Of Concerts and Pit-houses

So the concert went well, thanks very much and even garnered some high, local praise.  The ensemble ended up with a pretty good sound, as well as the confidence to pull off the Paert, a challenging work for even the very best of vocal groups.   Overall, it was a rewarding experience, some of which I thought was really stellar.  Eric, the director and, formerly, a fellow UA choral conducting grad student of mine, was poised, friendly and committed to his artistic vision.  And he's easy on the eye.

But oh, it was a tiring gig.  I'm glad it's over, so that I can either catch up with people, episodes of Life and My Own Worst Enemy on Hulu, or blog reading in the evenings.  I'll get there.

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This morning, Homer took me to his most recent archaeological dig site, which is located only a few blocks from the casita, and showed me the excavations they had done.  As I have mentioned before, the area we live in, at the base of "A" Mountain, is also where the earliest occupants of the area lived well over a thousand years ago.  Homer and his crew unearthed many ancient dwellings dating centuries apart.

First we drove up "A" Mountain to get an aerial shot of the site.

(click to enlarge)

Pit-house floor. 
The big round hole was for food storage; the smaller one is a hearth.

Another pit-house, dating from 1150 to 1300 and occupied by the Hohokams.

A round structure that would have had wooden posts all around and a domed roof. 
You can see the post holes, the hearth and food-storage hole. 

These round homes are very old, dating back circa 2000 years.  Yep, old.  I think Homer said the occupants would have been the people of the Early Agricultural Period.  He'll correct me if I'm wrong.

It's odd for me to think that I'm walking around on a site where, way back in Year 8 AD, other people were doing the same thing as me, only in a pre-Modern context.  We are all simply living life, wending our way through this limited amount of time we have on the planet.  We're no other than the grasshopper, right?  We can just make it more fun.

What were they like, I wonder, those ancient humans?  Would they be as other-worldly and hesitantly intriguing in person as they are in history-book texts?  Would they laugh with me?  Invite me to a meal?  Or would they just kill me on sight?

Comments

[Lee]

I'm glad the concert went well!

[DougT]

Congrats on the concert. Last summer, Homer took me up A Mountain and we watched the sunset over Tucson. It looks like your photo is taken from just about the same spot. I've wondered similar things about ancient cultures.

[John]

Great that the concert went well. And it is cool that Homer took you to the digging site. It is very interesting.

[Kev]

If you were wearing your lilac body top, short-short tennis shorts and bouncy trainers and your head and wrist sweatbands, I think it's safe enough bet that they would kill you on the spot. Although in some parts, no doubt you would be considered as a god or prophet of some kind (and be sacrificed on an altar or something).
Either way, you lose :)