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Community Connections with Jessica Ericson and Jasmine Saxon - Ep 153
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On this episode of A Life in Ruins, we are lucky to be joined by the co-founders of Community Connections LLC, Jessica Ericson and Jasmine Saxon. Community Connections is a Historical Consulting Company based out of Denver. We start out talking about their first experiences with archaeology and anthropology and then delve into the origins of Community Connections. They detail what kind of projects they work on and we end the conversation talking about what events they have coming up.
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For rough transcripts of this episode go to https://www.archpodnet.com/ruins/153
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- Archaeology and Community Service Learning edited by Michael S. Nassaney and Mary Ann LevineEthical Issues in Archaeology edited by Larry J. Zimmerman, Karen D. Vitelli and Julie Hollowell-Zimmer
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Transcript
Introduction and Episode Overview
00:00:00
Speaker
You're listening to the Archaeology Podcast Network. Welcome to Episode 153 of A Life in Ruins Podcast, where we investigate the careers of those living in life in ruins. I am your host, Connor Jahnen, and I am joined by my co-host, David Howe.
Meet the Guests: Jessica and Jasmine
00:00:16
Speaker
This week, we are joined by the founders of Community Connections, a historical consulting company based out of Denver. Jessica and Jasmine, thank you so much for joining us today. How are you doing?
00:00:26
Speaker
doing well. Thanks for having us. Yeah. Doing good. Happy to be here. Yeah. Yeah. Is it like fieldwork season for you, you all here right now? It's about to be crazy. Yes. Yeah. We were just talking about fall spring, right? So it's still kind of like hit or miss right now, but yeah, it's, I hear it's going to be really busy, especially for Jess, but we've got some fieldwork coming up too. So that'll be, that'll be fun. We can talk about that in a minute.
00:00:55
Speaker
Yeah. Are you guys based out of Denver right now? Is that what you're recording? Yes. Cool. Okay. Yeah. Nice. I do love Denver. I never lived there, but I've been there a million times. Seems like a cool place to live. Where are you at now, David? I'm in Nashville, Tennessee. Awesome. Cool. Yeah. Yeah. Are you in a closet right now?
00:01:14
Speaker
I am. I am in my closet. I am avoiding all of the animals in my household. So this was the only place that worked. Smart. No, you wouldn't be the first or 15th guest that has done that actually. This is where it's at. Yeah. So I guess we can get later. We can get into what you guys do, but I guess we wanted to start off with, you know, how'd you get into anthropology in general?
Inspiration Behind Archaeology Careers
00:01:39
Speaker
You can start with Jasmine. Sure.
00:01:42
Speaker
I actually got into anthropology before anthropology. I mean, anthropology, obviously, it's all connected and everything. But when I was about 12, I went overseas for a little while, I think 10 days or something like that. And I stayed in England, Ireland, and Wales, and I got to do a lot of really cool sightseeing. So at 12 years old, my brain was just completely exploded with these amazing cultural sights.
00:02:09
Speaker
And so ever since then, I just had this love for exploring culture and history and understanding how people used to live a long, long time ago. And low and behold, that's archaeology. So I came back from that trip and I was just super inspired. And that really started my journey on figuring out what archaeology is. And I ended up going to my undergrad.
00:02:35
Speaker
and studying archaeology and eventually got my master's in anthropology with a concentration in archaeology from University of Denver. So that's kind of the shortened version of how I originally got into history and archaeology. Nice. What was the coolest thing you saw overseas that really sticks out in your brain?
00:02:56
Speaker
Um, you know, I, I got to see like Stonehenge, but that actually wasn't one of the most prominent memories for me because it was already gate, like blocked off at that point when I went. So, you know, you were like in a bus, so you just get to like see it out the window. So it's like not really as impactful as you might hope it would be. But I think what was really impactful for me was actually kissing the Blarney Stone.
00:03:19
Speaker
So I didn't realize you had to lay on your back and basically do a backbend and hold on to these metal bars and lean all the way back and kiss the stone that's on the outer wall of the castle. And I'm afraid of heights. So that took a lot of courage for me to do that. And so I remember that really distinctly. And of course, it's an iconic historical thing.
00:03:43
Speaker
Also, I think what was really impactful too was when I was staying in Ireland, I got to stay with a host family. So I got to have a little bit more of an inside view on like cultural practices and foods. And we took a like horse-drawn carriage through some of the mountain passes there and it was super green and beautiful. And so I think, yeah, just those two memories like really stick out to me as just,
00:04:09
Speaker
very vivid and impactful in a way because it was not just like historical, but it was also a cultural component there where I got to understand a little bit more about how people lived in different parts of the world. And I think that's really important too. So one can say you connected with the community.
00:04:30
Speaker
I do have a quick question on that though. Do they wipe the Blarney Stone down before the next person kisses it? Or how does that work? They probably don't even let you do that anymore. But back in, when was that? Like early 2000s or something. Oh, okay. Yeah, definitely not. In the before times. In the before times, yeah. Yeah. The BC before COVID. Yeah, for real.
00:04:55
Speaker
I just looked at a picture of the Blarney Stone. It looks, I would have a bad time. Like just like the height it's at. It's pretty sketchy.
00:05:06
Speaker
Is it like a Disney ride length wait to do it? I think it can be. I don't remember it being that long, but I was also 12, so it was a long time ago. It could have been long, I'm not sure. Oh yeah, that is definitely corroded from faces being on it. Yum, like all of those germs. There's like a wet spot that never really goes away.
