Day 8 (by Benjamin)

This week began as usual but with one small change: we were three people light. Caroline, Ella, and Sam could not show up for various reasons leaving us short staffed, probably resulting in slower work. Other than that we began as usual. We pumped out the water the tarp had collected and removed the tarp. The labor was divided up into three groups, me and Katie, Dr. White and JJ, and DuVal and Robert.

​Katie and I spent the field day resuming the piece-plotting we had been working on the week before in Unit 13. We did not find anything in particular that was too cool or big, just more small fragments of pottery and lots of flakes. Also, I found a small piece of bone. It isn’t very substantial or important but I think it is cool. The only reason bone this old is preserved is because it was in a fire of some form.

Recording FS numbers and coordinates of piece-plotted artifacts.

A piece of burned bone.

Dr. White and JJ started excavating a feature (Feature 11). They found a piece of charcoal in it large enough that Dr. White believed to be substantial enough to save for carbon dating if desired. The feature is a pit of some kind. To excavate it they bisected it with a line level and dug it out with a spoon. A standard spoon was not sufficient so Dr. White broke out the heavy artillery: a serious spoon.

Dr. White collecting a large piece of charcoal.

Dr. White's superior spoon

A rare picture of JJ smiling.

To my knowledge DuVal and Robert were excavating a feature similar to JJ and Dr. White’s, with a main difference being that half of it is exposed where the hill cuts off. This makes for a pretty cool side view.

The space left by the removal of Feature 13.

The day ended with the usual ritual of resetting the very large tarp over the excavation area and weighing it down with buckets of dirt. Hopefully it will protect the site for the next two weeks. We are all looking forward to getting back at it in the following weeks.