the Bryan household. I got to go on a hike up to Angels Rest with my friend Renee. While I was gone, William and the boys apparently ran into a Native American man along their bike ride who convinced them that he had a special power for finding arrowheads. So of course, when I got home, they had to show me the arrowhead that the guy found supposedly at Hamilton Creek and gave to them. Of course I have to be the skeptic in the household and just by looking at it, I concluded that it was not an actual arrowhead. To me it looks more like a geofact (a naturally formed item that looks like an artifact but is not. It was created by nature not man). They insisted that the guy was right so I pulled out my magnify glass and insisted that he was wrong. (Yes...I am the type of nerd who keeps a magnify glass on hand and ready at all times.) Here are pictures of the rock for your viewing pleasure:

There are no tool marks, striations, flaking of any kind on the rock. One side is completely flat, the other is what you see up above. Just to be certain I promised I would take it to the Fort and see if I could use their high tech magnify glass to look at it more in depth.

Here is my reasoning for saying its not an arrowhead: First off, arrowheads are usually categorized by type. There are certain styles that are indicative of particular regions and groups. Take a look at the chart below.

Click picture for a fun e-how article on identifying arrowheads.

The "arrowhead" in question does not fall into any of these categories. Leave it to my husband to suggest that perhaps the person who made it was a rebel and decided he wanted to make his arrowhead the way he wanted and not how others wanted him to make it. (Que Rachel grumpy face).

Secondly, I pointed out to them that the "arrowhead" or rock, as I had now taken to calling it, did not have any markings on it to suggest that it had been flaked by a human hand. The making of a real arrowhead leaves distinct markings on the projectile. None of those markings were present. Not to mention that the general shape of the rock was not anything close to an arrowhead style that I had seen.

The discussion ended with me basically chastising everyone within hearing distance that if it had in fact been an arrowhead then they would have been committing an ethical crime by removing it from its location. Yes, arrowheads are super super awesome and I would love to have a giant collection of them but that's just not possible because to remove one from the location in which it was found would be destroying its provenance which is an archeological CRIME!!! You heard me! It's wrong! Don't do it! Ever...no matter how cool it is. Take note of where it lies and contact the state archeological office.(Check out this link for more arrowhead information.)

Of course, within a couple hours of this discussion we were back on the topic of Anthropology which is weird cause its actually not something we tend to talk about all that much at my house. Mainly because my husband is a creationist (bless his heart) and I am a evolutionist and its just not a good conversation for us to be having. How we got started on the topic of Kennewick Man, I am still unsure of. I think he made some smart remark about Native Americans not really being Native Americans and that lead into the abyss that is Anthropology discussions in our home.

For those of you who don't know about the Kennewick Man, stick around cause this one is awesome.

 On July 28th 1996, 2 men accidentally stumbled across skeletal remains along the Columbia River in Kennewick Washington. Upon finding the remains, the men contacted the local police department fearing they had stumbled across the remains of some poor murder victim. The police contacted a specialist who came out and looked at the bones and right away they realized this was no ordinary skeleton.

Upon further testing it was discovered that the Kennewick Man was around 9000 years old. Not only that but he had Caucasoid features (the pc term for white/European features). This lead to a huge controversy because the Umatilla Tribe was attempting to claim him for proper burial shortly after the find was made. Their claim was that he was found within their territory and that their oral history had gone back 10,000 years making him a part of their tribe. However, the government ruled against them and the remains are still in the hands of scientists.

So, it begs the questions, if the Kennewick Man is not Native American what is he? Some say that he has more in common with Polynesians than Native Americans. I had a professor who believed that he was most likely closely related to the Ainu of Japan. Where ever he came from is a mystery and will likely remain so. But it is an important thing to note because it gives weight to the theory that there were multiple migrations to North America over the course of a long period of time before the Bering Land Bridge went away. We know that evidence of humans have been found in South America as late as 12000 years ago and in North America around 10000 years ago. Many people note that the Columbia River Gorge has been occupied by Native Americans for the last 10000 years which would be in line with the Umatilla version of events. Whatever the truth behind the Kennewick Man may be, it is still one of the most interesting and controversial finds to come out of Washington State to this day. Maybe one day we will have the opportunity to find more like him.