00:05:31
Speaker
This is gross. What about you, Jessica? How did you get into archaeology, anthropology, history? Yeah, let's see. So my dad was always into history. So I kind of had that baseline foundation of like, oh, this is something that's really interesting. And then, I mean, it seriously was watching The Mummy. I absolutely loved that movie and I wanted to figure out how to do that in my life. So yeah, let's see that came out in 1999. So
00:06:01
Speaker
watching the mummy I just tried to figure out how I could like travel the world to get involved with any different culture and it kind of just kind of boiled down to archaeology and I was like let's roll with it let's see what goes let's see what happens and then I ended up going to
00:06:20
Speaker
So I'm from Pueblo, Colorado, and there's the Pueblo Archaeological and Historical Society. And they had a monthly meeting and I showed up and I was, they are the sweetest people. We still have connections with them and have worked with them a little bit. But yeah, they, they brought me in and started introducing me to absolutely everybody. So that was how it kind of all started happening. It was a good time. Good times. Cool. Shout out Brendan Frazier.
00:06:48
Speaker
We recently went and had a little talk at the Archaeological Society and it was so sweet because like they just welcomed Jess back in like their long-lost daughter that had gone away and done all these amazing things that had come back to like share her journey. It was like really cool to see that connection there.
00:07:13
Speaker
So I've, I've found like some of the nicest people can be in those like small archeology chapters. We're like really interested in what you do and, you know, asking about stuff. I think that's something that any aspiring archeologists should do is go to one of these meetings and be welcomed in and be inspired. Hopefully. Yeah. Great group. Super great. Great to have them.
00:07:38
Speaker
So what exactly is it you guys do? Because it sounds like what you both just explained has kind of led to that. Yeah, we do a lot of different things all combined under the under the name of Community Connections. So we're both field archaeologists that came together to really like, we're like, we want to change things. Like, this is pretty much just salvage archaeology. So, you know, a lot of the cultural resource management world is. And so we wanted to come together to really
00:08:07
Speaker
show the public that there's actually archaeology around, that it's not dinosaurs, that it has nothing to do with Indiana Jones, and that it's all around us. So Jasmine can explain more on that. But like, yeah, we have a big mission, big goals.
Community Connections: Mission and Impact
00:08:24
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, I think primarily we use archaeology as a tool to talk about
00:08:30
Speaker
history and heritage and identity and what that looks like in communities. And using archaeology as a tool is really cool because it allows us to do all kinds of different things. It doesn't just pigeonhole us into just doing CRM or just doing this or that. It really opens the door to all kinds of really unique, fun projects that some include fieldwork, some don't, some are just purely educational.
00:08:54
Speaker
others like our assessment projects, others are just purely consulting projects. So it just is really neat to be in a space where we've kind of kicked the door down on like the limits of like what we can do with archaeology in a CRM world and taking it beyond that and really using it as a way to connect people together within a community. Yeah, exactly. That's super cool. How did you guys meet? Was it on a CRM project or at a company? No.
00:09:30
Speaker
Yeah, we met at the Colorado Council of Professional Archaeologists, their annual conference in Longmont in 2019. And then we eventually went into business together April 1st of 2019. Right. So it was like a year of knowing each other.
00:09:49
Speaker
hanging out and then yeah then it all started from there. Yeah we met through a mutual friend and she was like you've got to meet each other so we did and Jess was like I just like she's like hey I'm Jess I'm like oh hey nice to meet you I'm Jess and she's like I'm going to the bar you want to drink and I was like uh sure and so we just went and then we started talking and I don't know how we got on to talking about public archaeology like community archaeology and stuff but we just we did it was like one of our very first conversations
00:10:19
Speaker
And we were just like vibing. We're like, yeah, we're so passionate. We're going to change the world. We're going to do this. And yeah, we just became friends over that first year. And then, yeah, April 1st, 2019, we're like, I don't know what we're going to do, but let's do something. We're doing it. Nothing bad is going to happen in the next year as we start a business. Exactly. Yeah, funny.
00:10:47
Speaker
It's not funny, haha, but ironic. Yeah. Our launch party was scheduled. Yeah. On the day that they closed Denver down. So like her parents were going to fly out. Like we had a whole venue booked and everything. Oh no. And then it was just like home. Yeah. It was unfortunate. Well, it sounds like you guys made it through it. So that's good. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we didn't really have any sort of like overhead or any like no employees.
00:11:15
Speaker
We were fortunate on that part, but yeah. Yeah. So what exactly like, is it like, what's the day to day look like for you guys doing that kind of work? So different.
00:11:31
Speaker
Some days we're in the field if we have a specific project, but that's like a very little part of what we do. I think a lot of what we do is we create so much content, I think. Don't you think, Jess? Yeah, I'd say a good chunk of the time we're at work, co-working spaces, each other's houses, coffee shops, and we're like, okay, we got to do, we're making this pamphlet. We're going to make this for social media. We're going to make this for a course. So it's constant, like,
00:11:55
Speaker
creating and dreaming and making things look pretty. It's fine tuning and creating all the time. Yeah, I think a lot of our projects we've partnered with nonprofits and a lot of times we've found that they need a ton of help with just creating
00:12:14
Speaker
materials that they can use in the community or like website stuff or just like informational things or if they have an idea of a program they want to do. They need so much help, they just don't have those resources in house. So a lot of what we're finding is these projects are coming to us that are primarily educational and outreach facing. And so they're like, hey, we have an idea for this cool kids course, but we can't make it and we don't have the ability to host it.
