Our team is divided into six three-person "crews" -- each working on a separate excavation unit. Our excavation units are squares two-meters on a side -- all carefully tied into our recording system. Our first goal during the "dig" is to complete a long excavation trench that will hopefully cross the ancient wall that once surrounded the town. This wall was described in 1820 by R.E.W. Earl, the first known person to "dig" at the site.

Today, we managed to complete the first 10-centimeter level in most of our excavations. Four of our crews are working close together on different segments of our trench...

While another two crews are working about twenty meters to the west...

As always, we don't expect to find a tremendous amount of important artifacts in the first ten centimeters -- this is the most heavily disturbed portion of the "plow zone." As a plowed cornfield for many decades (until the 1970s), this upper level of soil has been turned and churned many many times over the past 200 years. The remnants of the relics left behind by the folks that lived here 1000 years ago have been battered and broken by the plow and tractor.

Despite the plowing, we are already turning up tiny fragments of ancient pottery, flint chips, broken stone tools, and the teeth of animals butchered and eaten over 1000 years ago. As we proceed into "Level 2" (another ten centimeters or about four inches) we expect the pieces of pottery, flint, and other items to increase in size -- while the plow general reaches 8-10 inches around here, the disturbance and breakage becomes less and less the deeper we go.

Our first week is always relatively slow and perhaps not too exciting for outside observers -- students are "learning the ropes" of how to excavate, recover artifacts, make records, and get into the daily routine. As the days pass and we delve deeper into the mysteries of the Castalian Springs Mounds, we feel certain our progress reports will bring exciting discoveries.

Keep checking back!