Day 12 (By Katie)

Our last day of excavation has unfortunately come to a close, and we have backfill day to look forward to next time. However, the fact that we were wrapping up does not mean that this week's finds were not fruitful! I spent the day with Will, Rob, and DuVal excavating the "downstairs," or Unit 13. We made quite a bit of progress in taking the unit deeper. We took it down from Level 10 all the way to 16! Here is a picture to give you an idea of how much we took out of this unit:

Since we did not find any features on our way down, we mostly screened what we took out through 1/4" screen. What we found were mostly lithic artifacts, along with some burnt clay. 

The reason we were so eager to take out so many levels in out last day, is because Dr. White believed there to be a Gilford component towards the bottom. It turns out that this was correct, because we were lucky to find this in our screen: one full Gilford point. 

This find is significant because it shows that people were in this area hunting and living here in the Middle Archaic period. After finding mostly flakes and debitage, it was refreshing to find one whole artifact that is diagnostic like this point. This find was a great way to wrap up our day, and along with it the last day of excavation at the site. It will be a bit sad to cover up our unit, but students next semester will be opening it up again to discover more about this very interesting Guilford component!