00:12:43
Speaker
So, for example, we have on our website right now, it's a free course for kids on Obsidian and South Park. And that was sponsored by South Park Site Stewards and the Site Steward Foundation Incorporated of New Mexico. And it's just a free, like, simple little course.
00:12:58
Speaker
teaches kids how to make volcanoes and talks about obsidian and, you know, how it was used by ancient peoples to make tools. And that's pretty much it. But like, South Park site sewers didn't have someone to actually build it. They didn't have anywhere to really host it. They didn't know how to like put it on a website. So they just paid us to do that. And so we're finding that a lot of our projects center around projects like that. So I think to be as general as possible, it's a lot of outreach and education material that we are creating. Yeah.
00:13:27
Speaker
Do you enjoy that aspect of it? I guess it seems like everything's varied and any sort of project could come in and any sort of format do you guys really think you enjoy and kind of thrive in that kind of environment? For me it's refreshing to be able to be like okay we have to do
00:13:43
Speaker
Jasmine's the writing queen. She writes and writes and writes and writes and it's wonderful and I'm so thankful. But yeah, we come together in a very balanced manner, I'd say. We have a lot of variety and I think it helps fuel different ideas for different, even other projects. And yeah, it's definitely, I love it. Yeah. I think what's really cool too is we have the ability to be
00:14:10
Speaker
it. We should create a social media series. I live in a house that was built in 1921. I know I have archaeology in my backyard. We're like, we should just do a series on archaeology in your backyard and just use it as an educational thing. We can do that. I think what's really cool about this is it really opens the door to
00:14:35
Speaker
kind of just using archaeology as a tool, like I said before, but doing all these really cool things with it that you cannot do in CRM. It's just not built that way. We're built to be in the field and do 90 sessions and die and come back to life.
00:14:53
Speaker
And this is all the happy, fuzzy, warm feelings of archaeology. And so it feels really fantastic. Especially, yeah, Jess was saying we make a really balanced team, and I 100% agree with that. I think Jess is an idea generator. She is so...
00:15:12
Speaker
amazing at brainstorming and like coming up with these fantastic ideas and then like making an outline and be like this is how we can do it and then I'm really good at coming in and being able to like fill all that stuff in like I like she said I write a lot and so I think between the two of us we just have a really unique relationship that we can
00:15:31
Speaker
really do some cool projects. And Jazz specializes in pre-contact archaeology. I specialize in historic archaeology, which I don't know. We're probably changing that name at some point. I don't know what to call it now. It's post-European archaeology. I have no idea. But yeah, so we do have this kind of cool relationship where we can kind of hit all aspects of archaeology here in the US. And I think that makes us pretty fierce. Cool.
00:16:01
Speaker
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00:17:48
Speaker
Welcome back to episode 153 of a life in ruins podcast. We're here with Jessica Jasmine and unfortunately David. I wanted to start out and ask if you guys ever did a public archeology course field program or if that was even emphasized kind of in your undergraduate degree.
00:18:10
Speaker
for myself. Yeah, I went to Colorado State University. My professor was, yeah, yeah. That's where I met Connor. And I definitely, I took a public archeology class and that just lit. I actually, I took that public archeology class and tried to get more involved with the
00:18:30
Speaker
the archaeology in my hometown of Pueblo, Colorado. The El Pueblo History Museum is down there and I used to volunteer and dress up in 1840s gear. I'd wear bloomers and all the things. I had to show kids around and what chores were like back in the day. But anyways, when I took that public archaeology class, that started everything for myself to get to where
00:18:55
Speaker
we are now because I got into the tourism industry because I figured I wanted to start doing maybe archaeological tours or just figuring out how to get people involved with archaeology. I didn't know exactly what that looked like, but that single class definitely launched everything for me.
00:19:14
Speaker
Did we take that together? I feel like we were in the same. I think, yeah, I always sat in the front right, but I feel like you were around. I was in the back cause I was. Okay. You guys undergrads together or are you aggressive? Okay. Undergrads. Yeah. I mean, I think Jason, our Dr. LaBelle taught that class super well. And I'm glad that that we even got the opportunity to take something like that. Cause I think it's important. Not something that I don't as a part of all.
00:19:46
Speaker
I didn't have anything like that in my undergrad, although I did. I was a little special case. I specialize in Near Eastern archaeology in my undergrad. I was pretty set on being an Israeli archaeologist and being out of here.
00:20:02
Speaker
But, you know, life is interesting and that obviously did not happen, but my seat little like 18 year old self thought it was a great idea. But yeah, in my grad school, absolutely, definitely took some really cool classes. I think one of them that I really impacted me too was like digital anthropology. So talking about
00:20:23
Speaker
anthropology in online spaces and thinking about how we interact in that space and how that overflows into real life and that was really interesting. But I also, one of my mentors and professors was Dr. Bonnie Clark at University of Denver and she's the director
00:20:41
Speaker
of the Amache internment camp project down south in Coronado, Colorado. And so every other year she's out there doing field work with her students and community members, has amazing relationships with some of the descendant community members down there. So that was really impactful to, I didn't actually get to go out there and excavate or anything, but just, I had a bunch of classes with her where we would use
00:21:05
Speaker
some of those artifacts that they excavated and do data analysis and things like that on them so lots of talk about involving the public and you know how you do like a proper ethnography and stuff like that which was i think really great for any archaeologists to have some of those skills because
00:21:24
Speaker
Even though we study you know what's in the past a lot of times what is in the present inform some of those stories in the past and so I think it's really important to pick up some of those skills but I think the most impactful thing was I did my thesis work out in Connecticut and I got to work with the former state archaeologist who is now past but he was so influential.
