Monday, August 18, 2008

Day 2

The group at work
Michael helps take unit elevations
Derek excavating in one of the units near the feature
Jonathan at the screen

Some artifacts from Richard's unit


Today we began the excavation. We opened up five units that surround the feature which was uncovered last year (Image 1) exposing an area of 225 sq. ft. By doing this, we hope to get a better understanding of what the feature is. At this point we have found that it extends in an irregular way, which is frustrating because we still can not yet tell what it is. It is possible that we have finally found where Deetz and his team excavated in the 1960's, or perhaps we have uncoverd an 18th century midden from a time after the Howland occupation, or maybe it is in fact something left behind from a building foundation. With regard to artifacts, we did not discover anything particularly noteworthy today. Richard displayed a typical selection of artifacts on his screen (Image 5 - wrought nails, window glass, ceramics, shell, animal bone, and pipe bowls and stems.) We hope to find something more diagnostic in the days ahead. While artifacts are exciting, the main priority is to figure out what the feature is. The investigation continues tomorrow. Stay tuned!

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