Barb Wire

Perhaps if I actually write something, even if short I will get back into the swing of things.

Currently trying to figure out all of my barb wire typologies. I live and breath the Harold Hagemeier Barbed Wire Encyclopedia. I thought barb wire was pretty bland, but the more you look at it the more you see there is HUGE amount of variety. It is a huge help. To give you an idea of how many when Hagemeier observed between 1853 and 1959 there were about 450 patents taken out of barbed wire in the USA. That is quite a few, and does not include foreign patents (no idea on this one).

Identification is not easy either. The one pictured above was identified by me as a Glidden Long and Short point barb and by a pro as a Glidden Viscous Long Barb. Guess we will get there in the end.

Belonging? Hefting?

For months now I have been working diligently at writing about an Archaeology of Belonging. I finished an early draft of my Belonging chapter for my PHD finally, based on earlier even rougher drafts from a the years as I have developed. I think I have finally sorted what I mean whey I say  that Belonging is a way of not only forming attachments to landscapes but translating those attachments into identity. My four themes on this consists of identity, emotional ties, instrumental ties, and performativity. I will not give away too much here as I really should write it all down for a journal article (finally?).

Here is the interesting part, as I was preparing to give a lecture in a Modern Archaeology course I came across Hefting.

Ollie Douglas of the Museum of English Rural Life blog wrote back in 2012 about this idea of hefting. He describes hefting as "process of intensively herding flocks of upland sheep until they become accustomed to a particular grazing area. Once hefted in this way, such groups retain a kind of homing instinct that lasts across generations."

Continuing his ideas he proposes people can form hefting relationships with landscapes as well. His ideas sound a lot like Belonging. It was a few years back so I will have to find if I can get in touch.

Historical Chapter

Since the last post I have really buckled down and worked on one particular chapter, the historical background. I broke it into several phases to include:

Mexican Ranch - 1840s
Mexican Ranchos Becomes American Homesteads
American Homesteads 1860 to 1890
Kern County Land Company 1890 to 1925
American Homesteads 1900 to 1930
Kern County Land Company 1925 to 1967
Tenneco 1967 to 1989
Post Tenneco 1968 to Present

I think the various phases of occupation of the San Emigdio Hills shows just how important archaeological work can be in that particular landscape. Not only is there numerous Native Californian sites, but several sites relating to the Mexican period of colonisation, as well as many sites for private homesteads sites. Ultimately the Kern County Land Company purchased most of the private homesteads, adding to the overall acreage of San Emigdio Ranch.

Sneeky? or Am I Missing Something?

Observe the date on the following image for the Rancho San Emidio plat map:

Kern County Abstract Company. 1916. Abstract of Title to The Rancho San Emidio, Situated in the County of Kern, State of California. Made for The Kern County Land Company, a Corporation, Bakersfield, California. Same image in file at California State Archives.

January 1858 by Henry Hancock deputy Surveyor. Sound very plausible, and I took it for granted the date was correct. That is until I found Hancock's original survey notes. 

Notice that the survey was not even begun until September of 1858. Hancock received his instructions on the first of the month and then commenced survey on the 18th. Last time I checked January does not come after September. That is a nine month difference.

Publication Success

During the spring I organised a session at the annual conference of the Society of California Archaeology. After the conference, participants are asked to submit to the open access Articles of the SCA Proceedings. From the session of six participants Clare Bedford (with David Robinson, Fraser Sturt, and Julienne Bernard as co-authors) and myself submitted our articles. So it is official, I am a published archaeologist.

Cattle Squisher

In the field the students affectionately called one of the features a Cattle Squisher. I giggled at the time, "knowing" it was actually called a Squeeze Chute, but I am the one who has been schooled. Squeeze chute may be a more modern name in the United States. As early agriculture station brochures found in the Internet Archive suggest a variety of names including squeeze chute, cattle crush, AND cattle squisher.

Normally I do not suggest using Wikipedia a location of source material, but whomever had done the historical section of the article Livestock Crush has done a lot of work. There are various images of historical crushs (or travail in French). Some are situated outside of blacksmith shops.


My favourite image from Wikipedia:

"2008.04.18.VorrichtungZumBeschlagenVonOchsen.DorfmuseumMoenchhof.33" by Anton-kurt - Own work. Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org

 

Up San Emigdio Canyon, at Dominguez Flat is the location of the early settlement. An early 1900 description includes in the list a blacksmith shop. So far archaeologist have not been able to find the supposed blacksmith shop. Perhaps if they find the old location of a crush / squeeze chute, as used for shoeing both horse and ox, the shop could be relocated. Something to think about for latter.

Helping with Older Stuff

My husband is also doing his PhD at the same time. Even though I also had a ton of work to do, his thesis is due at the end of the month. As any good partner, I am helping him out a bit.

Generally, incised stones are the stuff of my other half, but in the last few days, I have seen some VERY cool artefacts. Which is a big thing for me to say, as I have spent the last four years tuning out anything to do with incised stones beyond polite conversation. Your head can only retain so much information, and I feel very selective about what I retain. I need all I can for my own work, even then I often forget things.

One of the interesting things I have observes is the use of one of his caves during the contemporary period by native peoples. In the volume they are glossed over because they contain 'modern' artefacts. In one is a label for a bag of tobacco dated between 1880 and 1960, within a cache of some very amazing artefacts. YET there is no mention of continued use of the cave during the early historic period! Granted the cave was excavated in the 1970s, but that is no excuse! 

I could rant on for ages, but I think I will pin that for latter.

Gratuitous Incised Stone picture from the Monograph from one of the sites my husband is studying.