I am Harding Polk II - historical archaeologist. I started my career with
a field school on San Salvador in the Bahamas in 1975. I got my BA degree
from Franklin Pierce College (now University) in 1978. With mentors like
Ted Dethlefsen and Pam Cressey I think I was destined to follow the
Historical Archaeology route. But I took an early zig towards underwater
archaeology being a State of Florida field agent monitoring treasure hunters. That
certainly established which side of the fence to be on! Also did stints
with the Texas Underwater Archaeology program and assistant director of the
Yorktown Shipwreck Project in its early days. Then to go on to Texas A&M
for a Masters in Underwater Archaeology, however I didn't quite finish the
thesis and thus no degree. I zagged back to terrestrial archaeology and
like many an itinerate field bum followed jobs all over - Virginia, New
Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, New Hampshire, Texas, Wyoming, New
Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Virgin Islands, Jamaica. Its been a wonderful
way to travel.
For the last 22 years I've been in New Mexico and have worked for various
lengths of time with private CRMs, UNM, tribal, USFS, NPS, and for the last
8 years the Southwest Region of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. In this
position I work with Pueblo, Apache, Ute, and Navajo tribes. This has lead me
to an interest with historic period Native American sites, particularly
20th century occupations. Many of these can be very ephemeral since the
occupants didn't have much in the way of material culture. I have presented on
this topic and the need to be aware of the subtle environmental manipulations
such as tree modification, changes in vegetation type, etc.
One of my collateral duties is as a Cultural Resource Specialist for the
regional Burned Area Emergency Response (BAER) Team to assess damages from
suppression efforts for wildfires and to make recommendations for emergency
stabilization and rehabilitation. They are very intensive assignments but
provide an opportunity to work with very dedicated multi-disciplinary
teams. I was on one of three national BAER teams that worked on the Las Conchas
Fire that burned about 167,000 acres near Los Alamos last year (the
largest in New Mexico history).
P.S. I met my wife, Roni Hinote Polk, through archaeology. When I was
working for the State of Florida, she was hired to assist me, the rest is
history (or historical). She got her BA in Anthropology from U of Arizona,
and 2 MAs from William and Mary, one in Historical Archaeology (thesis
interviewing the grandfathers of our discipline who worked at Jamestown) and
one in Special Education. We were married in the old church on Jamestown
Island. We will be celebrating 30 years of marriage on 9/11.
P.P.S. I also have a brother, Tom Polk, who also has a BA in Anthropology
(New England College) and worked in archaeology for 12 or so years. I
also have a sister, Sally Polk, with a MA in Anthropology (American U). I
always wanted to get the four of us Polks together to write an article so I
could later cite it as Polk, Polk, Polk and Polk.
Sorry this went on so long.
Harding Polk II
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