After a welcome day of rain, the first task for Emily and me this morning was to spread some hay and a few wheelbarrows of dirt in the gate -- the mud was deep and slick even for my Tahoe loaded down with a few hundred pounds of equipment.
Another task that awaited us was bailing the water from our plastic. While we have been bemoaning the dry conditions in our units, we couldn't simply leave them open to the rain yesterday. Too much water and the excavation areas are too soaked and "slimy" to excavate for a day or two or three -- just as bad as too dry. So, we cover them up -- and water them ourselves so that we have control over how much water ends up on our features.
About 800 or so gallons of water had collected on our plastic...
Bucket brigades moved the water off to the side fairly quickly -- including the trademark "Erik Porth Water Toss" shown below...
Our six student crews continued work diligently on the wall trench structure and on the west end of the field today...
The students are working very hard with few complaints under very difficult field conditions -- it's been hot and dry, the dirt is hard and uncooperative. They're a great crew!
The real problem at this point is that we need to complete excavating some of the "features" that we've exposed -- some of the many wall trenches, pits, and postholes -- before we open any new excavation units. While I prefer to let the students explore and practice skills in excavating these types of features -- the conditions on site are making it difficult to do this. Over the next day or two, I'll have to work overtime excavating the tops of these features down far enough that the soil conditions will permit students to "learn by doing" without damaging the important parts of the site that we're uncovering. Nothing critical about their skills or desire to learn -- just the fact that the features are so complex, faint, and dry that they challenge even my considerably greater experience to follow.
As we began to excavate some of the wall trenches today, larger and more interesting artifacts did begin to appear. Below, Travis shows a large fragment of fabric impressed pottery and a deer bone recovered from one of the west wall trenches.
Nearby, we started trying to define the edges of the hearth and large pit... The "hearth" turns out to be an oddly shaped feature filled with ash, charcoal and pottery fragments -- the sides have been burned to the consistency of pottery.
In order to better understand the pit feature, we are excavating a "cross-section" of it -- basically cutting it in half starting in the middle and working our way back. This will help us define the edges of the feature.
Out on the western edge of the field, our two crews reached the bottom of the plowzone -- and as hoped, started to expose some undisturbed garbage deposits from a thousand years ago. Large pieces of pottery like to pot rim with handle shown below...
And large fragments of animal bone discarded from meals -- like the deer leg bone shown below...
While the plow has disturbed the upper 8 inches or so -- we are now beneath that area and the fragments and pieces of daily life from 1000 years ago are being unearthed.
Over the next few days, our work will slow down a bit as we try to figure out the complex set of structures and features we've uncovered. At this point, our large public building looks something like that shown below -- about 30 feet on a side.
Although the weather has slowed our efforts to learn and understand -- and created some frustration on the part of both professor and students -- we are occasionally reminded of the joys of being outside learning hands-on rather than in a classroom. Below, a great blue heron flew over the central mound of this ancient town towards the end of the day.
The secrets and mysteries of Castalian Springs have been preserved for almost a thousand years -- because it is now a state owned property, it will be protected for many more years to come. While our work has been slowed by the drought conditions this year, whatever we don't finish will be there next week and next year -- and next decade. Undoubtedly many generations of blue herons have flown across the mound in the past -- many more generations will have the opportunity to fly across students and researchers teasing the secrets and mysteries from the earth.
More news on Thursday!