00:00.00 archpodnet All right? Everybody welcome to the show and as we've been talking about leading up to well this episode for the last probably month month and a half paul is on a field project in Saudi Arabia I haven't heard from him in a little while but that's okay, he's very busy out there and internet service is at a premium. So. Don't expect to hear from him so that's not out of the out of the ordinary there and we're definitely going to catch up with him when he gets back to find out how the project went and and anything he learned and and stuff that he did out there so looking forward to that in the meantime for the next few episodes we are bringing on someone who is a guest all the way back in episode none so go back and listen to that we'll put it in the show notes but let me welcome to the show as a as a temporary co-host for the next few episodes Edward Gonzalez tenant Ed how's it going? Yeah fantastic. So why don't you just give us ah our audience a little bit of a. 00:45.73 Ed Great! Thanks for having me. 00:55.99 archpodnet Recap on on who you are and and what you're doing with your life as an archeologist in in short. 01:00.68 Ed Ah, well um, I'm I'm wasting my life isn't no I'm kidding. Um, so ah, but there you go right? A classic a zinger. Um. 01:06.98 archpodnet Ah, your life is in ruins. 01:14.70 Ed So yeah, I'm ah Ed Gonzalez tenant I'm currently a lecturer at the University Of central florida but I'm moving this summer to become an assistant professor the university of texas rio grande valley so I'm a historical archeologist. And I try to with my my teaching and my research and mentoring and so forth I try to keep a foot in in kind of both the academic world but also the ah crm contract archeology world. So a lot of what I've been doing lately. 01:45.60 archpodnet Yeah. 01:49.14 Ed Is working with my graduate students on a partnership with the us forest service and specifically the ocala national forest ah here in central Florida and so that involves a mix of projects. Um, it's great for students. They're learning how to. You know work with ah an agency that's tasked with section one 10 compliance type stuff in one of the largest in well actually the largest ah forests. So ah in the southern us so they're getting to do everything from. 02:11.68 archpodnet Like um. 02:21.17 Ed Classic phase one sort of stuff to help them with timber sales to national register nominations of Cc C Era camps to um, you know, full on excavations at other historic sites. 02:34.59 archpodnet Wow, that's really cool. That's really cool. What kind of sites are you guys finding down there and you know before you answer that I do want to not gloss over the fact that you know for me when I first went to Florida I you know had no idea what Florida even looked like but I wouldn't have guessed there were national forests down in Florida. So. You know to to let everybody else out there that doesn't know yes Florida has forests and their national forests sometimes but along those lines. What yeah, what kind of sites were you finding. 02:59.40 Ed You we? So um, all sorts of sites. Um, you know this is the third year of our partnership and we are so you know I'm talking with. Ah. 03:07.44 archpodnet Yeah. 03:16.69 Ed The for service folks to see how this might continue you know after I've made my move but ah, you know the opportunity here. We We started the partnership during Covid in Twenty So It became in a lot of ways. The only Avenue for students at my institution ah to get any kind of Fieldwork. Um. It was local. It was Outside. We were able to be safe. Ah and so forth So over those three years now we've looked at you know Prehistoric sites. We've identified a few in term either. You know, really through our our phase one work and and internships for students. Um, we've looked at a variety of historic sites. Obviously that's where my interests lean but you know we've found some some cool sites and all of my grad students. Um, you know I sort of cycle undergrads into grad students and the partnership allows me to compensate students in various ways which I think is important. 04:00.50 archpodnet Um. 04:12.97 archpodnet Yeah. 04:14.69 Ed So we've looked at you know everything from archaic sites right up to None century. Ah historic ah homesteading sites. So what we've been working on the last. ah we do a field school each summer. So the last two years we've looked at this area called Pat's island and this is really exciting. 04:23.20 archpodnet Um. 04:34.90 Ed Um, it's been our primary focus but not our only one I've had a previous ma student use lidar an open source software to identify previously unrecorded mound sites. This is the St Johns right so lots of mound sites some of the earliest. 04:49.40 archpodnet Friend. 