Archaeologists Dig Cold Sodas

Today was another hot day, and that seems to be the trend for the rest of the week. But we got up with smiling faces and went out to the site, ready to work. Dr. Scott Hammerstedt, who has been working at another site doing magnetic testing with the gradiometer, was able to join us this week at the main site this week.

We also had two other visitors today, Dr. Paul Minnis and Dr. Pat Gilman, both archaeology professors at The University of Oklahoma. They drove four hours from Norman to observe the work that we have been doing over the past month. They also brought along a few bags of delicious, cold sodas! Thanks guys!

Scott and Elsbeth preparing for a photo

With only a few days left of work, it is crunch time. Everyone is working very quickly (but still accurately, of course) to finish out our last week. Thursday will be spent back filling, and Scott had the wonderful idea to be productive by screening our loose dirt over the unused units to speed up the process.

 Kevin Logan taking full advantage of our new screening location

Quite a few baulks (the walls between units) were taken down today in order to reveal what is underneath them. This information is crucial to understanding the layout of the structure. Sometimes artifacts are found in these, and today, Nick found a point that was only slightly damaged. This isn't the first time this has happened at our site! In addition to the artifacts, more defined corners of the structure were identified.

 Nick Wood displays the point found in the balk

In Block 3, the units are all but finished, and most of the day was spent cleaning unit walls and drawing profile maps before the unit is backfilled.  We have decided to leave the burned rock cluster in place, in case we get the opportunity to excavate more of this feature.

Truet Hinson, Richard Jaggers, and Justin Anderson clean and map profiles in Block 3.

By this point, we have almost reached subsoil in all the units. The depth of the units have been increasing with shoveling and troweling all through field school and we are hoping that all the information Elsbeth wanted will be revealed by the end of the week. There will be extensive lab work and research once the site has been excavated, but most of that will be in the air conditioning!


Eileen Schaumleffle, Mike Carlock, Justin Anderson, Bridgett Kiefer