OCA Gears Up for Excavations in Albuquerque

May 5, 2008

On May 12th 2008, the Office of Contract Archeology will be starting a small excavation project on the grounds of the Alameda Elementary School on Alameda Boulevard in Albuquerque. The project is intended to clear ground for the proposed campus renovation work at the elementary school. Because the school is located on top of a Coalition-Classic period ruins of the Alameda Pueblo, OCA archeologists will excavate areas with suspected buried cultural deposits. The fieldwork will also offer the students hands-on experience on archeological methods of excavation and in-field artifact analysis. Albuquerque's KOAT Channel 7 visited with OCA to report of the up-coming dig on Friday (May 2nd, 2008) evening news. Click HERE to view the TV report.

Archeology in Not-So-Perfect Weather Conditions

April 2008

Recent OCA survey in the Boot Heel area of New Mexico has tested OCA crews' endurance. Because the project area was located too far from the nearest hotel, OCA crews camped right by the US-Mexico international border. Strong winds common to this part of the state proved to be challenging at times. Yet, the crews survived even the strongest winds. Our colleague Bretton Somers of Gulf South Research Corp. recorded a video of one of the dust storms. To see the video feed clink HERE

OCA Field Crews Go Solar!

March 21 , 2008

As part of keeping up with modern technological advancement, the Office of Contract Archeology has introduced new means of supplying power for the electronic field equipment. During this month of March 2008, the OCA field crews began using solar panels to  run all laptops, charge batteries and lamps at a field camp. Read more HERE.

Jobs to be offered for upcoming OCA dig!

 February 8, 2008

The Office of Contract Archeology will be opening several on-call positions of ARCHEOLOGIST and ARCHEOLOGIST CREW MEMBER for several upcoming projects.

To learn more, click HERE!

OCA's Peggy Gerow Becomes Doctor of Philosophy

January 30, 2008

We are pleased to announce that in December 2007 our friend and colleague Senior Archeologist Peggy A. Gerow has completed her Graduate School studies at the University of New Mexico and received a degree Doctor of Philosophy in American Studies. Peggy's Dissertation title is "TO DO MUCH WITH VERY LITTLE": NEW MEXICO'S FARM WOMEN AND THE COOPERATIVE EXTENSION SERVICE, 1914-1929. The entire OCA staff congratulates Peggy on this achievement.

High-tech archeology workshop featured at OCA laboratory

January 9, 2008

On Wednesday, January 9th, 2008, organizers of the 2008 Society for Historical Archaeology conference visited OCA to perform a demonstration of a Thermo Scientific NITON XRF (x-ray fluorescence) Analyzer. Using the x-ray energy, the new technology produces a detailed compositional analysis of elements within different materials. Click HERE to read more about this technology and the event.

Albuquerque Journal Reports of OCA's Research at Alameda Pueblo

December 12, 2007, and

December 14, 2007

Todays Albuquerque Journal reports on an upcoming public meeting to consider construction alternatives to minimize damage to an early historic pueblo that underlies the Alameda Elementary School. The Office of Contract Archeology is acting as a cultural resource management consultant to the Albuquerque Public School for the project. The concern is that buried cultural deposits discovered by OCA will delay the proposed construction at the school.

Click HERE for a full December 12, 2007 article.

Click HERE for an update article from December 14, 2007

OCA Dig Project Goes on Display at Maxwell Museum

December 7, 2007

Today, Maxwell Museum of Anthropology at the University of New Mexico is launching a new exhibit focusing on recent acquisitions to the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology. OCA is proud to be a part of this project with its new display explaining the information potential of common artifacts curated at the museum. As an example, OCA uses a glass display case to show the entire process of excavating a Pueblo I period archeological site. Artifacts, burned corn, animal bone, and soil samples are shown on display and photographs of crews in the field and OCA laboratory are also presented to better portray the process of archeological data recovery. Finally, based on the data collected in the field, an illustrated sketch of what the pit structure site may have looked like more than 1200 years ago is shown to the visitors of Maswell Museum.
Maxwell Display

OCA Director Richard Chapman Reports of Archeological Project on Local TV Station

December 4, 2007

On December 3rd, 2007, OCA Director, Richard Chapman, was featured at the KOB-TV Channel 4   6 o'clock evening news. Dr. Chapman briefly reported to the news anchor Jeff Maher about an early historical- period Native American pueblo located under the proposed location of a future playground for Albuquerque's Alameda Elementary School. To read the whole story reported by the TV station click on the link below.

TV Story

OCA IT Specialist Gets Computer Technology Recognition

August 20, 2007

This week, Adel Saad, the OCA IT Specialist, was recognized by the computer software firm, Novell, for his innovative application of Multiplied SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop strategy to increase OCA and Maxwell Museum's employees' computer access tenfold, while reducing the costs of setting up a classroom lab by more than 80 percent. Novell placed this full success story on-line. To read the full article, click on the link below.

Novell UNM Story

OCA Staff Attend 70th Pecos Conference

August 13, 2007

The annual Pecos Conference now with its 70th anniversary, took place over the weekend of August 9-12, 2007 at the camp grounds of the Pecos National Monument, New Mexico. As usual, many southwestern archeologists and others from around the country came to give or listen to the papers on the latest research in southwestern archeology. OCA took an active role in presenting the research results from projects conducted during the 2006-2007 seasons. On Friday, August 10 2007, five OCA posters documenting archeological research from various parts of New Mexico were on display at the Poster Tent. OCA Posters

Father Tobias holding his new-born son Nicolas.

July 11, 2007

We are happy to announce that on July 11th 2007, our Senior Archeologist Cynthia Herhahn gave birth to Nicolas Herhahn Fisher. Nicolas weighed 8 pounds and measured 21.5 inches! As the OCA fanily keeps growing, we all congratulate the Herhahn-Fisher family on this beautiful boy!

Children from Maxwell Museum Summer Camp Visit OCA

July 10, 2007

On July 10, 16 children from the Maxwell Museum’s Children’s Summer Camp came to OCA to participate in a mock excavation and other activities to learn about how and why archaeologists do their jobs. The children conducted their own excavation out back involving tracking and labeling artifacts and screening. Once back inside, they cleaned and analyzed the artifacts that they found. They shared their analysis and their experiences with the entire group. The children had a great time and there may be a future archaeologist or two!

Welcome Yusif!

July 3, 2007

We are happy to announce that, on July 3rd, 2007, a son was born to our IT specialist, Adel Saad. The boy's name is Yusif Adel Saad and, he, as well as his Mom Heba, are doing great. The entire OCA team congratulates the Saad family on this beautiful boy!