On Our Way to FSJ

The modern  feature in the upper left corner in Hayden and Alexis's unit.

Today was a great day in the field, even though it was hot and muggy. We started work around 8:15am on the Lyne site. Most units at that time were very close to being done since majority of us were hitting sterile soil around 40cmBD. However there were two units (out of the six that we had) that were taking longer than planned. These two units were showing quite a lot of human activity and producing a lot of artifacts. The first unit that showed a feature was Hayden and Alexis’s. Their feature resembled a modern trash pit based on the artifacts that we found (a metal can, plastic bag and a few aluminum foil balls). Although this was not material associated with the fort it was still very exciting to find because it was the first feature that many of us got to see. This feature did disappear around 40cmBD though. 

The potential feature uncovered in Aaron and Che's unit.

The second unit that showed quite a bit of promise was Aaron and Che’s. Their unit ended up being dug down to about 50cmBD (a whole 10cmBD deeper than everyone else’s unit) and was still showing quite a bit of cultural material. But since we are all so egger and excited to get down to the Fort site they are choosing to close up this unit and keep documentation on it for further excavation, if needed.

When people started to finish their units it was very exciting, at least it was for my partner and I! This was the first unit we have ever dug and it felt like an accomplishment, my pit partner and I even took photos of us standing in it, that it how accomplished we felt! Even though there weren’t very many artifacts in ours it still felt like we contributed information on the Lyne site to further archeologist.

 
 After we were done with our work we were asked to help down at the Fort site. While entering the site from the short walk between the Lyne and Fort site I saw two people I have never seen before. They were actually our guest speaker Keith Widder and his wife. They were both very nice and welcoming.

It's awesome to see how dedicated people are to this project!

The guest lecture that we had tonight was by Keith Widder (like stated before) and it was called “Beyond Pontiac’s Shadow A Fresh look at “The War Called Pontiac’s”.” The turnout for this lecture was outstanding. We ended up filling the whole basement of the Niles library lecture room and have now been promoted to a bigger room that is located on the main floor. It is nice to see how many people come out to support a great cause and learn about interesting topics. This lecture focused on why Fort Michilimackinac and its surrounding area were not affected that greatly by Native American conflicts. This was because of the alliance that the British had with the Native Americans in the area. What I found quite interesting throughout this lecture was how Native Americans would protect some of the British men because they considered them friends.

 

Overall today was a great day! There was no rain to chase us out of the field, we had great company for dinner (Keith and his wife) and ended the night with an interesting lecture on a very relevant topic to our research. Thank you to everyone who came out to the lecture today!

-Andrea