Gault School News December 2007 No. 1
Welcome to the premier edition of the Gault School of Archaeological
Research Newsletter! I hope to keep our members and other interested
parties informed on Gault School activities quarterly and primarily via
email. If you would rather receive this in hard copy please let me know.
Some of you reading this (and you know who you are) are reading
"complimentary" copies of our newsletter. What does this mean? It means you
have not yet joined the coolest group in Central Texas, those who are
supporting the research and educational activities at Gault. If this is the
case please read down through the newsletter with special attention to our
Mission Statement and information on how to become a member. We would love
to welcome you to the family!
D. Clark Wernecke
Executive Director
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Who We Are: Our Mission
The Gault Site, in Central Texas, has offered us a unique opportunity to
learn more about the early prehistory of North America and the origin of
humans in the New World. In excavations since 1998 more than one million
artifacts from an estimated 3 percent of the site have given us a unique
perspective on the Clovis culture. Now the work begun at Gault has entered
a new phase presenting us an opportunity to advance archaeological science
and education in the long term.
The Gault School is a 501(c) 3 research and educational non-profit
administered by a Board of Directors and headed up by Dr. Michael Collins.
The School has obtained the Gault Site as both a resource and base of
operations for the future will include research, archaeological and outdoor
education, and promotion of early man in the Americas studies.
We would like to take this opportunity to invite you to join us in making
this one of the premier archaeological education facilities in the world.
The Gault School of Archaeological Research was organized to:
" hold maintain & protect property in Bell and Williamson Counties in
Texas on which the Gault Archaeological Site is located.
" conduct further scientific research on the Gault Site.
" foster, develop, research, promote, maintain and encourage the
education of the public about the Gault Site, its environment, and the
prehistory of the site, region and beyond.
" foster, promote and conduct broader archaeological research of the
earliest peoples in the western hemisphere and their cultural antecedents.
" develop and disseminate materials and research related to the above
themes.
" foster collaboration with individuals and organizations with common
interests.
This mission will be accomplished through:
" field schools and fieldwork
" programs in archaeological and outdoor education for students and
the public
" the establishment of both an on-site museum and traveling exhibits
" a scholar-in-residence program and lecture series
" publications and presentations of information by Gault staff
researchers and associates
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Meet the Executive Director
For those who don't know me (Nice to meet you!) I'll give you a brief
introduction. I was born and raised in Southeastern Wisconsin ("Historic
Cedarburg, Wisconsin: Historic Grandeur, Enduring Beauty") and got out of
the cold country as soon as I possibly could. I have been interested in
history and archaeology since I was old enough to read so I made my first
move to Dallas and got a B.A. in History from SMU along with my first
courses in archaeology. I also worked on my first site, Tel Batash in
Israel.
One of my professors at the time told me that "if you want to be an
archaeologist get a real job first." He might have been joking but I
couldn't see a way to survive in archaeology at the time so I moved back to
Wisconsin and served time in the family lumber business. I went back to
school and got an MBA at Northwestern University which led to further
opportunities operating lumber and home centers in Florida and, later,
consulting in that industry.
During one of the economic slowdowns one of my friends pointed out that,
given my great interest in archaeology and the fact that I currently had
time on my hands, I might be interested in the archaeological program at
the university less than 1 mile from my house. I ended up going back to
school and received a MA from FAU in Boca Raton. An interesting offer led
me to the field director's job at the BRASS/El Pilar Program in Guatemala
and Belize (still an ongoing research program) where I worked from
1993-2000. I met my wife on this program and we moved to Austin while I
worked on my PhD in Anthropology at UT Austin. In 1999, during the wet
season in Mesoamerica, I found myself volunteering to excavate at the Gault
Site (my wife wanted me out of the house) and in 2000 I joined the Gault
Project as Project Director.
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The Gault Site
The question I'm asked a lot lately is "What is going on at the Site?" The
short answer is lots! The 32+ acre Lindsey tract that many of you are
familiar with was acquired in February of 2007 along with the tract of land
west of it abutting the highway (40 acres) which included a house and some
outbuildings. The real scramble came in that the Society for American
Archaeology's Annual Meeting was in Austin in April and we had arranged for
a tour of the site. Luckily Dr. Bruce Bradley and a group of students from
the University of Exeter (UK) came to our rescue and helped us excavate two
units to expose stratigraphy. They worked in some of the most miserable
weather we have ever had at the site - the constant grey rainy March we had
- and one commented that had they known it would be like this they could
have gotten the same weather at home! The sold-out tour for the SAA was a
great success and our colleagues were very impressed at the amount of work
the project has done.
In June we were joined by the first of many summer field schools by
Mercyhurst Archaeological Institute. The field school, led by Joe Yedlowski
and Judith Thomas, combines both prehistoric and historic components. Joe
is heading up the prehistoric work and they are excavating in an area to
the northeast of Bcat 18 (the stone floor) at Gault. Judith's group is
excavating the whitehead homestead, a circa 1870 site in Williamson County.
The MAI group plans to spend two months each year visiting the Gault Site.
Our friend Skip Lohse (not to be confused with Jon) from Idaho State
University brought a group of students in July for a short excavation
looking for intact Archaic deposits at Gault.
