As we take off the plastic covering our excavation areas each morning, we do a quick inspection to make sure that we don't have any uninvited guests who moved in during the previous night. In the past, I've found everything from five-foot long snakes to a snoozing skunk to black widow spiders. Thus far, we've had nothing more startling than a few crickets -- and a few dozen teeny-tiney spiders. The one below is about half the size of the end of a pencil eraser -- and is carrying a mass of babies on the back.

Today, we closed out two of our excavation units -- having reached the undisturbed clay subsoil beneath the plowzone with no signs of features. When "closing out" excavation units, we carefully record the "profiles" or "side view" of the walls of the excavation units. These records are our interpretation of the layers of soil that we have excavated through. Below, Meagan, Bekah, and Jesse are drawing the south wall of their excavation.

Directly east of them, Richard and Natalie are drawing their south profile, while Brandy prepares the north wall.

In our westernmost units, the complex set of features uncovered on Saturday caused us to pause and do a similar, but slight different kind of recording -- a "plan view" or drawing of the bottom of the excavation. Below, Katie, RObin and Lacey are discussing strategies for their recording tasks while Erica and Ryan do the same in the background.

Meanwhile, Ms. Beahm (Field Assistant) and I laid out four new excavation units about 20 meters to the north. Below, Emily and I are using a bit of basic geometry to triangulate the locations of these areas.

As an example of the slow and careful process that we use to record our progress in sensitive excavation areas, the photographs below show the same excavation unit at about 11:00 am and 4:00 pm (the rock in the yellow circle is the same rock). The first photo shows a few scattered limestone rocks and some hints of soil stains -- the second photo shows the same area a little more than an inch deeper. In that photo, we have begun to expose the top of a relatively dense midden deposit containing numerous limestone fragments, broken pieces of Native American pottery, and an even more complex set of features. It will take us most of tomorrow -- and maybe Wednesday -- to sort out what happened in this area about 1000 years ago.

While on a trip to pick up some more lumber to serve as weights for our plastic, we caught two wild turkeys "grazing" just over the crest of the ridge from where we're excavating. Turkey season is over -- and they know it!

As we excavate beneath the plowzone, a number of interesting artifacts begin to show up -- not particularly valuable for their dollar value, but valuable because of what they can tell us about the daily lives of the native peoples who lived here ten centuries ago. Below, a handle for a tool is shown in place -- it is made from a deer antler tine. Note the similarity in size between the handle of the trowel and the antler handle.

We also discovered a broken and discarded "celt" -- a term that we use for a woodworking tool similar to an axe. The axe is heavily polished, worn, and broken -- but parts of the "bit" remain intact (indicated by the arrows).

As we progress into our second week on the project, we are beginning to develop an understanding of the soils on the site, the different distribution of artifacts and features in our small "window" into this vast site, and will begin to move both faster and slower as the conditions warrant. Keep checking back with us!