Week 2 has come to a close and unlike last week, the weather was cooler and no rain storms popped up. This made for a much nicer work week! Since the last update the students have recovered mica fragments, pottery sherds, a broken bit of a stone axe head, bladelets, bifaces, scrapers and flint debitage.
The picture below shows Dr Riordan recovering a larger piece of pottery found in the central excavation. The pottery was located in the southern end of the excavation (upper most portion of the trench in the second picture). In this unit there are gravel zones, burned earth and a charred wood area which is easily seen in the photo. As you can see on either side of the open work zone are black plastic sheets. The sheets are there to keep the exposed ground underneath moist and protect features from the sun.
During the careful excavation of the trench going through the enclosure, several pockets of arranged stone have been located. Perhaps they served as chinking stones for log posts or served as an outline for wall construction. Pictured are students creating maps of the work site.
As with last week, the excavations are proving to be a very popular destination for people visiting Fort Ancient. They come from all over the United States, England, Italy, Germany and France and share the experience. Several field schools have also stopped by to see what is going on. And the excavations are bringing repeat visitors. One lady remarked that she had been here the previous week with friends from Florida and enjoyed it so much that she came back this week with family and has plans to be here next week with more out of town friends. The final picture in this posting is a father and daughter examining the area.
Until next time,
Linda
