Well, the weather has been a bit of a trial, but we have soldiered on as best we can! The heavy, cold rain of yesterday afternoon continued overnight, and as a result we had a sticky, slippery, muddy mess on our hands today on site.
Since the Rats have finished their survey exercises, we swapped them in so they could have their first chance at digging, and the Raccoons were converted into three survey teams to begin working on their survey and mapping exercise.
The surveying exercise is designed so the students learn and practice a suite of useful skills for surveying in fieldwork. A simulated artifact scatter is represented by the yellow flags. The survey team needs to learn how to set up the instrument and level it over a datum point, collect the locations of the artifacts, take elevation measurements, and also learn how to set in excavation units according to the rules in the standards and guidelines. They then need to figure out how to take all the data and produce a map of the scatter with elevation contours and the location of the proposed test units.
We also said goodbye today to our faithful sun canopies, who were no match for the intense thunderstorm and high winds we have experienced this week. Duct tape could only do so much, and the winds today were the final death knell.
Despite the mud and bad weather, we’ve made great progress this week! On Monday the Raccoons will continue their survey exercises, and the Rats and Earthworms will continue excavating and also learn how to plan the well. If we have time we might also excavate it too, but we only have five more days at this site before we head to another!
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