Finally, a brief mention (just cause this could be my longest post ever), I took video of the top of Angels Rest looking out over the Columbia River that I will be uploading soon to this site. I want to be able to give everyone who reads my blog that has never stepped foot in Washington a visual on what it is I spend a great deal of time talking about.

Until next time...

Rachel B.

Run Baby, Run...

Ahh running! The very word run can bring some to tears and others to cheers. It's a love/hate relationship. So why the topic of running today? Well, there's a couple of reasons. First off, I like running...love it in fact. Ehh...well, some days I really hate it but for the most part I love it. I am thinking about it now because I just signed up for my first half marathon. Crazy I know. But at least its only half crazy. Full blown crazy is still a few months away. Secondly, I wanted to write about something that was anthropological and running fit the bill perfectly. How you ask? Allow me to educate you. Humans were born to run. Mmhmm...that's right. We are all runners deep down inside. Even if the very word makes you see double. Evolution made us runners.

According to researchers, humans have been running for more than 2 million years. Now, I know the study came out in 2004 and I'm a little late on the draw, but I still wanted to share this with everyone. Mainly because I think that too many people out there are afraid to get up off the couch and go for a jog. No need to fear. You were born to run!

How were we born to run? Our bodies tell the story. To start, the basics. I hope that everyone reading this is aware that Humans are apart of the ape species. If you were not aware, you are now. There are a lot of differences between us and our closest ancestors. This goes beyond the ability to talk and some really intense body hair. Researchers in 2004 identified a range of traits in the human body that were specifically well adapted to running. For starters: the Achilles tendon. This spring like wonder absorbs shock as we run. According to researchers, this little beauty was missing from our ancestors, the Australopithecus. Another spring, noted by researchers, is our arch. This first appeared to have evolved with Homo Habilis. Also, "the researchers say long legs, relative to body mass, first appeared with Homo erectus some 1.8 million years ago" (Link to article). Even our facial characteristics and our butts make us prime candidates for endurance running. All of these things put together make us one lean, mean, running machine.

We are so good at running that studies show we can outrun antelope and horses. That's right. Thought we were slow wimps didn't ya? Facts are we can't run as fast as them but we can outlast them. Many bush tribes in Africa use this endurance ability to exhaust their prey to the point they can get close enough to disable and kill them.

All of these stories and studies make me feel better as a runner. Yeah I suffer from injury on occasion and yes, I am very slow, but when my brain is screaming at me to stop cause we're not made for this stuff, I can ignore it and keep going. Because my body always has more to give then my brain. I was built to run. Just as all humans were. Don't take my word for it though. Read the research yourself. There are four great articles, here, here, here, and here, that sum up the research more in depth. My post is just a really fast over view. I know that when I am in the thick of my first half marathon I am going to have to remind myself of this. I hope that someone out there will read this and decide to see what evolution can do for them and go for a run. Once around the block is better than no run at all.

Here are some fun pictures to entertain you!

Happy Trails!

Rachel B.

Cavemens teeth

During a moment of digression this morning I stumbled across an article that is currently trending on MSN. The article which you can find here, is a fun little piece on the teeth of cavemen. According to the article, cavemen had better teeth than we do today by way of little to no evidence of tooth decay or cavities. This article is a brief summary of a larger piece that can be found here.

Just for fun, below is a picture of real cavemen teeth. These were found in Spain before agriculture hit the scene. Check out this link for a story on how these chompers lead to the oldest DNA found.

cbsnews.com

Just look at those teeth! Pretty impressive pearly whites if you ask me. So why did I find this story so interesting? Well, for starters, I am all about the cavemen. Although they are not what I specialize in, they sure are fun to read about! Secondly, and please stop me if my arrogance gets a little big here, but ummm....I thought that we knew this already?


The teeth of humans were pretty well cared for under a natural diet. Granted some diets were better than others. For instance, vegetarian diets, like those seen by California Natives, tended to have higher tooth issues than the meat eating tribes did, here in North America. (Read article here). But this was true all over the world. Based on evidence found in the archaeological record, scientist can safely say, (and have been for many years now) that the real dental issues such as tooth decay and cavities didn't appear until the advent of agriculture. When we began to mess with our food, without understanding what we were doing, we introduced a lot of things into our diet that had negative effects on many different parts of our body. Most notably was our teeth.