00:21:45
Speaker
in thinking about archaeology in public ways, he just invited like every single community member to our excavation, like boy scouts, girl scouts, historical societies, neighbors down the road, like everyone. And it was just an amazing to see him sit and like talk to the public and teach them about archaeology. And it was really something quite special. And it really just, it hit me
00:22:10
Speaker
deep down, like I'm getting emotional talking about it. But I think too, I've always kind of held on to that as Justin, I continue to build this because there was this amazing sense of belonging and identity in those moments where he would share this history with the community. So that was super inspiring.
00:22:27
Speaker
That's really cool because I've always found, like, not the older generation of archaeologists, but just archaeologists in general, when you, like, had the community involved and you're discussing, like, people always listen. Like, archaeologists are always respected in that sense because you just know a lot of stuff. It's where people lived.
00:22:45
Speaker
Yeah, I wish more. It could be like the indigenous, you know, people telling about it, but can't always happen. We're at an archeological site, but like, yeah, it's just always cool that the community is always very involved and like really pays attention when we're talking about that kind of stuff. Yeah. So I'm glad you had the experience. Yeah, that's good.
00:23:06
Speaker
Yeah, it seems like local communities are obviously invested in these areas too. And I think bringing in and talking to them is usually always beneficial, just to have that conversation.
00:23:20
Speaker
And it's cool that you were taught that digital stuff. Cause I think a lot of folks in our field don't ever get that kind of things. I mean, we're, we're kind of just making this up podcast and digital thing, you know, making it up as we go. Cause it's not something that's taught in school to us. Yeah. Do they even teach podcasting in school? I guess maybe now they do.
00:23:44
Speaker
Like, not when I went, but... Everyone in their sister has one, so... I don't know, what kind of stuff did you guys learn in your public archeology class, if you don't mind me asking?
00:23:57
Speaker
I think, okay, I just remember there was so much. It was like a flood of information coming in, but I remember learning how to set up my resume to be able to present it to a CRM company. Connor, do you remember that? Your face suggested that. Yeah, I definitely remember that. There was a huge book. I feel like, jeez, Apple Bell had us read a huge book.
00:24:20
Speaker
Yeah, there was books and articles. I remember reading the Golden Trowel. It was such a cool article because he had us acted out. Yeah, the Golden Marshalltown. That's it. Anyways, stuff like that. But our main project that each one of us had to do, that's the thing that I was trying to do in El Pueblo History Museum.
00:24:41
Speaker
I think I remember him asking me, he's like, do you want to do something like fun or do you want to do a project that's going to change things and going to be like meaningful? And I was like, oh, that is a great question. I guess I'm going to go for the meaningful answers. So, yeah, I just it wasn't necessarily the content that I learned so much. It was the, I don't know, the essence of it all of like, why are you doing this? Yeah, more or less. Yeah.
00:25:10
Speaker
I remember getting like specific examples of public archeology, which was super helpful. Cause then you can kind of see how people actually use the past, um, to, to talk to people. I think that was super useful. And I, yeah, I think they're actually doing the project too was helpful there at that time because you're like, I didn't feel like I was a professional or like, I just, I just got out of field school and now I'm going to try to like change the world or something. It's going to work.
00:25:37
Speaker
Yeah. Jasmine, how about, what about you? Anything you remember specifically or, uh, I think, yeah, I think I remember just a lot of examples of just like how to talk to the community, how to involve the kind of like those nitty gritty details of outreach. And I think one of the things that struck me is like, it's a really, it's a lot of work. And I think,
00:26:04
Speaker
A lot of times in archaeology, it's easier to just kind of like, you know, just like kind of put something nice over it and call it community engagement, you know? Because I think a lot of times, you know, it can be scary to interact with the public.
00:26:23
Speaker
because you just don't know how they're going to respond and some people can be really mean, like really, really rude and mean. But I think that's like part of why we need to embrace it so much more is because I think there has been this kind of time where we all have kind of just ran away from these responsibilities and
00:26:47
Speaker
as an archaeologist, if we're not involving the community or somehow like giving back with our projects, then like, what are we doing? Like, why are we doing this? Like, why are we? It's just like archaeology for archaeology's sake. It's like a vacuum. It doesn't impact or do anything for anyone. Yeah.
00:27:04
Speaker
Yeah, we're like contributing to the gray literature, essentially. I feel like it's like CRM. It's hard to find ways to do that in CRM and ways in outreach, but it seems like you guys have found that niche. Are there any projects that you all are really proud of or besides all of them? Because, you know, any ones that you are really proud of what you kind of accomplished through that process?
00:27:29
Speaker
Definitely. We've got a few. I like, I don't know, Jasmine had some great connections and got us like so many random things happened for us to get into to be able to survey Red Rocks. So that happened. And that's an ongoing thing.
00:27:49
Speaker
Yeah. So that I'd say is one of them. That is our pride and joy, our baby, our like claim to fame, if you will. Yeah. So Jess and I have like the honor and the privilege to be surveying Red Rocks. And we had our first season last year.
