Today, we slowed down a bit to figure out a few things on site. Two of our six student teams worked in the lab today under the direction of Lynne Funkhouser (crew chief) and later Dr. Shannon Hodge (Research Faculty).
Two of our other teams contined their work on the far western edge of the property -- with somewhat unexpected results. Although visible a bit higher up, at about 25 cm deep (about 10 inches) a large trash-filled feature appeared with a very linear edge on it.
While it is undoubtedly too early to speculate, I'll do so anyway -- this is probably our best candidate for a ditch associated with a palisade line to date. We'll open another excavation area on Friday to try to further define the width of this "ditch."
Back on the east side of the digs, two crews worked with me to cross-section the large pit feature. The feature was excavated in three levels (each about 4 inches each in thickness). The first level was somewhat amorphous in outline (without clear shape) -- this is because this upper portion had been slightly disturbed by the plow, rodents, and other things up near the surface.
The fill in this level included a large sample of undecorated pottery, numerous animal bones, ash, and charcoal. Also, a large piece of a burned log turned up -- this will be extremely useful for future radiocarbon dating.
By the bottom of Level 2, the edges of the features had become more defined -- as an oval basin-shaped pit.
And finally, we reached the bottom of the feature -- a well defined oval basin shaped pit. We'll continue to work on this further on Saturday.
While running (well, perhaps walking casually) betwixt and between our excavation areas on the east and west side of the property, we took some time to look at the local insects.
The little critter below (along with quite a few others) was found munching on the local milkweed. Commonly known as the Eastern Milkweed Longhorn Beetle.
I've noticed the odd little monsters below several times in the last few days -- they're munching on horse nettle in this field. They appear to be the larvae of the Colorado Potato Beetle.
Finally, we achieved a little bit of clarity on the many wall trenches today -- the multiple soakings of the units over the last couple or three days helped with defining the edges. Students will be working on three of these trenches on Friday.
Today, we closed out with another good soaking of the units -- including filling the excavated portions of the wall trenches with water. This should soak the adjacent trench fill enough to make it much easier to "feel" the edges of the trenches as they are excavated.
A litte over two weeks to go -- lots to do and lots to discover!