Today we split the party. Michael took some of our crew to another nearby site to teach them how to set in a grid and conduct a Stage 3 excavation. Over the course of the next couple days, we will be rotating field school students to that site so they can get experience of what a typical CRM style 1x1m unit entails.
Some of the remaining students continued excavating their 2×2 units, and we also had teams performing a mapping exercise, and learning how to use a planning frame to draw a feature (in this case the well). It was also a chance for us to reorganize the trailer and catch up on some equipment maintenance as some of our screens needed attention.
We made progress on locating the wall segments visible in some of our excavation units, and Sebastian was able to clear to the tarp covering one wall segment and part of the wall saw the light of day for the first time since 2009! It is looking as though this is a much larger structure than we originally imagined. Assuming the wall is continuous, the structure is at least 11m long at a bare minimum, as we haven’t found any definite wall corners yet. To compare size, the large house at Nassau Mills Structure 1 was about 12.2m x 8m. We were thinking this was an improved log cabin, but it is looking like it might be a more substantial structure! More to puzzle out as we continue excavation.
Some interesting finds today included a bottle base with an open pontil scar, the bowl of a large spoon, and a pocket knife fragment.
We haven’t found the cedar planks yet, but we have found another skewer from the 2009 excavation grid, and it also appears as though there may be a feature in the centre of the unit. To protect it, we covered it with a tarp to wait until tomorrow.
The Archaeological liaison trainees visited us again just before lunch, they wanted to try Stage 2 pedestrian survey, so they walked the field adjoining our site. They are wrapping up the classroom portion of their training this week and are eager to get out in the field with us.
Tomorrow we will have some other visitors to site!
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