00:28:09
Speaker
So we're still on the ongoing process of getting all of the information together and writing reports and all that stuff, but really the end goal of this project is to also, well it's kind of a multi-component project.
Current Projects and Educational Initiatives
00:28:22
Speaker
Part of it is we absolutely need to survey the park because it's never been surveyed archaeologically in its entirety.
00:28:28
Speaker
which is just mind blowing to me. I still like, I have a survey out there and I still cannot understand why that says it. Anyway, so that is one component is like we need to do an inventory for like responsibility's sake. Like we can't protect something we don't know about. But the other part of that is using all of this information as a community engagement tool. So
00:28:52
Speaker
We're working with the education coordinator and the wildlife program director in addition to the director of Denver Mountain Parks to create educational content for Denver public schools so that we can give that out to teachers. Teachers can use it in their classrooms as kind of a foundational tool for learning archaeology. And when you learn archaeology, you learn a lot of other cool skills like critical thinking and math and like science, all kinds, you know, like there's so many cool things that you can learn just by doing archaeology. It's not just like one thing.
00:29:22
Speaker
We're really going to highlight some of those things and then use it as a base so that when students are able to, they can come out to Red Rocks and Justin and I have identified a teaching site actually out there that's easily accessible. It's just a massive historic picnic area, so it's nothing significant, but it has every single color of glass basically out there. Just that in itself is a cool tool to talk about.
00:29:50
Speaker
Why are glass different colors? Why does that happen? What is the science behind that? And then how does that help us date things in time? So having kids out there to actually use pen flags and go mark stuff and talk about artifacts and things like that. So we'll also be doing some drone footage and creating DEMs.
00:30:10
Speaker
to also talk about sites and like why that like how we map them and what that looks like and what you can tell from a DM and all those things. So we're not just doing archaeology for archaeology's sake like we talked about like we're actually taking all of this information and making it in accessible little snippets of things here and there that the public and especially our public schools can latch on to and use. That's super cool. I assume you guys have found some weird shit at Red Rocks.
00:30:38
Speaker
Uh, yeah. I'd imagine it's a lot of like white claw and like craft beer cans or something. There's, there's plenty of that. There's, there's some, there's some other things too. We found a drone actually. Yeah, that was weird. It was like, also you could tell it was like hand soldered and like put together. So I don't know what kind of weird stuff they were doing, but we found it just to love it. I think, don't you? Cause I don't think Shannon wanted it. The director, she was like, I don't know.
00:31:09
Speaker
It's just, the footage is just some dude, like, obviously... Oh, with footage. Yeah, it has footage. And he flew it straight up into the, there's a tower, like a cell tower up there. And that's like the worst thing to do with the drone is, so it just, it completely interfered with the drone. Signal. Yeah, the signal and everything. And the drone, you just watch it just like, you just get dizzy watching it as it just tumbles down from the sky into this rock face.
00:31:38
Speaker
So that's where we found it, but. Yeah. Yeah. It's, I think one of the craziest things is like noticing like the extent of how much people have been around Red Rocks. Like, like we, like we have full Rome of the park, right? So we're out there like in places that we think that, Oh, for sure. People have not been here in a long time. Like there's like a course can, you know,
00:32:06
Speaker
So it's kind of crazy how much people have been all over this place for such a long time. We did find some amethyst glass up on this hillside after climbing these crazy 90 degree angle rocks, which was awesome. Just as it gets a little vertigo.
00:32:32
Speaker
kind of just helping her. I can't be up high and then look up and that's exactly what it made me, I needed to do to get to the next spot. But I was just like, I'm going to fall backwards. I'm going to die here. So we found like two little amethyst, like neck and finishings that like probably cork tops, like just
00:32:53
Speaker
Yeah, but like other than that, that's why the oldest historic stuff that we found. And then there's a distinct lack of pre-contact just like it's just absent. Yeah, people will just walk right in and like, oh, I'm taking everything. So there's almost nothing there that we're finding so far. It's really unfortunate.
00:33:13
Speaker
It is really unfortunate. That's why what we do at Community Connections is so freaking important is because if
The Role of Public Involvement in Archaeology
00:33:20
Speaker
people are educated and they understand that picking up artifacts and taking them home and putting them in a shoe box isn't helpful, even though it's cool to see them, it completely rips apart a piece of our historic story.
00:33:34
Speaker
Like Jess and I are out there trying to figure out more of what the cultural story of Red Rocks is and we can already tell you that there's a huge chunk of it that's going to be missing. We actually got to go to CSU and look at a comparison collection that was excavated just north of like Red Rocks like you could walk there from the park.
00:33:53
Speaker
and just was like freaking the fuck out because it was just beautiful material like absolutely gorgeous points and all kinds of like beautiful lithics so we know you know obviously historically we know anyway but like we know also just from this one single site that there should be
00:34:13
Speaker
beautiful things here and they're missing, which just like really breaks your heart. Like as an archeologist, you can just feel the void and it's sort of creepy. It's like not right. It's weird. Yeah. It was super weird. Yeah. Well, I think we're going to take a break and we'll come right back. If you are missing a drone though, feel free to reach out to the community connections people. Yeah. Yeah. We got it. We can also give you some informative material saying that you should not fly close to things that will interfere with your connection.