One of my favorite things that I learned about was the relationship between corn and cavities. There was no evidence of cavities in Midwest Native American's until corn was introduced into the diet. Why was this? Because corn has a natural sugar in it that causes the teeth to break down and decay when not properly cleaned. Ever heard of High Fructose Corn Syrup? That comes from corn. It is a straight sugary syrup that is over used and abused in our current food system. What I like best about corn is the fact that it is the perfect example of us messing with our food and getting a negative out of a positive. The picture below comes from this article. The author here explains it way better than I do so take a look.

You see that ity-bity little thing on the left? That is what we call Teosinte. I actually saw a vile of this in one of my classes and trust me, the stuff is SMALL! About the height of the cap of a pen and much much thinner. Believe it or not, this is what corn came from. They messed with it until it produced a fruit that was big enough to feed a lot of people.

Why did they do this? Well, there are a ton of theories about why we went from hunter gathers to sedentary societies. Its so much information that I could go on for ever. The basics are that groups ended up getting too big to support their selves just with hunting and gathering. They had to find ways to provide enough food for everyone. This lead to becoming sedentary and the beginnings of agriculture. There is also some talk that it helped prevent wars over conflicting territory and so on but that's a post for another day. Basically, agriculture became a necessity in order to survive, but it brought with it some major down falls. Including poor dental health.

This is not to say that there were no dental issues before the advent of agriculture. There were. As a matter of fact it is believed that the Turkana Boy (read more here) died from an abscessed tooth. The issue at hand is that overall, human teeth were far healthier before agriculture came onto the scene and before we began the slow process of messing with our food. That's why I found the article and study to be a little surprising. I thought this was information that we already knew. Perhaps though, what I was taught was just speculation and this was scientist looking to verify what was already believed. Either way, it was a great read and an even greater chance to brush up on my caveman knowledge. I hope you all enjoyed it too! If you haven't read it, please do. You wont be disappointed.

Rachel B.

Lewis' Iron Boat

Since I couldn't sleep I thought I would jump on here and enter a debate I probably shouldn't get tangled up in, buttttt...I'm going to anyways.

I have recently been delving into the history of the Columbia Gorge. For the most part I am interested in Native American history, not explorer history but to expand on my knowledge I tracked down a copy of the Lewis and Clark Journals. I thought this would come in handy given I wanted to learn more about Native American's in the area around the time they came through. Now, this is not the first time I have read the journals. (Or the edited version since you can't just buy the whole thing at one time). When I was in high school I took a class on Lewis and Clark. When we were reading the journals in school one part really stuck out to me and re-reading them tonight, I had the same interest.

During the trip Lewis had an iron boat made. This was of his own special design and was meant to be transportable and collapsible. It was also meant to float. However, in the end, it was only transportable and collapsible. It did not float. At least, not for very long. Granted, it wasn't really Lewis' fault. He couldn't have known that the trees he was counting on to complete the boat when it was needed would not be there. Guess that's the price you pay for entering uncharted territory. Since the boat did not float, they decided to bury it on July 9th 1805 in Great Falls, Montana.

Photo from France Hunter's American Hero's Blog.

Now here's where the debate begins. On July 14th 1806, the boat was dug back up on the return home. Lewis noted that "the iron frame of the boat had not suffered materially." But beyond that there is no further mention of it. Thus, you now have several different camps of people who believe any number of things could have happened to it. The most popular theory is that they left it there in the cache. Unfortunately, to date, it has not be found. Even with extensive searches in the very area it was believed to be buried. Others believe that it was brought back with them. I mean, they dug it up didn't they. Why not bring it back? The journal's don't say that they left it, but then again, they don't say that they took it either. The other possibility is that local Native American's either saw them re-burying it or abandoning it all together and took it for their own use.

