I’ve just joined Archeologica and decided that I should pop in here to say hello before plunging into discussions.
I’ve been lurking for a couple months, reading up on my two favorite topics in anth/arch - the origins of people in the Americas and the question of what happened to Neanderthals. I’ve been enjoying the forum discussion comments as well as the news update page.
My educational background is liberal arts and language, but I considered a cultural anthropology major for a while so I took anthropology, geology, and biology courses with that in mind. They at least gave me a conceptual framework for following developments over the years since then.
Back in the mid 90’s, I spent a week’s vacation as a volunteer on a dig in northwestern PA. The site was a field experience for students of the Mercyhurst Archeological Institute, whose director is James Adovagio, excavator of Meadowcroft. The dig supervisor was one of his staff assistants. It was their first week, when students were setting up camp, so I didn’t get to see or participate in much actual fieldwork. I saw Adovagio briefly when he dropped by the site to make sure things were underway ok, but didn’t actually meet him. But, I did get to speak with some students, other volunteers (some of whom had been at Cahokia), and some staff assistants later, during a visit to Mercyhurst.
I’ve noticed the references to Clovis First adherents as “the club.” In a History Channel interview, Adovagio once called them the “Clovis Mafia.” I’m interested to see what he turns up now in Florida.