"Starting up" an archaeological project is a tedious and time-consuming task that rarely makes The News. It's only at the end of the project -- if you find something -- that makes all of the preparation and work worthwhile.
Preparations for our summer field project this year started several months ago -- but the real work began in setting up our field camp, lab, and excavation area several weeks ago in mid-May. Thanks to the assistance of the McKee family, our excavation area was bushhogged in preparation for the "digs." After that, John Garrott and Lee Myers assisted in getting it mowed down, raked, and mowed again. Note the four-foot high grass at the edge of our excavation area below -- without the help from community folks, our excavation area would have looked the same today!P>
Today, we started off at 8:00 am getting our field lab cleaned out, setting up tables and chairs, and preparing for our next five weeks of work. Our tasks also included hauling and organizing the half dozen truckloads of equipment and supplies that will keep us working for the next month plus.
Thanks to the patience and hard work of the students -- we were half a day ahead of schedule by the afternoon. We completed laying out our north-south and east-west grid system that will serve us throughout the rest of June and early July.
By mid-afternoon, students had received their training in how to lay out their excavation units -- placing nails and twine precisely on the corners of two-meter square excavation units.
Before we closed up for the day at 4:30 pm, we had already begun stripping the sod from six excavation units looking for evidence of the stockade or wall that surrounded this ancient town around A.D. 1250 or so.
On Wednesday, we will be moving "full speed ahead" on investigating this incredibly important prehistoric Native American town site with modern archaeological techniques.