So here are my thoughts...please take them for what they are worth. This is all pure speculation. I am in the camp that they took it with them. For starters, the field where the boat would have been buried has been so worked over that if it were there, or if there were any remnants of it left, it would have been found by now. I'm not saying it's not possible, I'm just saying it's not likely. As to the Native American theory...why wouldn't they have taken it and all the other cached goods when they were buried the first time? I just don't see this as being something they would care about or want to use.

I know that there are people who have studied what they brought back and they claim there is no indication the boat came back with them. Also, beyond it being dug up and the condition noted, it's never mentioned again. I don't think this should automatically discount the possibility that it came back with them. Here's why. Humans get pretty upset when their so called "brilliant ideas" don't exactly pan out the way they intended them to. If the members of the expedition thought that the boat was a failure based on it's performance, chances are, it would have been the last thing they wanted to talk about. I could just as easily see them packing the boat up and ignoring it for the rest of the trip, due to their bitterness towards it, as I could see them leaving it behind. But, the question to ask is, did they leave anything else behind? Lewis put a lot of time, effort, and energy into this project. I can't see him abandoning something he worked so hard on, even if it was a failure. I believe that they would have hauled it back, bitterness and all. But then again, this is all speculation. We can never know exactly what was brought back and what was left behind. For instance, what happened to all the other items in the cache that were ruined by the water? Did they leave them or take them? I am sure there are many other things that went missing along this trip that were not accounted for. It is definitely something that I would like to explore more in depth, even if the odds of finding it are slim to none.

What do you think happened to the iron boat?

Rachel B.

Week of Crazy...

Well! Here I thought I was doing a great job of keeping my blog up to date. This week has been anything short of crazy. Both of my mini-explorers got what was a pretty nasty bug. Two days of high temperatures keep me home with them from work and I also ended up missing my start date at the interpretive center. They are doing much better now which makes me feel all proud. My super mommy doctor powers are going strong. I figured that since today is really the first day they have been okay on their own and I haven't been slammed doing something else that I would give everyone an update.

I did make it to the fort last Saturday. I had no idea what to expect as a lab tech but it was pretty awesome. Yes, the work was tedious and I did sit in a chair for a solid three hours straight but I got to work with some pretty cool stuff. I ended up helping to analyze artifacts from a dig that took place when I was in kindergarten. (Just to give perspective of how long things sit around before people are able to get to them). For the most part it was just random metal. Nothing that you could tell what it once was. The group I was working with plowed through the box pretty fast so we went from fragments to objects in the one session. This is where I stumbled across the coolest item of the day, a thimble! I know, I know. A thimble. Come on Rachel...that's not that cool. On the contrary! This was no ordinary thimble. According to the head of the lab it is what's called a thimble bead.

The below picture are thimbles found on a dig by the University of Maryland. These are pretty similar to the one I analyzed with the exception that mine had a hole in the top. According to the lead archeologist, many women during the historical period would take thimbles, punch a hole in the top of them and then wear them as adornments on their clothes. Like beads. Pretty cool huh?! Well, I thought so.

Despite the fact that I missed my chance to go to the interpretive center last week, I did make up for it today. I got to proofread three different files on local history. One was an oral history that had been transcribed and two were news articles related to Skamania County. It sounds like I am going to get a chance to not only transcribe tapes that have not been done yet but I will also get a chance to turn those oral histories into stories for the museum to use. I love writing so I think that's something right up my ally! All in all the group that I'm working with there is a blast so that makes it even better.

Since the lab at the fort was closed this Saturday I didn't get to go but am looking forward to making it down there again this week. I got 3.5 hours in there last week and already have 1.5 in at the interpretive center. So far this has all been a real blast and I am looking forward to searching out new opportunities and hopefully moving forward in my career choice.

Rachel B.

Documenting Local History

From the CGICM website. Clink on logo for link.

