"On a roll here, good buddies, on a roll..." (Since this may be an Americanism, I will try to bring UK denizens up to scratch (another Americanism?) by noting that "on a roll" means like well, you know – going somewhere! Getting somewhere! Hot, baby hot! (If I had to guess, I would say derivative from crap-shooters' lingo, but this would be offered cum grano salis! (Egad! Help! I am being held prisoner by Idioms!)

Back in the '70's or thereabouts, being then still a resident (in good standing as is said) of Connecticut, USA... I received an "invitation," or perhaps I just read it in the daily newspaper – I don't really recall - that a certain Archaeology Club – calling itself, I believe, the Greenwich Archaeology Club, in fact – (Greenwich, CT, USA) was planning a "field trip" to an "exciting" new archaeological find by professional archaeologists "somewhere" within the city's confines, and that one and all were being invited to attend a gala Field Day, then being planned at the new findspot. (Whether this organization still exists is unknown to me).

Since, I did indeed, have an interest in same, I hied me to the meeting spot – the old "Put's Tavern" atop "Put's Hill" – a onetime incline west out of Cos Cob on old Route 1 – the Boston Post Road, so-called – but long since dug, re-dug, levelled, possibly raised anew (like Lazurus from his grave), graded, re-graded and all that sort of thing... (The reader must understand that I am a long time gone from those environs and am now in my dotage – 80 big ones – going for whatever else additional I can steal from the hands of Fate...)

"Put's Tavern" is short for "Israel Putnam's Tavern" – a celebrated watering spot (more idiom?) still in that vicinity, which is said to be the very tavern where Israel Putnam was taking his gin-and-bitters when news came, back during the late Revolt of the Colonies, (on this side of the Pond, we know it simply as the American Revolution) that the Brits were advancing from the West along selfsame Post Road and what was he going to do?

What he "was going to do" – now enshrined in local lore – is what he did: jump out the window and ride his horse down the steep declivity of (onetime?) "Put's Hill" – (to the East, be it so noted) - and (continued) fame as Connecticut's true son and stalwart, who in the end helped rid our shores of selfsame pesky Brits and all that sort of thing... (Dear Brits: please forget that "pesky" part: you weren't there and neither was I, and my father (God Bless!) always said: "No story should suffer in the telling!")

And so I repaired me to "Put's" and there I met an old compadre: the late Louis Brennan – he of early Hudson River Valley archaeological investigations (Croton Point being one) and area newspaper Editor – the Ossining, NY newspaper as I recall...?). He had driven over from Westchester County to partake of the proceedings. We joined forces, (ie. had a few drinks) and boarded the waiting bus. To Louis' repeated queries: "Where or what is this "new" site in an area you have long covered for years, Bernie?" I could only shrug my shoulders and look out the bus' window...

Imagine my surprise then, when we turned off on Indian Field Road and pulled into the Parking area by the onetime Greenway Estate holdings...

We de-bussed... and the group wandered up into a then (still!) open field – just east of a very familiar (to me) grove of pines. We all spread out in a big circle, and took seats in the grass.

Our interlocutor for the day, a little sort of wizened up, balding guy – head of the aforesaid Club, took over and began to speak.

"Ladies and Gentlemen," he intoned, "Today we stand – or sit, as may be – on the site of an ancient village , which long before Columbus, was occupied by American Indians." (This was a bit before "Native Persons" supplanted plain old "Indians" in the popular modspeak of today...). "And here is where just a few weeks ago, a professional anthropologist (who shall here go nameless, partly out of loss of memory on my behalf, and partly out of respect to whatever further advance he (or she) has made in their chosen field...) recently found "evidences" of their activity right on this very spot!"

(Ooooh! Ahhhh! – collective sighs from the group seated in aforesaid grass).

Then our wizened interlocutor held up a sherd of Indian pottery in his hand! "Ladies and Gentlemen," he went on – "This is a piece of Indian pottery made centuries ago right here in this field - at my very feet where this small trench has been dug by our archaeologist guides..."

(More Oooooh! Ahhhh! – accompanied by nods to "our" guides...).

"Our archaeologists here have found this just today before you arrived. (Waving hand about).

Then he turned somewhat reflective – in a sort of "Alas! Poor Yorrick" style – "And since this is just a fragment or potsherd, as we call them, you see – one wonders what the rest of the vessel might have once looked like..."

At this juncture I could stand no more. I jumped to my feet and interrupted the speaker.

"Why, I can tell you what it looked like", I said. A few heads swiveled my way in puzzlement.... "Because it is a fragment out of a pot I excavated in this same spot – I believe you are standing , in fact, in about Unit 200N/1100E of my onetime excavation grid here – and the vessel is (or was) reminiscent of a Classons Point Check-Stamped ware – not unknown here in Southern Connecticut, dating from somewhere in the immediate centuries before Contact. As to what it looked like, you may see my b&w pen drawing thereof in my published report ( http://www.bwpowell.com/archeology/indianfield/field1.html ) on your "new found site" here – where it stands on the shelf of the public library in Greenwich since about 1958 or thereabouts!"."

A big hubbub and general murmuring was beginning to sweep over the seated guests and the little guy's eyes were bulging in his head.

"Sir!" he roared, "Who are you, and what do you mean interrupting my talk this way!?"

"I'll tell you who I am," I replied. "I am Bernie Powell, that's who, and I am the discoverer of this site some ten or 15 years ago, and with the then-landowners permission, I excavated here back then over several seasons and my published report in an accredited archaeological journal has been freely available to anyone who knows how to do this kind of work long since!"

I thought he was going to have apoplexy right on the spot and he and I were getting close to where push becomes shove. A couple of the young "professional" students (who had "discovered" the site) immediately sized up the situation and shamefacedly admitted that they had not "done their homework" when researching their recent surface finds.

Louis Brennan stood up beside me. (As a national author of a onetime Book-of-the-Month Club selection ( http://cgi.ebay.com/Beginners-Guide-to-Archaeology-by-Louis-A-Brennan_W0QQitemZ4631318897QQcmdZViewItem ) for amateur archaeologists - and recognized authority on many ancient sites in the nearby Lower Hudson Valley, Louis carried some cachet even with this largely uninformed audience here). Sensing the deepening rift between me and the pipsqueak Club president, he grabbed my elbow and in a voice loud enough for all the hear: "Bernie... archaeological research in Westchester County and adjacent New York State, is often a thankless task... but I must say that when so-called archaeologists have the chutzpah to "discover" and excavate - as a new-found site (!) - a site which has long since been reported in the literature – as your Indian Field Site here has been, then – then all I can say is that the archaeological situation in Connecticut is total chaos!"

Still holding my elbow, Louis added, "I think we should leave now. There is certainly little here of interest to serious workers."

And with that Louis and I made our departure from the scene.

True story, my friends, just as it happened. Quite some time later, one or two of the "professional" archaeologists-in-training who had stumbled upon my onetime site, called me on the phone and I think one or two wrote notes of apology. They were quite upset over their blunder as well they might be (!) - the FIRST thing you do when contemplating field work, is to RESEARCH THE LITERATURE to see if anyone or anything has been done about the area of your interest!). This is a sine qua non of archaeological field work.

"They" tendered their apologies – which I accepted at face value. I do not recall their names at all – but believe several did indeed go on to achieve their degrees in the field and perhaps even to further later work in Connecticut – at this late date I simply cannot recall. Most of them were grads and undergrads from the Anthropology Department at Columbia University in nearby New York City... a faculty and students, for my money, that excelled in turning out discourteous and boorish professional archaeologists. (I was to have yet other "run-ins" with same in the years which lay ahead...).