First full day of excavation

Wednesday was our full day of excavating our 1x1 m units at the Lyne Site. One of the major challenges some pit partners faced during excavating was keeping the floor leveled. My pit partner and I went from 3cm AD (Above Datum) to 5cm BD (Below Datum) and we were struggling to keep our floor leveled and our walls nice and straight.

The second highlight of my day, besides finishing excavating Level I in my unit, was seeing the mole that built a tunnel through my unit!  

White seed bead found in one of the units.

After lunch, a few of the units were able to finish excavating Level I, many at 10cm BD, and beginning to excavate Level II. When filling out a level sheet, you need to be very detailed so anybody who looks at your data are able to picture what you excavated precisely where each item was located when found.

Some of the finds today included two .5cm pieces of earthenware, a small piece of ceramic, small bones, and a white seed bead.

Lecture with Doug Scott.

Each Wednesday night, the field school attends lectures on varying topics related to Archaeology. Tonight’s lecture was at the Niles District Library. The lecture was titled Shot and Shell  Tell the Tale presented by weapons expert Doug Scott. Scott discussed Battlefield and Conflict Archaeology and how one needs a comprehensive artillery analysis in order to comprehend the roll the weaponry had in battle. Examples of this type of Archaeology included the USS Arizona submarine that was found many years after the bombing at Pearl Harbor. The study of Battlefield and Conflict Archaeology is only about 30 years old and continues to grow more popular.

Tomorrow, a staff member and field school student are going to be at French Market. If you have any questions about the project or about our summer camps, please feel free to ask us at French Market tomorrow!

Amber