Yesterday we spent indoors as the weather was rainy. We split into two groups and half the group learned how to set up and use survey instruments with James (first in a classroom and then in the department hallways!) and half the group was with me doing secondary processing of the artifacts we have collected.
The first stage is cleaning and sorting them by material type. The second stage of artifact processing is dividing them into functional categories and figuring out as much info about the artifact as possible. These records get converted into a database, which can then be used to sort and search the artifacts.
It was a fun day answering a million questions and seeing the students develop their skills in recognizing the different types of artifacts and how to classify them!
Today we started a Stage 3 style excavation at a new site. The first step was to set our baseline, and the survey team from yesterday were able to quickly and efficiently set up the instruments and triangulate in the excavation units.
The students will be following a slightly different excavation strategy and forms for this method, and it is their chance to demonstrate what they have learned so far in excavation and recording skills. I had to leave them with James and headed over to Structure 1, as the excavations are wrapping up there as well.
It’s hard to believe we only have six days left of the field school! Tomorrow looks like it will be nice, so we will continue at the Stage 3 site and Structure 1, and Friday looks to be rainy again so it will be back to the lab and survey instruction!