Field Day 11

 

Isn't this photo great? I love the colorful tree leaves and how John and his blue shirt are profiled against the old sandstone. As always, Laurie takes great pictures. In case you were wondering, John is laying out a grid across the open area we are investigating as the possible site of St. George's Church. Once the grid is laid out, he will probe the ground at regular intervals to get an idea of what is underneath. At the same time, Angelika is using her metal detector across the area to look for the sort of materials commonly associated with a building.

Here is the area in question with both John and Angelika at work:

And here's another shot of Angelika with her super advanced metal detector. She can plot the locations of everything she finds right onto the metal detector and use it to make a map showing their distribution. She got a lot of hits in the open area, as well as in another area to the west that Linda previously identified as very active.

Meanwhile, work continued on the STP 3s. I think it was Bill who found this button. It was in a lower level of STP 3 (Level 5, I believe). We don't know for sure how old it is. The front part of it may be made of bone or wood, but the back part looks suspiciously plastic-like. It doesn't have any metal in it. In the first picture below you can see a couple of pieces of mortar that broke off the back of it.

Bill and Laurie dug while Marilyn screened and bagged artifacts and I recorded. We came to the bottom (or close) of STP 3 and STP 3B. After photographing the walls of each unit, we opened up STP 3A. In the picture below you can see how the units are related to one another. You can also see how many rocks there are! Can you identify Pointy Rock? Pointy Rock was originally discovered in STP 3, but as it turns out, there is a lot more of it in STP 3A.


As you can see, there are a lot more rocks on the western side of all the units than on the east. Eugene has suggested that the eastern portion of STP 3 represents a builder's trench, that is, the trench dug by the builders in creating the foundation wall, then filled in when they were done.

Here's a nice illustration of the archaeological process. Digging (or in this case brushing) ...

... screening (shaker screen) ...

... screening (little screen) ...

... and recording. Note the colorful Munsell chart beside me, and all of the binders.


Dogs can be archaeologists too. Well, they can dig at least, but Maya (who belongs to Bill) seemed more interested in chewing on one of the large roots we cut out of STP 3A.


So far, STP 3A has yielded the same sort of material as STPs 3 and 3B. The only difference is that the eastern side of STP 3A has a large swath of highly compacted light soil with no rocks in it. I am not sure what it means, except that highly compacted soil might suggest soil that has been disturbed - the natural deposition of soil layers is much looser.


Lastly, Tricia continued work on STP 4, a.k.a. the Not Very Exciting (But No Less Important) Unit. We will probably close this unit soon. STP 3 and 3B are also closed or close to being closed, but we won't backfill them just yet as the attached STP 3A is in progress and STP 3C has yet to begun.

Our next STPs will likely be placed in either or both of the open areas where the metal detectors have gotten significant hits. I have dreams that these areas are filled with nails and musket balls. We'll see if my dreams come true.