I was invited to give a presentation on my research at the Arkansas Training Program held at Plum Bayou Mounds yesterday. It was great to see members of the public being able to take part of an excavation and learn skills used by archaeologists.

I've had an excellent weekend at the Caddo/Louisiana Archaeological conference. Saw some amazing archaeology, watched two of my students present, began setting up an internship, collaborated and danced with Caddo Nation, and got to catch up with friends.

Apologies I haven't been on this platform much. I have been busy finishing my dissertation (defense is next month) and my 2nd semester of being a professor. Will share my research soon. I will also be attending the Caddo/LAS meeting but won't be presenting. Decided to help students so they can.

Johns Valley Chert. Still trying to figure out the best way to visualize it for publication. So, I welcome any feedback. A) 0x, B) 40x, C) 200x, D) 40x Infrared, E) 200x Infrared, F) 40x UV, G) 200x UV

As part of my new position at ATU, I am directing the Center for Heritage and Culture. The webpage will be for the public. I want to include info about research projects (broader topics) & highlight student projects (conference presentations, etc.). What else can I share on there?

This was found during one of my stone sourcing field studies. It's a mix of Potato Hills Chert & quartzite/silicified sandstone. Examining artifacts as part of my diss, I have found one biface with a mix of chert & quartzite. The stem was quartzite while the blade was chert.

1/ These pics may not seem like a big deal but it is in my research area. XRF results of two different raw material (stone) types that have been difficult to distinguish. These results were repeated on different specimens each examined 3 times. This can be repeated to address-

Taking photos of different lithic raw materials, followed by more pXRF tonight and tomorrow.

Working on a chapter of my diss. An extensive part of it is about stone sourcing - including pXRF and tracing fluvial deposits to see where & how cobbles are being transported. This goes in distinguishing between if some were traded or locally available.

Now that it's official, I want to share that I have accepted an Assistant Professor position at Arkansas Tech University. I'm looking forward to preparing students for careers in CRM and directing the Center for Heritage and Culture to continue my research in the southeast.

The field school excavations at Spiro have come to an end. I wasn't able to excavate this year, but was able to visit several times and do some artifact identification. These are some photos from the field school but you can check out more at: www.facebook.com/share/16QWWF...

There is a bird nest on the porch. This little one fell and was hiding behind a box that got delivered today. They are fine and back in the nest now.

Wood charcoal (and matrix) from the site I excavated as part of my dissertation. Unfortunately, due to the situation with federal grants, I won't be able to get it dated.

Conducted some fieldwork today. Goal was to determine the level of disturbance (from looting) at the boundaries of the site. Recovered a lot of debitage and a biface fragment - based on fracture it was damaged during biface reduction.

Using pXRF today to look at stone sourcing and lithic acquisition strategies.

Here is an example of Potato Hills Chert. This high-quality material with vibrant colors has a very limited source range. This material isn't highly traded, but instead seems restricted to groups in a particular river valley. My dissertation looks into why this might be.

I am doing Bayesian statistics this weekend. It's been said that there was a 150-200 yr gap where FM people stopped using a site type and then returned with pottery. Have ~200 C14 dates from 13 sites to see if that holds up. #ChangingtheNarrative

Really exciting news from the Ozarks! A bag of seeds dating to the Pre-Contact Period in North America was found and donated to the University of Arkansas museum. Absolutely amazing find and you can read more about it here: www.reddit.com/r/missouri/c...

Watch the Zahi episode while I am doing Bayesian statistics this weekend. It's been said that there was a 150-200 yr gap where FM people stopped using a site type and then returned with pottery. Have ~200 C14 dates from 13 sites to see if that holds up. #ChangingtheNarrative

Chase Earles is a Caddo potter. He makes traditional Caddo pottery, but he also makes some amazing pieces that mix traditional Native American themes with modern pop culture. Here are a few pieces he did. You can follow his page at: facebook.com/caddopottery

Will have a YT short out this week (~3min video). Its just some of the archaeological process. The hope is to demonstrate some of the process & allow people to ask questions along the way. In the future, I am making a full series on an excavation of my family's site (historic).

Went to visit local landowners and survey areas for sites on their property. Located petroglyphs and black earth. Can't share photos of sites or artifacts but here selfie from me hanging sideways from a tree to get a photo of some erosion occurring.

Excited for this tonight. The event is open to anyone interested in attending!

All moved into the new house. Still have a lot to unpack. Hoping to get back to working on my dissertation research soon.

The SAC will be hosting the first of our speaker series on March 10th at 5pm central/6pm eastern with Dr. Andrew Johnson! He is the lead historian for the new Civilization game! Register here: events.teams.microsoft.com/event/097f5a...

We'd informed a few people, such as the State Archaeologist, about the specific point type (Evans) of which we were initiating a morphological study but kept it quite so nobody could rush in & do a quick study ahead of us. That was why formally making an announcement at the meeting was important.

1/ As promised, key topics from the paper I gave this past weekend. I examined settlement patterns in the Pine Hills of Mississippi. Cluster analysis identified 5 distinct groups from the Late Archaic to Late Woodland Period. In this, I did initial density, ecological, and social

Process of using ArcGIS for archaeological research: 1-3 hours of data clean-up 8-12 hours of troubleshooting why the geoprocessing tools won't work 2 minutes to run analysis

Have a few YT shorts coming. I talk/show some of the objects found during the fieldwork and & how it relates to my research. Will hopefully have those out soon. Still plan on doing my other video about common alt history questions & my opinions but in the process of moving.

Had a great talk yesterday with one of the guys about my new ISP. Guy liked Ed Barnhart and we had an amazing talk about the archaeology of the Americas. Guy was super excited to ask questions. Love that kind of enthusiasm. Keeps me wanting to do public engagement.