Yesterday we were told by one of the permanent residents in the RV park that the person who owns the park also owns the adjacent parcel of land that contains the hill-top archaeological site. After confirming this with the owner we hiked up there this morning before it got too warm (the high today was 80 degrees). Consistent with our description of lower portions of the site that we posted a few days ago, the top is littered with collapsed walls and thousands of pot sherds (and some stone flakes). It is clear that some work has been done because a few rooms have had the rubble and fill removed - but it must have been a long time ago (perhaps by the CCC at the same time they were excavating Tuzigoot) because they are filling in again.

Looking down the upper slopes from the top, linear features (collapsed walls) are visible in every direction.

And a few of those rooms have obviously been excavated (we failed to ask the owner what she knew about the history of excavations here). Portions of the RV park are visible at the base of the hill, and the Rio Verde is just beyond the RVs.

After walking all over the hill top it is clear that there was a community here of nearly the same size as at Tuzigoot and that dates to the same time period. We had a great time and we have been chatting about all the fun archaeological work we could do here (but there are a lot of details that would have to be figured out).

After descending the hill it was almost noon so we turned on the air conditioning and left Abby in the RV while we headed for Old Town Cottonwood to visit the Arizona Stronghold Winery.

The winery is half owned by Maynard James Keenan, the lead singer in Tool and the same man that owns the Caduceus Winery that we reported on a few days ago. The wines here are amazing and much more affordable than the Caduceus wines so we sipped many and bought six bottles of our favorites. While sipping we asked the server where he liked to eat (since there are numerous restaurants in the Old Town area) and he told us about the Red Rooster. So we went there and it was really good and very reasonably priced. We hope to go there again someday.

We have really fallen in love with this area and are talking about returning next winter for a month or two (because there are so many things to do around here that we haven't had a chance to enjoy yet). With this in mind we checked out a large RV park outside of town to get some comparative information to better evaluate where we might like to stay. It is a very nice and large park but it cost more than where we are now and there is wifi only available at central locations (not at camping spots). So that pretty much eliminated that choice. We talked with the owner of the park we are in about monthly costs and this park is quite a bit cheaper (and quirkier) and she informed us that she is installing wifi throughout the park this summer. Therefore, the nicer river-side spots will have wifi next winter so this is probably the place for us to be.

We finished the day by picking up our prescription refills and grocery shopping. We bought a section of a rack of lamb so that will be on the BBQ soon. Tomorrow we pack up and head for Williams, AZ, for a couple of days. Then off to the Grand Canyon. We have to be back in Pocatello around the 10th so we can finish our taxes and dog sit Shep while Nick and Marie go to the Society for American Archaeology conference in Tennessee (we are extremely proud of them both!!!!!!).

The abstract for their paper reads: Holmer, Nicholas (Idaho State University), Monica Tromp (Idaho State University), Marie Holmer and John Dudgeon (Idaho State University) [109] Bone char as a proxy for archaeological bone? An assessment of diagenetic element uptake in biological material. Distinguishing diagenetic trace element uptake from biological incorporation in bone for reconstructing archaeological life histories is an important, but not well understood problem in bioarchaeology. Bone char has been suggested as a suitable analogue for studying diagenetically-altered bone, despite the fact that it does not approximate archaeological bone either biochemically or structurally. We assess the validity of bone char as an archaeological proxy by comparing elemental uptake in bone char with archaeological and modern bone (altered and un-altered). We propose that bone char does not adequately represent the various classes of diagenetic modification and overestimates the effects of post-depositional processes.

Nick is a co-author of another paper: Schlader, Robert (Idaho State University), Nicholas Clement (Idaho State University) and Nicholas Holmer (Idaho State University) Data Capture and Manipulation at the Idaho Virtualization Laboratory: Making the Physical Digital. Before an object can be included in a digital repository or museum exhibit, that object needs to be "virtualized." The Idaho Virtualization Laboratory has established a process for laser scanning objects that produces archival quality digital surrogates while ensuring minimal disturbance to the original object. Utilizing a variety of technologies to capture a digital record in both 2-D and 3-D, we combine them to produce highly accurate and realistic reproductions, suitable for virtual displays and detailed metric analysis. In this presentation we will describe our process, from initial cataloguing, through data capture, editing, and production of the final model.