About a week ago, I contacted the Columbia Gorge Interpretive Center to ask if there were any volunteer opportunities I could help out with. Turns out they currently have a project running on Monday mornings where they need people to come in and help out proofreading the interviews they had transcribed from early pioneers. The project sounds like it would be an great thing to be involved with so I told the woman I spoke to, to pass my information along. I got a phone call today and am set up to go in on Monday to my first meeting. I am excited to get a chance to volunteer there. Especially since their focus at the museum is really centered around a lot of what I enjoy studying. Even though I work on Monday's I am hoping that I can get an hour and a half lunch break to go up and then spend two extra days during the week working to 5:30 instead of 5:00. The people I work for are really amazing and go out of their way to support everyone's goals. I am hoping this is one we can work around. I am also hoping to eventually be able to volunteer there on Sundays to help out maybe on other projects or tours. I have taken courses in archive management and have plenty of other historical experience and course hours under my belt so hopefully that will work in my favor. All in all, this is going to be another really great experience for me to look forward to. I'm not quite sure what it is about this year so far that makes me so optimistic but I am. I feel like things are finally moving forward and I am really looking forward to seeing what the year has in store. (This Saturday is also my first day at the fort! Wish me luck!)

Rachel B.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARY LEAKEY!

Today would have been Mary Leakey's 100th birthday. The first time I heard her name was in my Archaeology 101 course at Clark College in Vancouver, WA. Our professor was showing us a video documenting the Leakey Families work in Olduvai Gorge. For those of you who don't know Olduvai Gorge is a paleoanthropologists dream land. The Olduvai Gorge is located in Eastern Africa and has become known for its immense amount of information regarding our earliest ancestors.

It was there, in 1972, that the Leakey's (Mary and her husband, Louis) discovered the 1.75 million year old skeleton of the Homo habilis. Prior to finding the Homo habilis, the Leakey's had been finding stone tools and it was their search for this tool maker that eventually lead them to the skeleton. For curious minds, here are three pictures of Homo habilis and one of Olduvai Gorge that I snagged off of Google images;

Photo: Wikipedia via Google Images

Photo: Wikipedia via Google Images

Photo: Wikipedia via Google Images

Photo: Wikipedia via Google Images

In 1978, Mary went on to discover the Laetoli footprints, also located in Tanzania, East Africa.

Photo: Wikipedia via Google Images

The footprints are a significant find because they were a verification that early hominids found in Tanzania had were in fact bi-pedal (standing/walking upright on two legs) sooner than we had originally thought.

Without Mary Leakey and her husband Louis, there is a significant portion of human history that we potentially could have gone without knowing. Their persistence in believing in the Olduvai Gorge as a possible location to find early hominids paid off immensely. Their family continues to contribute to science today. Their son Richard is famous for finding "Lucy" an Australopithecus afarensis, believed to be the missing link between apes and humans, among many other things. If you would like to know more about Mary and her discoveries, check out the following two links. The first is from National Geographic and the second is from the Christian Science Monitor.

http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2013/02/06/mary-leakeys-100th-birthday/

http://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Family/Modern-Parenthood/2013/0206/Mary-Leakey-100th-birthday-A-son-on-her-adventuresome-parenting

She is definitely a person worth learning more about.

Rachel B.

When the River Drops 2012

For those of you who have not taken a gander at my personal website, I wanted to do a special post here. Cause your totally missing out. Last year the Columbia River was the lowest I have seen it since I moved here in 1999. This lead to there being a lot of newly exposed shore line. Being me, I couldn't resist the temptation to go down to the beach and walk along places I hadn't been able to before. On one particularly windy day, my two little mini-explorers, Phoenix and Gryphon, and I ventured down to Beach Glass Cove in search of more loot. When we got there I realized that it was no longer the dead end that it used to be. Just a couple of shallow steps in the water and there it was, a new expanse of beach ready to be tackled. During our visit we found two really great things which, even now as I look at the pictures, I'm still geeking out about. Without further ado, here is what we found last year when the river dropped.


The following picture is of a weight set we found on the newly exposed shoreline. Had the water been at its normal level, this would not have been seen. There is a house nearby. I was realllllllyyyyy tempted to go ask them if they knew anything about it, but thought that might be kinda weird.

The next pic is a photo of the whole thing. I did not take a picture of the matching little blue weight that you see at the end of the picture above. We found it along the beach a few steps away. These weights were made out of plastic and had concrete inside of them. Based on what I know of weights now a-days, that seems a little old school. Just looking at it makes me feel like the owner put it down for just a second and forgot about it.

