We arrived on site this morning, unpacked the trailer and divided into respective task groups. Now that people are used to what we are doing, we can really crack on with the various survey and excavation activities underway.
All the survey groups have collected their elevation, point, and unit data, and now can work on integrating those numbers into a map of the artifact scatter. The big goal for today was to try and find the rubble structure that might represent the house. Since we had previously excavated part of it, we knew that it had been covered with a tarp, the question was where did it fall in our operation area. Based on some photos from 2023, James and I decided we were a little too far north, so we added a 2m x 4m block to the bottom of the unit and everyone set to work. We quickly discovered in the wall profiles that an extra 15-20cm of fill has been deposited over the 2023 ground surface, which means more digging for us to get down to the depth of the cultural material.
I am extremely proud of the Raccoons, they moved an enormous amount of dirt today, and it was hard digging. After lunch I heard the shout “Blue Tarp!”; as thrilling as “Thar she blows!” to a whaler.
The Earthworms were no slouches either. Part of the purpose of their unit was to determine if the midden-type deposits we found in the general area extended north towards the road/fence, or were concentrated further south. Based on their hard work today, we know that the midden does not extend to the north.
We also had a crew working on re-exposing the well and removing some of the rubble that fills it. Now that is cleared away, we can have students practice planning and profiling masonry structures.
We had hoped to get the full extent of the tarp uncovered by the end of the day, but the steady drizzle turned into a downpour, so we hurriedly packed up site and finished for the day a bit early! Tomorrow looks like it will be a nice day, so it will be a great way to round off the first week.
I was too busy running around to get pictures of everyone, and then the rain put a damper on the rest of the afternoon (ha!) but here are some snaps from the day:
It’s hard to believe that tomorrow is the last day of the first week of field school, time has truly been flying by. The weather is looking changeable, so we will decide in the morning if we will head out into the field or pivot to some classroom activities.
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