Next year we already have MAI scheduled as well as a group from New
Hampshire led by Dick Boisvert. The New Hampshire State Conservation and
Rescue Archaeology Program (SCRAP) have visited Gault many times in the
past and the "Hamster Pit" was affectionately named after them. We look
forward to their return. We're also hosting the field portion of the TAS
Archaeology Academy 101 session to be held in Belton February 8-10.
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The Gault Project
The short answer is, yes, we are once again excavating at the Gault Site.
In past excavation in the North Pasture we found intriguing amounts of
lithic debitage below the known Clovis strata. In order to get a better
look at this we have started a 4 X 7 meter hole that will step down until
we reach our goal 3+ meters down. The Gault Project crew is going to try
(between other obligations) to excavate on Tuesdays and Thursday during the
week while Cinda Timperley, our staff paleontologist and volunteer
coordinator, is leading groups of volunteers excavating on Saturdays. If
you are interested in volunteering contact Cinda at
[email protected] or via our office at 512-471-5982.
The Project staff also continues to struggle with the Gault monograph which
has come a long way. I get a lot of questions regarding our progress and
always want to remind everyone that
only one member of our staff is
full-time and there are in excess of 1.2 Million artifacts. The going may
be slow but it has been very fruitful - we are learning a great deal about
the Clovis culture.
There were two highly successful symposia at the SAA Annual Meeting (a
speaking and a poster session) on the Gault Site getting the information
gleaned to date out to our professional colleagues. Professional articles
appeared in the Bulletin of the Texas Archeological Society and
Archaeological Prospection and a book chapter by Dr. Collins (see below).
In March National Geographic ran the episode of Naked Science (Prehistoric
Americans) that features Gault and reconstructions we filmed in August of
2006.
Collins, M.
2007 Discerning Clovis Subsistence From Stone Artifacts and Site
Distributions on the Southern Plains Periphery. In Foragers of the Terminal
Pleistocene in North America, edited by R. Walker and B. Driskell, pp.
59-87. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, NE.
Collins, M., J. C. Lohse, and M. B. Shoberg 2007 The de Graffenried
Collection: A Clovis Biface Cache from the Gault Site, Central Texas.
Bulletin of the Texas Archeological Society 78:101-123.
Hildebrand, J. A., S. M. Wiggins, J. L. Driver and M. R. Waters 2007 Rapid
seismic reflection imaging at the Clovis period Gault site in central
Texas. Archaeological Prospection 14(4):245-260.
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Physical Plant
In order to accommodate our friends from Exeter and future projects the 2
bedroom house next to the entrance road was completely remodeled. It had
bug and water damage issues so much of it needed to be reduced to a
skeleton and completely rebuilt. Thanks to the tireless efforts of a group
of volunteers (a special thanks to the Taggart's and Ricky Lindsey) we
managed to have it livable by the time Bradley et al. came. Work is still
ongoing but now we are down to some needed electrical work and cosmetic
details.
Recently the small white shed next to the house has been cleaned and
emptied in readiness for a remodeling to make it into a workshop and
storage facility.
The steel barn above the site has been transformed into a field lab
complete with equipment storage, drying racks and an analysis area. MAI was
the first to use this new lab and pronounced it GREAT!
MAI also provided us with our two newest facilities. The north pasture has
two 30 X 50' stressed skin buildings in it. The buildings, a little like
large canvas Quonset huts, cover the excavations underway by the Gault
Project and the MAI field school enabling us to work year round in all
types of weather. We REALLY would like to thank our friends at Mercyhurst
for these!
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Website
The Gault School has a new website at
www.gaultschool.org. We have put up
a temporary site with information and some links and expect to expand on
that beginning soon. In the future I hope to have copies of this newsletter
online along with photos of ongoing work.
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Membership
For those of you who are already members, thank you! For those of you
receiving a Complimentary copy of this newsletter (and you know who you
are) memberships in the GSAR are as follows:
Student - $10.00
Adult Individuals - $45.00
Dual/Family - $65.00
Organizations/Institutions - $500.00
Corporations - $1000.00
Checks can be made out to the "Gault School of Archaeological Research" and
sent to our office at 5000 Burnet Road Austin, TX 78756
Currently the benefits of membership are, first and foremost, helping the
Gault School reach its research and educational goals. You also will get
this newsletter quarterly and are entitled to a 10% discount on Gault
Project T-shirts (If you haven't seen them they are grey with the Gault
Project flag logo on the chest and yours for only $13.50 each). We also
hope to implement shortly a distinguished speaker series featuring some of
the many professional friends and colleagues of Gault.
We welcome you to join us in supporting the Gault School!
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Donations
Donations to the Gault School are not only greatly appreciated and
acknowledged but are also tax deductible to the extent allowed by law.
Monetary donations are always welcome as volunteers. The GSAR is also in
need of non-monetary donations of everything from equipment to electrical
work. If you are able to help or have something to donate you think we
could use please contact Clark Wernecke at
[email protected] or
512-471-5982. A sample of our current needs includes:
Site
Gravel for roads and culvert
Automatic gate for pasture
2 500 gal water tanks
2 water towers
Sump system for north pasture
Plywood for excavation area
Closet doors and shelves for house
Incinerator toilet
Equipment
Laser level
Photographic lights and equipment
Excavation equipment
First Aid/Safety gear
Radio communications system
Wet screens