The next three pictures are of a bunch of long (and I mean long) bolts I found buried under driftwood and among the rocks. The first two are of them still buried and the last one is of them dug up.

Finally, a fun picture of the boys. If you look at the rock on the left of the picture you will see that they are lighter than the ones the boys are standing on. That is the normal water level.

My hope is to venture out to the river again this year and see what new things I can find. I hope the boys will be as enthusiastic about treasure hunting as I am and join me. If you find anything you think it awesome in the Columbia River, let me know. I would love to know more about what's out there.


Rachel B.

King Richard Again...

Update to yesterdays post. There is now a face to go with the skull unearthed at the former location of Greyfriars church. Check out the link below:

http://photoblog.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/05/16852349-king-richard-iiis-face-revealed-after-500-years?lite

Rachel B.

King Richard III

Major major props go out to the University of Lancaster archaeologists! In case you have been living under a rock the last year or so, archaeologist at the U of L thought that the church where King Richard was rumored to have been buried once sat on the same land as now stood a parking lot. Go figure right. Demolish a historical location to build more space to park cars. Sigh* Sorry...I digress. Anywaysssss... They were able to get permission to begin digging under said parking lot and started to find things that would suggest that they had found the Greyfriars church. One of the things they found was a skeleton. (Score!) Now reports are out stating that DNA is back and it is in fact the infamous king. While there is still that pesky peer review process to go through, I think we can say it's him. Maybe I am just a nerd (well I am a nerd but that's a given) but, I think that this is amazing mind-boggling chocolate covered awesomeness. The research that went into pinning down a possible location for the church must have been quite the task. Not to mention digging the site and investing in the project. They could have dug up that whole parking lot and never found him. He could have been moved or never buried there to start. But they did it. There was a lot of faith in what they were doing.

I felt compelled to post on this because for starters, one of my awesome friends brought it to my attention today that they had in fact came back with a verdict and also because I have been following this story since it was first reported on. It's stories like these that really capture the imagination. It's stories like these that make me want to go out and dig and see what I can contribute to history. If you haven't been following the story, Google it. Right now...or click on the link below to take you to the most current article.

http://cosmiclog.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/04/16832540-verdict-issued-on-skeleton-found-under-parking-lot-its-king-richard-iii?lite

Until you do that, here are three pictures from the University of Lancaster to keep you entertained.

Happy digging!

Rachel B.

Beach Combing

I'm sure this won't come as a great surprise to anyone, but I am a beach combing addict. Shocker right...especially for someone who professes to be obsessed with things like archaeology. One of the thing I love to find on the beach is glass. In the little town where I live, my kids and I have this special place we go every year once the water level on the river starts to drop. We call it Beach Glass Cove. If it has another name, we are not aware of it. (We would ignore it anyways cause our name is so much cooler!) We gave it this name because of the outrageous amount of glass we find there every year. Granted glass isn't the only thing we find there but its the primary find. The trick to finding the most glass however is to get there first. Annoyingly enough, we are not the only ones who know about this hidden gem. There is one other person that I am aware of that makes the trek from the normal walking path, through the back yard of a local lodge and down a short hop, skip and a jump through a wooded patch. We only discovered it because of our innate ability to wonder off into places we are not suppose to be. If the other lady makes it there first she snags up all the best glass and uses it to make jewelry. I used to think this was a really cool idea which is why I started to collect it. But after a couple of years I found myself rushing to the beach in late winter, early spring to snag it all up and save it from the jewelry making lady. I only started to want to save it after I realized how amazing some of it is. My collection now is massive and since the river is beginning to drop (a little early this year) and the weather has been uncommonly nice, I am already planning on adding to it. I would have been down there today had I not been talked out of it. (Que annoyed face.)

I thought about my collection, gathering dust today because of my visit to the fort. Yes I went and now I am an official volunteer lab tech! (Happy dance!) On the tour of their archives I got to see all the amazing pottery they have found on the grounds of the fort. This got me to thinking about my favorite type of beach glass, porcelain. That's right! I find porcelain all the time at our little cove. Most of the time it is pretty nondescript. White and crackly, soft from the waves. On occasion though I find some that is generally very interesting. This train of thought lead me to thinking about my blog and how I should post pictures of my glass for others to see. I can't be the only one out there who loves beach glass right? So, I pulled out my dusty box and sorted out all the porcelain and my favorite pieces of glass to share so that others can see all the awesomeness I have. Without further ado, here ya go!