04:53.29 Ed Ah, in Florida and really in the country by that you know by extension and so we've we've done that work. We've looked at Pat's island which has a host of homestead sites including I'm sort of ah I'm like ah building up to this because I think it's so cool. So if anybody's familiar with. Ah, the yearling and Marjorie Keenan Rawlings ah right pulitzer prize winning ah book that was turned into an mgm movie starring. Ah Gregory Peck um we're digging the homestead where rawlings interviewed. 05:13.93 archpodnet E. 05:29.75 Ed An elderly gentleman that became the basis for that book. So we're literally digging. Ah this this location where um, you know we have this famous piece of literature that that accurately describes in a lot of ways the areas we're walking around and doing work in. It's also the area that when Mgm. 05:32.90 archpodnet Um, nice. 05:49.49 Ed Returned in the late 30 s and then after world war ii in the 40 s to film the adaptation they rehabilitated the same site so we're we're kind of doing this double or triple duty we're looking at Nineteenth Century Florida None century homesteads also like golden age of hollywood all wrapped up. 06:01.66 archpodnet Ah. 06:08.00 Ed Ah, in that site and then we're doing um a bunch work like I mentioned before the Ccc ah there there sites like that throughout the Forest. So from juniper springs to Silver Glen Springs we have these cabins watermills and so forth that are all there. Um. In great condition and you know other graduate students are working on documenting them using 3 d scanning and Photogrammetry. Ah, but also ah getting them nominated and hopefully listed on the national register. 06:28.00 archpodnet Yeah. 06:41.14 archpodnet Okay, wow, that's a lot and it's really cool. Um, with this being the Arche Tech Podcast I'm going to focus on some of the tests at tech aspects that you mentioned you mentioned you had students working with lidar. Are you Guys. Working with Lidar Imagery That's already been collected or you collecting lidar imagery say through drones or anything like that which I can't imagine the expense of that. So I think I know the answer. 07:02.88 Ed Well yeah I mean here in Florida and you know Florida is basically all coastal and so we have depending where you're at in the state. We have good lidar going back 20 years 07:09.25 archpodnet Um, yeah. 07:15.50 archpodnet Um, wow. 07:19.61 Ed Um, now the whole state within the next year or two they they flew a series of statewide ah lidar flights. Um in I want to say None twenty nineteen they're still processing that data. So for most of the state. It's not out yet. But. 07:31.77 archpodnet M. 07:37.10 Ed In other words, yeah, we're using basically a state-vided lidar data that's freely available. Um, and then of course we're processing it with a variety of open source software um and the student who actually worked on that. Ah. Named Taylor Kalore he now is the archaeologist at Talladega in Alabama with the force service. 07:55.26 archpodnet Oh cool. Yeah there you go I I just wonder why Florida is putting a lot of resources into you know this imagery of the state is it because they know they're going to be completely underwater in the next like 50 years or there's some other reason. 08:08.40 Ed I think I think the whole state 50 years um yeah I think many parts 50 years would be very very hopeful I mean I'm working in other you know other capacities elsewhere and um, you know areas that. 08:17.54 archpodnet Yeah, yeah. 08:26.31 Ed Ah, decade ago twenty years ago you know tides came and went today those tides are coming 3 or four feet over where they normally do and you know they're being exacerbated by spring tides and King Tides but tides are just higher and a lot of the state is not um I'm not sure. 08:32.47 archpodnet True. 08:39.28 archpodnet Ah. 08:46.23 Ed Everybody knows something's happening. Um the degree to which communities have to prepare for this and you know obviously I'm on the heritage side of that. Um, you know is really I think a mixed bag I think partly because we I my hunch is. We're not prepared. 08:47.13 archpodnet Um, yeah. 09:02.52 Ed Ah, for how quickly this the sea is going to rise in places like Florida um, and I don't be all doom and gloom. But you know we still have people who think it's not happening. So. 09:04.46 archpodnet Oh yeah, died. 09:12.88 archpodnet Ah, exactly and that's the that's the big problem. So you know I'm just wondering too. What other sorts of I Guess Modern Technologies are you exposing the students to are you guys using any sort of digital recording methods in the field not just not just like. Gpses and things like that. But you know, narrative and narrative data and stuff like that. Um and anything else drones drone work anything like that. You guys are doing. 