  Working in archaeology has served to expose me to a number of amusing, or at least memorable, events.
Nothing akin to Indiana Jones’ adventures, but odd. Like the time I went with one of my archaeology professors, Dr. Grant Hall, to see about some human remains a farmer unearthed. Dr. Hall had received a call from a farmer, Ed, who told him he had found three human skulls pretty close together while he was plowing.
So, Dr. Hall, three of his graduate students, and myself drove an hour west, off the Caprock and back on it again, to go see three skulls presumably belonging to a Native American burial. We were expecting the ground to be peppered with fragments of skeletal remains (broken by the plow), or prehaps flakes from making stone arrows and knives and some burned rocks from cooking features--run of the mill archaeological site stuff.
And we expected to see three skulls sitting on top of the soil (or maybe on Ed's front porch). We got out there, met the land owner, Ed, who was wearing ragged trousers, a baseball cap, and was missing a few teeth, and sporting, quite proudly, a four inch scare across his brow which he later told us was due to a "terrible accident. " Ed recounted the finding of the skulls: "yep', he said, "I was plowing along with my 17" plow, deeper than I do usually, cuz, see, I wanted to git to some fresh soil, you know, turnin' the field over, and then I saw this white thing roll up and saw the eye sockets. well, that was a bit of a surprise, I tell you what. But I kep' on goin cuz I wasn't real sure it were a skull and I turned around at the end of the field here and plowed back this-a-way, and I git to where I saw the first skull and I turned up another.
Well, now I was really kinda jittered, but I kep on goin' and I took another turn and around the same place, I turned up a third skull. Well I jist jumped out that tractor and ran and called the Sheriff cuz I didn't know what to think and they asked some questions and told me to call you.
" We couldn't see the site from the driveway but it sounded like a burial ground. Exciting stuff. So, we pile into the back of Ed's truck and drive down a dirt rode and drive across the field and stop. We hop out. Dr. Hall hands us some pin flags and says "Now, don't pick anything up, just mark it. " I had about twenty flags. We start walking out to where the land owner was pointing saying, "it's jist over here. " I am not seeing anything on the ground, but I am not worried because there will at least be the three skulls to indicate a site, .
. .
right? We get over to where landowner Ed, insists he saw the skulls. We look around on the ground, nothing around, no fragments, no skulls. Dr. Hall asks, "Where are they .
. .
the skulls? " "Well," says Ed, "they got covered back up as I was plowing. You know," as if we'd been farmers all our lives, "They just turned over with the soil, they can't be too deep under. " Ah! We will have to dig a bit. So Dr. Hall goes back to his car and gets some shovels and a screen and in the mean time he sends us out to mark all the artifacts we can find on the surface of the field around the area.
There was absolutely nothing, amazingly nothing, it would be hard to imagine such a lack of material remains. Dr. Hall returns, hands out shovels, arranges us students ever so many meters apart and says to us to "dig a 50 cm square pit, I'll tell you when to quit. " I dig and he says to quit at a clay level, about 2 feet deep, with nothing in it. I start digging a new hole .
.
.and another hole .
.
.so all us students are are digging, Dr. Hall is digging, we dig ten .
.
.fifteen .
. .
thirty pits, all in this one area where Ed is dead certain he saw the skulls. Dr. Hall mutters under his breath about some psychological study of how easily people are mistaken by what they remember and yet are sure they remember exactly what they claim.
I'm thinking, great, we're digging in the wrong place. We dig for about two hours and we're tired and blisters are appearing on our hands then one of the grad students has a "good" idea to use pokey sticks- a long rod with which to find pots-an old looters trick. Ed says, "I have some iron rebar rods that'll do the trick". Dr Hall replied, "we'd sure appreciate using them. " I'm thinking Dr Hall ought to speak for himself and where the hell is the water and why does the sun have to shine so bright?
So Ed brings us a bunch of rods and we poke around in that farmers field for a couple more damn hours and my muscles are hurting, and my hand are blistering in new and improved places, and we are not finding jack and we ought to have a long time ago if anything were there and then I notice ole' Ed, who had finally started helping us an hour before, starts moving down the field about 30 or more yards and starts poking around. Hmmmmm, I think, not so sure about where he saw those skulls anymore. I glance at Dr. Hall, he's gives me a "we're in hell and we can't get up" look.
More poking, poking, poking, praying, praying, praying. Then, I look up and Dr. Hall is over there talking to Ed and Ed goes off to his house and Dr. Hall informs us Ed is going to replow the field. We take a break, drink some sodas. Dr. Hall says, in his wisened, experienced, story-telling tone of voice, "I've been on some wild goose chases in my time" provides us a dramatic pause and continues "and now ya'll have, too? He cackles. We curse him and all his children. Ed returns with his tractor and he plows and we walk behind looking at the soil as it's turning, trying to spy any damn bones at all.
Nothing, an hour of this and nothing. Ed expands the region of interest to encompass a large amount of the field. Nothing. I am walking along, tired from walking and standing, my feet sinking into the soil, so soft, I could sleep here, rest, want to rest. FINALLY, We give up on the plow and FINALLY, Dr. Hall decides we've done the best we can do and we ought to go home now.
Ed asks, "are ya gonna dig this weekend? " You could almost hear the students thinking on excuses on why we won't be able to make it, but to our relief Dr. Hall says he doesn't have time. We get all the equipment rounded up and pile into Dr. Hall's station wagon. He starts again in his "I remember when" tone, telling us about his worst experiences - the time he tangled with poison ivy and how it covered his arms and legs and "when the rash started down my chest and stomach, I went to the doctor!
" he also said he now knew what he should have asked that farmer before going out to investigate his claim .
. .
"I should have asked, Ed, are you crazy?
" 