The following two pictures are all of the porcelain I have in my collection. As you can see it comes in various sizes and there is a couple different types. The top batch is pretty much your classic type of porcelain. Then there is the random green piece. (Only one I have found of its kind). In the second picture at the bottom is some really nice porcelain that still has its shinny glaze on it.

I love the little curved piece at the bottom right. When I look at it I think of a horses tail. :)

The next picture is of my favorite piece in my entire collection. It is a chuck of porcelain that has a little character to it. In the top point of the shard are two very small blue dots. Probably part of the original design. Based on the size of the fragment and the size of the curved lip on the bottom I would say that this was originally part of a saucer.

This one is cool just because of the detail left on it after all the smoothing that has occurred out in the water. It's a little hard to see but there are three rings around this piece. 

This is the bottom lip of the blue dotted porcelain pictured above.
 

The following pic is what I call the horse tail. Was it once a horse tail on a porcelain figurine? I don't know. But it sure is super awesome!

This group picture is of my favorite glass pieces. I like these because they still have a large amount of detail left on them after making their way from their point of origin to my little cove. 

I am 99% sure this one used to belong to one of those thick beer mugs that have the grooved sides. The glass is very thick and the grooves are still present even though they are hard to see in this picture.

 This picture is a little deceptive. This bottle neck is actually really small. I should have taken a picture of it wrapped around my pinky to give you some scale. The edges are smooth but the glasses shine and detail are still amazingly intact. This leads me to believe it hasn't been in the water very long.

This is another really cool piece. It had started to fog up by the time it got to me but you can still see all of the edges around it. There are four ring edges total. I have no idea what this one may have come from.

Look closely at the next photo. Do you see them? There are tiny little bubble like impressions on this glass. If you run your finger over them you can still feel the bubbles raised up out of the glass. This is an extremely tiny piece and based on the curve, whatever it came from must have been small too.

This glass (although it's a little tough to see) has a frosted look to it. The frosting on the glass is raised waves all over the glass. This is not a result of being in the river because the other side is completely smooth.

This is a newer chunk of glass. I like it because it shows the side of the bottle, the bottom edge that it would have set on and a small portion of the bottom of the glass. Even though I would never be able to identify the bottle I still feel like this one holds a lot of information.

Here's another one to take a close look at. Can you see the R? This piece of glass is incredibly small, (smaller than a dime). The R on the glass is perfectly intact!

Pretty sure this one is a beer bottle bottom. I like it because the detailed ridges are still there after bouncing around in the waves. It's also a newer piece of glass. Cut myself on this one pulling it up out of the sand.

Here's another one with some great detail left over.

When I first found these I thought they had been really beat up in the waves but then I realized all the crazy stuff going on on the bottom was a design. It gives me the impression of the design you would find on the bottom of a beer bottle. The glass is thin though, much thinner than the glass I find that I know comes from beer bottles. I almost thought it was plastic when I pulled it up.

 The final pic is just an example of all the different kinds of glass I find and the wide range of color variation. Check out the piece of terracotta up top. The white on it is not an adhesive or wear. It appears to be porcelain. Crazy huh?!

For any archaeologist who look at these pictures, no. I have not recorded any provenience on these items other than that they came from Beach Glass Cove. I go there every year, pick up as much glass as I can find and then I take it home. The next year, I go back and there is a new batch of glass that comes in over the winter. Some of it has been in the water a really long time, to the point you can barely tell its glass. Some of it is so new that you can cut yourself on it because the edges have not smoothed out. The glass that is new I leave there, to be picked up by other people or to be swept away to be made smooth by the waves. I hope to add some new, unique pieces to my collection this year. One of these days I might even take the steps necessary to try to figure out where the porcelain comes from. I can't imagine people are stumbling around on the beach breaking plates. I can see that with the beer bottles but not the porcelain. Fun research project maybe? Hmm....