Recent Cache (beads and gorgets)

[joshuaream]

I've spent the last couple of weeks getting ready for the move (Louisville to Ft. Lauderdale), and today was the day the movers came and packed the furniture and boxes into the container. It's a pain, but the upside is that I've had a chance to move some artifacts around and organize some pictures.

Here is a little cache I dug a while back. There is a poor village on this site, and as I was driving through I could see the cross section of a couple of large funerary urns from the car. A quick discussion with the owner, and I was allowed to go investigate. He had come across several while he was leveling his lot; he dumped the throw dirt, pottery and bones into the river. I didn't have to pay him, his only request was that we clean up the mess and level off the back wall.

The first picture is one of the urns in cross section. The second picture is one of my local helpers, notice the rooster on a rope... The rest of the pictures the stuff found in that urn. The last picture is a different pottery cache a couple of feet away (there are three pieces of pottery there.)

 

[Newt]

Outstanding pics. Are these graves or grave offerings? What is the culture?

Me too.
Newt

 

[centfladigger]

how do you get grave goods back into the country

 

[joshuaream]

Actually, I don't bring back grave goods. We have a house down there and it's filled with stuff I find. I give quite a bit of it to local museums, and pay for the local archies to go with me on many of these digs.

Surface finds aren't covered by this countries cultural patrimony laws.

 

[centfladigger]

thats cool. better than getting washed away in the rivers like ours do here and then we get in trouble for rescuing them

 

[rginn]

Tell us a little bit about the culture affiliation, if you have time. If it's in Latin America, keep in mind I speak Spanish pretty good and have friends who speak some of the Indian dialects. In case you need volunteers.

 

[Cherokee kid]

You are taking these from their graves? How is that cool?

 

[reddirt]

Nice find. Ultimate in-situ shot.

 

[joshuaream]

You are taking these from their graves? How is that cool?

Actually, I guess I didn't do a good job introducing the context of these digs. This is part of a salvage archaeology project that involves a local university and several archaeologists. The local government is building a new rail project along the coast of a lake, and along the way they are relocating some villages/destroying several sites. I go every summer, and have documented several sites in different professional journals, most recently a paleo site in Current Research in the Pleistocene with a friend from the Smithsonian Inst. for Tropical Research. I'm working on two follow up articles as time and my full time job allows.

This little side field trip was just a scouting trip to get an idea of the size of the site, we saw the deposits exposed and decided to salvage what we could. I know of several untouched sites that I've never done anymore than surface hunt, but when the artifacts are going to be destroyed I have no issue (legally or morally) with recovering what I can.

 

[allen]

fantastic finds !

 

[newnan man]

Good stuff, were the gorgets in a fire/pyre?

 

[Cherokee kid]

You are taking these from their graves? How is that cool?

Actually, I guess I didn't do a good job introducing the context of these digs. This is part of a salvage archaeology project that involves a local university and several archaeologists. The local government is building a new rail project along the coast of a lake, and along the way they are relocating some villages/destroying several sites. I go every summer, and have documented several sites in different professional journals, most recently a paleo site in Current Research in the Pleistocene with a friend from the Smithsonian Inst. for Tropical Research. I'm working on two follow up articles as time and my full time job allows.

This little side field trip was just a scouting trip to get an idea of the size of the site, we saw the deposits exposed and decided to salvage what we could. I know of several untouched sites that I've never done anymore than surface hunt, but when the artifacts are going to be destroyed I have no issue (legally or morally) with recovering what I can.

That sounds much better. Thanks for explaining.