00:34:41
Speaker
Also illegal in the park, just FYI. Yeah, it's super illegal, so yeah. Contact us on your own, like, you know. On your own, or whatever, whatever you want to do anonymously. Yeah, there you go. And we'll be right back.
00:34:57
Speaker
I'm back to episode 153 of a Life and Earns podcast. I'm your host, David Howe. I'm here with Connor Johnen and our friends with Community Connections. We were just talking about the really cool archeology and the drone you found in Red Rocks. But what are some like future projects you guys have coming up or things you're looking forward to?
00:35:15
Speaker
We are so looking forward to International Archaeology Day.
Upcoming Event: International Archaeology Day
00:35:21
Speaker
It is on October 21st from 9am to 2pm. We'll be in the southern lot of the Red Rocks Park.
00:35:30
Speaker
Yeah, because we had done a bunch of work this last year at Red Rocks, we were speaking with the park director. Oh, she's the director of Denver Mountain Parks. But she's so enthusiastic, loves this whole project. She wants people to like fall in love with archaeology, just like we all have. And so she was hoping to have some sort of like,
00:35:53
Speaker
bigger public component and so when we brought through a random series of events we Jasmine and I were approached to take over International Archaeology Day which has been going on for the past 11 years and it kind of just fit perfectly into what we're all about so we told Shannon about that and then it just kind of started taking like it's a life of its own so it's been really really fun so far but yeah I don't know Jasmine if you want to add more to that but
00:36:22
Speaker
Yeah. Oh my gosh. It's been a monster, but it's been my favorite.
00:36:29
Speaker
So, Roxborough State Park originally started International Archaeology Day, like kind of here in Metro Denver-ish south. I don't know, it's not really Metro Denver. But anyway, it's kind of, but they started it with their volunteers and it was just kind of a small, like park-driven event. And it just continued to grow like year after year after year until it just, it outgrew Roxborough and they had to find another venue to host it.
00:36:55
Speaker
I think before the pandemic, they had up to 800 people attending, which is a lot. I actually didn't realize how big it was until I started getting into all the numbers for the grant that we applied for. But last year, we were approached by someone on the IAD committee seeing if we were interested maybe in taking over the event because the original organizers
00:37:19
Speaker
We're retiring from their park positions and just didn't really want to take this on anymore. They've been doing it for 10 years, wanted to do some stuff of their own in their older age.
00:37:31
Speaker
Again, as Jess said, this fits perfectly into our mission of spreading archaeology and educational outreach to the community. And so last year, we spent the majority of the time just sitting on the IAD International Archaeology Day committee, learning all the ins and outs of what goes into organizing this event. And it's a pretty massive event. Basically. Last year, there were over 22 different organizations, all with tables and booths.
00:37:59
Speaker
Set up where you could just walk through and learn all about different kinds of archaeology projects They also had like really cool stuff like lithophones set up that you could like play and they had Something on the fur trade There was like the history Colorado was there with some cool activities for kids. So it's just like it's a really cool vibe and
00:38:21
Speaker
And so Justin and I decided to take this on, and since we're pretty small and still newly growing, we partnered with Colorado Preservation, Inc., which is a nonprofit, and they applied for a grant in partnership with us.
00:38:37
Speaker
to run and host International Archaeology Day at Red Rocks Park in amphitheaters. So we are super thrilled. We think it's just going to be the coolest project ever to continue growing. We have a lot of really amazing partners and collaborators, but we're always looking for more. It's international, so we're really trying to grow the diversity part of this event.
00:39:00
Speaker
I think I had mentioned earlier that I had studied Israeli archaeology, and I still have great connections over there. We're pulling in that connection. We're going to have some Mesoamerica archaeology. I'm also on the board of Shryger Ranch, which is a pretty cool historic resource down south, and it's Austrian.
00:39:18
Speaker
So they're going to show up and talk about some Austrian culture. And then we're doing our best to include as many people as we can from the BIPOC community. So looking at Indigenous, Black, Asian, Mexican, Chicano, like all of these other types of partners that a lot of times are just on the fringes and get left out. And so Jess and I are doing our best to kind of reinvent this so that it becomes more inclusive. And the organizers have done just
00:39:46
Speaker
amazing job at building this and we really believe in the work that they're doing so we're just gonna try to grow it bigger and have it at Red Rock. Jess and I are doing kind of like one of festival vibes so we're gonna have a stage for speaker and we're gonna have a food truck and a little mini beer garden. It's gonna be it's gonna be pretty sweet.
00:40:09
Speaker
One of the food trucks actually is an Apache sibling pair. So they have their own food truck that they take around mostly Colorado Springs, but sometimes Denver and whatnot. And we've got members of the Northern Arapahoe. They're going to do a teepee demonstration and all sorts of stuff. So yeah, hopefully everybody can make it. It's going to be so fun.
00:40:31
Speaker
You had me at festival vibes. Yes. Peace and love. Was it? Yeah. We're going to, we're like creating a, we're going to have like a little photo booth. It's going to be like a banner of like the ID like logo or like, so every year we have an artist draw something, some artwork. And we've been working with Elena Haberlick who just does amazing, beautiful, beautiful illustrations. But she has been drawing like,
00:40:59
Speaker
scenes from like Red Rocks and stuff and so we're gonna like do a big banner with like some cool Red Rocks art on it and you can like take your picture from the ID banner. It's gonna be so cool. Oh my gosh, I'm such a nerd. It's gonna be awesome.