09:36.74 Ed So we're um, you know we're doing a really where we're focused on. We're not doing any sort of um I don't have any of my students working with ah various communities yet. Ah there there could be work for that I think particularly you know there's associations that keep up the yearling trail. 09:47.44 archpodnet Um. 09:54.71 archpodnet Sure. 09:56.32 Ed Um, there are African-american Heritage sites in the forest. You know this is this is one of those things. The forest itself is um, None it's it's enormous and um, you know i'm. 10:07.22 archpodnet Um. 10:13.65 Ed My position now I'm a lecturer so on my primary responsibility is supposed to be teaching and I've tried to kind of make this all about that. But um, yeah, it's it's it's tricky to you know I think the goal for me. Um, speaking with my students particularly the graduate students The goal for me is to give them. 10:16.79 archpodnet Yeah. 10:33.58 Ed You know, sort of the edge right? like with lidar and open source. Um, you know that's that's an that's an edge that a lot of agencies you know, particularly in places where you have access to freely available lidar. That's a huge management boon. Um. 10:34.66 archpodnet Yeah. 10:50.39 Ed So What we're trying to do is kind of balance this like cool exploration of New Tech or Newish tech with how does that exploration actually serve the interests of my students um particularly most of my students. Um, in fact I think all of my graduate students currently. Particularly the ones working in the force. They don't have an interest in becoming an academic or anything ah foolish like that. Um, but but you know they want to work in Crm they want to work in state or federal agencies. They want to you know, sort of quote unquote do archeology. 11:15.10 archpodnet Um, right. 11:26.20 Ed In a very real sense. So we're focused on um you know exploring tools that let them ah explore sites that they're interested in Histories they're interested in but um, also technologies that you know are in demand and skills that are. 11:35.60 archpodnet Yeah. 11:45.84 Ed You know, really transferable I mean obviously I want all my students to become archeologists because that's their goal. Ah but you know knowing ah gis and these other other approaches other technologies means that you know they have sort of a backup set of skills that if they you know quote Unquote have to get a job doing something else. They're I think they're well positioned to do it. So. 12:03.73 archpodnet Um. 12:05.92 Ed We're doing a lot of work with open source gis like qgis. Um, we're doing a lot of work with ah photogrammetry both open source and and paid software. There's so many different kinds of photogrammetry programs out there now. 12:08.79 archpodnet Nice. 12:18.21 archpodnet Yeah. 12:19.81 Ed Um, I'm much more interested in getting them to know kind of right? the methodology behind how do you collect good photos. Um, or even videos I'm using videos now actually to to create my models in photogrammetry. So. 12:30.97 archpodnet Nice. 12:34.52 Ed Um, those are the things you know we're not doing too much drone work simply because um in Florida I think a lot of states the legislation particularly the state level legislation about what drones particularly what companies are allowed to be used by academic researchers is very much in flux. 12:52.69 archpodnet On her. 12:53.73 Ed Like I think a lot of us use dja dja but here in Florida and I think other states. Um, we've now been given a list of drones. We're quote unquote allowed to use and although we're still in this kind of gray area where you're allowed to use those drones. 13:02.85 archpodnet Um, yeah. 13:10.11 Ed Um I want to say starting next year like Florida -based researchers people employed by the state aren't allowed to use like dja specifically in a few other brands. So it's it's throwing some monkey wrenches in um, a lot of people's workflows who work locally and even internationally because you're from florida right? You're you're not allowed to use. Ah, monies to buy those those drones anymore. So um, we're staying away from that because I think ah partly we want to stay you know we want to. We want to be legal but also um, we don't know what I mean I think the face. 13:31.31 archpodnet Um, yeah. 13:39.51 archpodnet Ah. 13:46.50 Ed Particularly as academics the face of what is or is not allowed in the next year or 2 is going to change. Obviously I still use Adgiesoft for Photogrammetry state after state is now because it's russian owned ah banning the use of that software. So yeah. 13:57.64 archpodnet Right? right? all right? Well I definitely have some questions following on with some of that commentary. Let's talk about that on the other side of the break back in a minute.