Another couple of early morning shots of our deer neighbors...

We continued our excavations on the large wall trench structure -- opening several new units, mapping features, and starting feature excavations.

Numerous additional new wall trenches have been exposed on the west wall and east wall, but weren't ready for photography today. Excavations of one of the wall trenches on the north (Feature 46) continued -- revealing a series of small widely spaced posts in profile.

Student training on surveying and mapping continued today. Here, Emily instructs Renee on the transit -- while Larry, Matt, Noriko, Jessica, and Teresa wait their turn.

Far out on the western periphery of the site, we laid out some new excavation units. Although the wall-trench structure will take up much of our time and energy over the next few weeks, we also want to continue to develop our understanding of the "big picture" of the site. William Edward Myer, a Smithsonian archaeologist who excavated at the site in 1892, 1898, and 1916-1917, recorded in his notes that this area was the "main village area." We presume that Myer noted large amounts of broken pottery, stone tools, and other items on the surface of the plowed fields at that time -- leading him to believe this was the main area of residences. We hope this area will produce a large sample of pottery that will assist us in determining the age range of the town site.

Here, Jesse, Noriko, Teresa, and Renee (kneeling) hold the tapes while Howie, Larry, Michael, Jessica, and Matt assist. Our current excavation areas are visible in the distant background.

Later in the afternoon, the promise of rain raised everyone's spirits...

Unfortunately, the hard rains went to the north and south of us -- we got about 15 minutes or so of a shower, but it served mainly to settle the dust and raise the humidity.

Tomorrow is the second of our Saturday "Volunteer Days." We'll hope to have some interesting artifacts from the "Western Digs" by the end of the day.