Please excuse the mess – this site is under construction.
My name is Joe Jefferson. I’m an archaeologist living in Reno, Nevada. My master’s thesis was titled, The Archaeological Investigation of Gardening at the Historic Railroad Station of Kearsarge, California. My professional interests including mining and railroad archaeology, and understanding interactions between different cultures – especially in ethnohistoric contexts. I also have somewhat of an interest in the mostly speculative field of exoarchaeology, and the (for now) completely speculative field of xenoarchaeology.
My wife Catherine, thankfully, enjoys exploring ghost towns, ruins, and rock art sites almost as much as I do. (I love you Honey!)
When I worked as a professional archaeologist, I liked to tell people that my job was to dig square holes. If you’ve ever seen any photos of archaeological sites, you’ve seen them, usually 1 meter square and dug in 10 cm levels. Square holes make it easy to record the rough position of everything we uncover, whether it is a building foundation, a projectile point, or a tiny seed. So when I started my own blog I picked Square Holes as the name.
When I began sensing a call to shift my focus from archaeology and other personal interests to Christian growth, it struck me that the name still fits. A square hole, after all, is where a square peg fits. I think everybody has, at one time or another, felt like the proverbial square peg in a round hole. This world is continually trying to force each of us to be something other than the person God created us to be. But Ephesians 2:10 reads, “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (NIV). In other words, we really are square pegs, but God has created a square hole for each of us to fit into; something that each person was born to do and to be. May He grant that this web site and this ministry would help you to find the square hole he prepared for you to fit into.
I’ve been a Christian since 1983, the result of a supernatural encounter. Since the summer of 2021 I’ve been attending Outlook Christian Church, where I currently serve as part of the safety team the children’s ministry, and the men’s ministry.
I want to make it clear, however, that neither Outlook nor its leaders are in any way responsible for any part of this web site. All the opinions, and all the errors, are mine.
