A nice day for archaeology in Middle Tennessee -- a cooler and overcast morning. Although the day started with about 75% humidity -- it had dropped to about 50% by midday and continued with some nice clouds and a breeze through the rest of the afternoon. The threat of showers and/or an isolated thundershower continues for the rest of the week -- but really a small chance.

As we continued cleaning up several of our units today, we discovered a number of possible "features." Below, the photo shows four possible features. Feature 95 is a dark soil discoloration south of the large boulder; Feature 96 is a small pit or large post in the middle of the excavation area; Feature 97 is a possible small post -- and Feature 98 is a pair of long parallel soil differences running across the entire unit. Feature 98 was of special interest to us, since it appeared to represent a trench or ditch.

The photo below highlights the outline of Feature 98 in yellow.

Excavation of this feature will continue on Thursday.

In each excavation unit we open in this area, we are recovering small triangular projectile points -- arrowheads used by Mississippian peoples for both hunting and warfare. The number we have found in this area is very large for Mississippian sites in the Nashville Basin -- hopefully, we will find additional clues as we continue excavation that will help to explain why this vicinity has so many lost or discarded projectile points.

In a nearby unit, we discovered a round stain that appears to be a posthole (Feature 99).

Investigating these features requires careful techniques -- below, the students have excavated half of this feature. The goal with "cross-sectioning" the feature is the get an understanding of the depth and shape of half of the feature. We can then use that information to excavate the rest of it in a more informed way.

After class, we adjourned to our nearby field house for a late afternoon lecture.