Field School II July 11, 12, 13

11 July 06, Tuesday

Things have nobbled my ankles. Also I have a bunch of blackfly bites ("Laura, you have blood dripping down the side of your face."). Later today I discovered that my Herbal Armor bug repellent makes my hands itch fiercely. I took a Benedryl, on theory that it might help the pre-existing blackfly bites. It did, and Dawn also got me some witch hazel, which is going to become an integral part of one of apparently three first aid kits I carry to the site. I also have some different bug repellent.

Everyone finished learning paperwork yesterday, so we were all digging test pits on the hill. I would have been Dawn's pit partner again, only the geologists


Woody the geologist discusses ancient floods, Brook and Megan listen dubiously



Dick ponders it


Dick had been expecting yesterday arrived, soaking up Dick and Dawn, and we were short of sifting screens. A couple of Americans, a Quebecker and two incredibly slim Francophone women students came and looked in our test pits and suggested the river had been up much higher well after the disappearance of the glacial lake, so the Paleo artifacts may lie in and are surrounded by flood deposits. This goes to explain the great variety of layers they have found in the mowed area near the hotspot, as well as the depth at which Edna found the flakes.

I did some supervising and tried to help other people get things done. Dick would like to get that hillside sorted out soon, so we can sample another one and then start moving in toward the Paleo hotspot closer to the river.

The test pits we are doing now are approaching the top of the hill, which the geologists say has probably been slumping slowly down over the years. We have been finding mostly bits of quartz (Archaic people used a lot of quartz, 8500 BC or so through about maybe 2400 BC). It's hard to tell naturally broken quartz from flakes, but Dawn and I are getting better at looking for scars and flaws. It was very hot. Dick said later this was his worst day this week, while he was laying out the grid on the lower knoll and feeling his intelligence boil away.

7/12/06

Today, Wednesday, was not as hot as it has been, but maybe more humid, and several of us got sunburned though there were thicker clouds than other days. Today everyone was on the hilltop until about noon, when some of them were shifted to the lower knoll.


Looking down from the hillside to the lower knoll

Nathaniel was my pit partner. He had been reproved for his paperwork and for blowing through levels (digging more than 10 cm at a go), so today he did a perfect job and dug four pits, zoom! (Since today he has been reproved for ‘not giving others a chance to shovel,’ which is only right, but it’s a pity as he's very fast.) He preferred to shovel while I sifted and we found some relatively nice quartz flakes. Mimi brought me her quartz chunks to look at and I had the delight of telling her one of them was a scraper. Then I took its picture, which I am waiitng for permission to publish.
This year Dick has codified my picture taking into official photojournalist status. We used to draw things on the site forms, but the use-wear people were horrified by the glare of the pencil graphite left from tracing around them. So now I have justification for taking the time to photograph all the nice things. Not that it's much of a drain; we are not finding a lot of diagnostics. Or anything.

7/13/06, Thursday

Less humid, in fact comfortably chilly, this morning. It rained about an inch last night, starting just after we got home. Some people's tents were not up to the challenge; I have lent out all of my spare tent pegs. I am pleasantly dry. It's really strange to be protected by a couple of molecules' thickness from impressive wind and rain. Sort of like the Lunar Module.
Unfortunately the coolth did not last much into the morning. Although it was less humid, at least some, today, it was Really Hot and brightly sunny. We finished the hillside and went through the ten or so test pits on the little lower knoll by 11:30. Dick had taken a few of us to the lowest part of the site, the mowed area surrounding the places where Edna found six channel flakes (and a whole lot of regular flakes). We will be testing the area to find the limits of that hotspot.
So we put in some more lines and more flags. I went back up the little knoll to help carry stuff and it was startling how much hotter it was up there, and not even noon.

It was a good thing we were off the knoll because it became very hot down on the plain.


Nothing here shows how very hot it was, even off the little knoll

We have two pop-up awnings that really make a difference. People were sent off to sit in the shade and drink even more water. I think it was the heat and humidity doing me in more than dehydration. I was floating around rejecting people's pieces of quartz and being the Water Nazi. Dawn was indisposed and not in great shape and trying to avoid people and stay in the shade. I didn't like the look of Dick, who told me he certainly could not go sit in the shade, as 2 supervisors under the tarp would not do. Then he went off and persuaded Mimi to sit in the shade (she was bright red). I was very pleased he stayed with her long enough to do him some good. But everyone was getting stupid and very cranky by the end of the day.

We had some fairly serious charcoal and some interesting stratigraphy, but no finds. The weather forecast is really not encouraging. Fortunately it is much cooler at the campsite than at the dig.