00:41:15
Speaker
No, I love, I love the enthusiasm. It's, I'm excited for it. Okay. Elena is a good friend of mine. She's, she's really talented. We should probably get her on the show at some point. Yeah, she's awesome. Yeah. I was just wearing her shirt that she designed like yesterday with the points on it. It's awesome.
00:41:31
Speaker
Oh yeah. In addition to some of those bigger projects that we have, we also, I think I mentioned earlier, do some work with nonprofits. Jess, do you want to share with one of our most recent projects? I think it's so cool. It's one of my favorite things so far.
00:41:47
Speaker
Yeah, so Connor, you had mentioned the enthusiasm and passion that the smaller communities have. We were approached by Jayi and a woman named Senda from the Lakewood Historical Society, and they are so passionate and so knowledgeable about what they have, and apparently in the next
00:42:10
Speaker
probably year or so there's gonna be a big push in Denver to begin zero-scaping and getting rid of the different like lawns and yards that take up a lot of water we're trying to like
00:42:23
Speaker
they're trying to get to minimize that basically. And so Senda realized that by doing this, a lot of yards are going to be torn up. So that's very unfortunate. If they, if people find things like artifacts or whatever, like they're not going to know what they're finding. So they'll probably just toss it away. So the liquid historical society came to us to be like, Hey, can you help us create something to get people to know what archeology is, know what it looks like in this area? And then like,
00:42:53
Speaker
just we can start like a database or something like that. So it all formed into this whole thing. Now it's called the Guardians of- I always mess this name up because I always want to say Guardians of the Galaxy. But it's just as epic. It's so fun. So it's the liquid historic- Wait, tell me what it is. It's Guardians of Historic Liquid.
00:43:22
Speaker
Thank you. Yes, Guardians of Historic Liquid. So anyways, we're creating a pamphlet. We're going to have chat with an archaeologist days. People are going to fill out forms of not extensive forms, but just like, what did you find? Is it metal? Like a Google form, basically. Yeah. Something nice and simple. Yeah, to help track data. So yeah, so Jess and I are going to create a handbook, like a citizen archaeology handbook.
00:43:47
Speaker
that'll be digital. And so anyone that wants to sign up for the Guardians of the Historic Lakewood program will get a handbook and it'll have like really basic information in there like
00:43:57
Speaker
Like if you find this, this is a nail, like this is a, you know, this is window pane glass, it's flat, you know, like some, you know, just really basic things, but things that you would find like around a household and have pictures and descriptions and stuff in there so people can use that to kind of identify what they have. And then that will direct them to like the Google form on the Historical Society website where they can like log their information and what they found.
00:44:23
Speaker
And then the Historical Society is going to take that information and do some really cool projects with it, like creating story maps and talking about where certain things happened and how we can tell from these artifacts. We'll see what happens when people start actually submitting their data, but it really empowers people to take care of these items rather than just
00:44:46
Speaker
Stashing them somewhere or just throwing them out it gives them like meaning and they know what to do with it And I think that's really important so again like that educational component of empowering Just mr. Joe across the street to be like you can be an archaeologist
00:45:05
Speaker
And it all empowers us to continue protecting our history and to be actively recording that history too because a lot of times like that private, as we know as archaeologists, we don't know a lot of intimate details unless there's like a diary or there's like an outhouse or you know, there's like a privy, right? We don't get a lot of like intimate details of how people were living. And so I think this is a really cool approach to capturing some of that intimate data that would otherwise just be
00:45:34
Speaker
gone. There's no reason to hire an archaeologist to come to your backyard. But if you empower citizens to know what they're finding and to be able to report that and tell somebody about it, then we can really start talking about some cool stuff, I think, just even from a research perspective. Yeah. Also, the Butterfly Pavilion showed a lot of interest in this project as well, so they're probably going to give information as well to
00:46:03
Speaker
when people are told, please, you know, rearrange your yard, the butterfly pavilion is going to be like, well, if you want to help the environment, here are some local plants that help pollinators and all that kind of stuff. So it'll be a nice guide for the community to really understand what is happening around them. Yeah. Yeah.
00:46:26
Speaker
Yeah. And mixing like archeology and environment is like so great. I love it. Yeah, absolutely. Just the, uh, like the fact that you guys are talking with people in the community about like what the Google form is left to like, I've just found a lot of people have no idea where to start with that. Like, Oh, I found an artifact who there's no like 911 for an archeologist. So like they just put it in a coffee can and put it in like somewhere. But if you say like, Hey, like an archeologist came and looked, they're like,
00:46:55
Speaker
The school knows about this artifact. It makes it even cooler to them, too. So I like that a lot. Yeah, we're excited to see where it goes and how it starts. I imagine it's like a little snowball right now, right? And then once people know that it's available and latch onto it, it's just going to grow and grow and grow. And what's cool about this is the historical society is really into sharing this, duplicating this for other historical societies. So they're not like,
00:47:24
Speaker
gatekeeping or like trying to like make it just their own thing. Like they want to share this program and have it duplicated like throughout different historical societies around the state or even abroad and so I think like that's a really cool way of envisioning like how do we continue to connect people together on a broader scale.
00:47:44
Speaker
No, that's, that's super cool. I think it's, we're going to have a lot more archeologists on our hands. If this keeps going the way, it seems like it's going, which is awesome. I think that's, we should all learn to love and respect and try to understand the past ones. And it seems like in other, other disciplines, the citizen science approach works. Like it always seems to work and benefits the community. So I'm glad that you guys are taking that kind of approach. It's going to be cool. Thank you.
