Week 3: January 31 (by James)

For day 3 of our field school class, January 31st, 2020, it started raining about 30 minutes after we arrived at the site. When we got there, the tarp covering the block (Units 3, 4, 5, 6, 12, and 15) was filled with a lot of water. We formed a line and filled buckets with water and passed them down the line to make sure the water was dumped out far enough away from the units. After about 10 minutes of scooping all the water out of the tarp, we all carried the massive tarp to the field about 100 feet away.

We started excavating the first level of Unit 15 with shovels and after about 10 minutes it started raining pretty abruptly. Unfortunately, it was supposed to continue raining all day so we decided to call it quits and put the tarp back over the units. The tarp had filled with water in the short amount of time it was sitting in the field, so we had to maneuver it to drain all the water from it before we carried it back to cover the units. Once we had gotten the tarp back over the units, we used backfill dirt to fill the buckets to put them on top of the tarp to weigh it down.

After we had cleaned everything up, we headed back to campus and had a short break for lunch, then watched all the videos from the field school class from 2018. It was interesting to see what kinds of things we will be learning later in the semester. We got to see footage of things we have not gotten to yet, such as piece-plotting and excavating with trowels.

Throughout the first three days of the class, we have not found any artifacts in context, because all of the areas we have screened so far is dirt that has fallen from the wall “downstairs” or the ground level of Unit 15 “upstairs.” It was interesting to see what it is like to find artifacts in context and features like where a firepit was located or where a post went into the ground. Although it rained shortly after arriving at the site, it was still a productive day and I am glad I have more background information about the site. Hopefully the weather is better this week!