This week I’m going to drag the War Pony from the garage and hit the road. We’re going to Colorado to look at some Anasazi ruins. It’s an archaeological tour, with some adventure – and even wine – thrown in. It’s part of what I hope to be a new breed of tourism. It’s not a bus going from one crowded place to the next. It’s not a shopping spree. It’s an adventure where, I’m hoping, I’ll come back with a bigger brain and a better perspective about the world.
I’ve only done a little bit of preliminary research. (I was provided with an extensive selection of recommended reading, but unfortunately, archaeological writing is about as interesting as watching a slug crawl. No, it’s not that interesting. It causes instant temporary brain death. The books are all published by academic presses and – I’m guessing – only purchased by people who have to for school. No amount of graphs or old black and white pictures of people on their knees sweeping away ages old dirt, can make up for sentences like this:
The Anasazi of the paleominoniolithic epoch of basket B had bone density carbonization of 22.1mbs(t) of at least 16 (ktb – See Charles, Lillith, 1868) in the aveoaxonic sublimixular region of the mass cranium index that was found.
Pure gibberish, that. And, while I freely cop to making it up just now, it’s probably better than the real thing.) As a result, I am, as I like to do, coming from a place of pure ignorance. I do know this though. The New World has been inhabited for a long time. Just not by us.
When I was in Ireland, I sort of felt jealous about how old everything was. There were dive bars older than the United States in Dublin, and I have the overpriced baseball cap to prove it. But we’ve got our own Druids. We’ve got our own ancient civilizations that came and mysteriously went and can only speak through the language of where they crapped and what they painted on walls and how they chose to live.
I’m looking forward to learning more, and I will keep you, my dear nonexistent readers, informed, every step of the way.
TO BE CONTINUED…