00:48:13
Speaker
I guess do you have any like closing remarks on what you want to do with it or like anything you're proud of about the community connections or anything you want to let the world know? I guess just like archaeology matters and science matters and the more you know the better off you'll be so if you ever have any questions just let us know and yeah I'm sure there's plenty more to say but
00:48:42
Speaker
Yeah, I think what's really, I think through all this learning and growing and building a business and being a field archaeologist and like running my body into the ground and trying to figure out why the heck, why do I even want to do archaeology? Because there are those moments when you question yourself like, did I really pick the right profession?
00:49:04
Speaker
I think what I've learned is that one, archaeology is absolutely viable and it's a profession that we really do need. And we have just made it one thing and it is not just one thing. There's so many other things that go into doing archaeology and really doing it well. But the other thing I think too is that, and this is really, sorry,
00:49:30
Speaker
The other thing, number two, that is really important, most important is that people matter. And that is why we do this is because people are the most valuable resource that we have and documenting them and what they've done in the past is a privilege and it's an honor. And I think that that is the thing that I want to, I want to tell everybody listening that, you know, this is, this is serious work and we're doing the best we can to make it applicable for everybody. So.
00:49:58
Speaker
Yeah. Awesome. That's beautiful. Yeah. So before we end the show, we usually ask the folks we have on to, if you have any recommendations for books, articles, videos, apps, you know, anything you would recommend for people who are interested in public archeology.
00:50:14
Speaker
Yeah, one book I read is called Archaeology and Community Service Learning. It's edited, I don't know if I'll say this guy's name right, but it's Michael S. Nasonay, N-A-S-S-A-N-E-Y, and Mary Ann Levine. And again, it provides a lot of examples of community archaeology and public archaeology.
00:50:35
Speaker
But it also talks about some of the strategy behind why they did the project that they did and how they did it and why they did it the way that they did. So I think that's really helpful to learn kind of like the behind the scenes of public archaeology and that there really is a lot of work and effort that goes into curating these experiences. You can't just like slap it together. It's like it's a process. So I think that was something I think that really has helped me in my journey and understanding like how to work with the community, especially using archaeology.
00:51:04
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, I've got so the book that Connor and I, one of the books that we had to read in class, I did pull that up. So I think it was, it was beneficial for sure. It's the ethical issues in archaeology. And it's just kind of a culmination of a bunch of people's work coming together, but it just teaches you and gives you different perspectives of how and why to work with the public and
00:51:29
Speaker
in different aspects and whatnot but also if someone's interested in public archaeology definitely if you can go to like conferences and such because the more people you know the better and it'll just help to expand maybe what you're looking to do with public archaeology and all of that but
00:51:49
Speaker
or your local archeology society. Like here we have Colorado archeological society cast. The resources like that are amazing to get you connected into archeology. And it gives you also that community perspective too, because those organizations are community driven. So it gives you that inside view. So yeah, I think that's a good suggestion. Just good idea. Where can the listeners find you guys on social media or about your business? You can find us on Facebook and Instagram at community connections, LLC.
00:52:19
Speaker
And then also our website, communityconnections.biz, which we're talking about Artifacts. So we built a resource called the Artifact Identifier. And it's all about if you find something while you're out, like what do you do with it and who do you tell? So that is also a free resource on our website and you can go there. It's like right on the front page and you can download it for free and pop it on your mobile. So when you're hiking, you know what to do.
00:52:47
Speaker
Cool. That's an excellent resource. Awesome. Because this is a life of ruins podcast, we do have to ask you a very important question, which I think I know the answer for because you both are very passionate about the past. If you were given the opportunity to kind of do this all over, would you still kind of choose to live a life in ruins? Yeah. Awesome. So we just interviewed Jessica Erickson and Jasmine Saxon. Is that right? Yes.
00:53:17
Speaker
The show notes will have their website, their handles, Instagram, et cetera. Yeah. Yeah. Can you guys just please rate review the podcast? I'm not even going to go into it. Just, just ready to review the podcast and hit the stars and you know how to do it. Share it with a friend, lambastas on Reddit, whatever you want to do. Cool. All right. Well, yeah, thanks for coming on. Thanks for having us. It was great.
00:53:49
Speaker
Thanks for listening to a life in ruins podcast. You can follow us on Instagram and Facebook at a life in ruins podcast. And you can also email us at a life in ruins podcast at gmail.com.
00:53:59
Speaker
And remember, make sure to bring your archaeologists in from the cold and feed them beer. And as we close the show, Connor, do you have your witty, stupid joke? Stupid? I don't remember what we called it. Yeah, I do. So I changed all my passwords to Kenny. Now I have all Kenny logins. Oof.
00:54:25
Speaker
See what I mean? That drone is what I live for. Alright. Sounds good. Yeah, see you guys next week.
00:54:51
Speaker
This episode was produced by Chris Webster from his RV traveling the United States, Tristan Boyle in Scotland, Dig Tech LLC, Culturo Media, and the Archaeology Podcast Network, and was edited by Rachel Rodin. This has been a presentation of the Archaeology Podcast Network. Visit us on the web for show notes and other podcasts at www.archpodnet.com. Contact us at chris at archaeologypodcastnetwork.com.