| OCR Text |
Show 102 UTAH ARCHAEOLOGY 1993 Of Blood and Stone: Investigations into Southeastern Utah Archaic, edited by John W. Hohmann and John A. Hotopp. Louis Berger & Associates, Inc., Phoenix. 1992. 297 pages. $18.00. Reviewed by: Robert B. Kohl Jennifer Jack-Dixie Chapter Utah Statewide Archaeological Society P. O. Box 1865 St. George, UT 84771-1865 Rarely do we directly criticize professional archaeological reports but this weighty volume might be cynically reviewed in paraphrase of Shakespeare as "much ado about very little". It is a report of a highway mitigation contract at two small open-air sites located along US Route 191 in the Spanish Valley about 8 miles south of Moab, Utah. Earlier recording of the site area was Phase I by Deborah Westfall in 1987, and initial testing by Abajo Archaeology as Phase II in 1988. Additional investigation by the authors in two months of late 1988 is listed as Phase III. The authors roundly criticize the earlier investigator for not probing deeply enough and then, in self-aggrandizement, proclaim that theirs was an "intense investigation" with "full data recovery." Indeed, the report contains 300-pluspages and may set a new record for sheer verbiage as well as being a candidate for perusal under the Federal "Paperwork Reduction Act." In what most editors would describe as "padding" the authors quote at length from 233 references. There is an overkill of redundancies and repetitions, numerous non-essential full-page figures of strata and other graphics, and fancy sectional title pages. All of this preponderance of poly syllabic profundity covers two very small and shallow alcoves, variously reported as rockshelters and as open-air sites, two middens and the work surfaces in between. Most of the excavation was by back hoe with narrow trenches, only a few of which were expanded by hand-digging. The two sites, 42Sa20040 and 42Sal8241, revealed a small artifact assemblage which is discussed at great length. In total it included 24 projectile points (mostly fragmentary), 12 cores, 3 scrapers, 5 preforms, 5 metates (some fragmentary), 28 manos, 16 "ceramics" (actually sherds), and thousands of flakes, some of them utilized. Features included nothinghabitational, two hearths, a small ring of stones, and a possible storage pit. But the authors then devote nine pages to report the recovery of 235 glass fragments and 18 different tin cans. Perhaps the greatest distraction in the report is its catchy title, "Of Blood and Stone." There are repetitive mentions of "blood analysis" and the great importance it had to the investigation. However, in sum and substance, the authors reveal that the basic "analysis" was of some tools by the "Chemstrip" method. These small test strips are used by hundreds of thousands of diabetics to test finger-pricked blood samples for sugar content. When questionable residue is indicated on a prehistoric tool, then moistened and placed in contact with a Chemstrip it will reveal the probable presence of blood, nothing more. It will not indicate whether it is human, bird, or animal blood, whether it came from an accidentally-cut finger or from a deer or rabbit during butchering. The authors note that they sent a small selection of chipped stone artifacts to the Department of Anthropology, University of Delaware, Newark. The report on three items was, "yep, it's blood." The authors of the site report, however, just tease with the title. They write, "However, all artifacts yielding a positive reaction (to blood residue) have been curated in an unwashed condition so that future species identification analyses may be attempted when the reliability of such Chemstrip techniques have been improved." We would not minimize the minimal discoveries at the sites, mainly the determination of dating to the Archaic period. But, this long, long report, its claims for blood "analysis," and its "Blood and Stone" title are excellent reminders to "never judge a book by its cover." |
