Here is the Pickawillany field school of 2008! Pictured (in alphabetical order) are: Bob Brown, Tony Cox, Dr. Annette Ericksen, Mike Ferrell, Steve House, Mark Johnson, Matt Kolodziejczyk, Amanda Loveridge, Miranda McKinney, Elise Meyers, Jessica Munday-McGee, Skyeler Sommer, Tom Spurlock, Matt Steinmetz, Andy Weiland and John Zevenberger.
During today’s sun shine and 80 degree temperatures the students worked on four 2×2 meter unitsthat were divided into four quarters; north west, north east, south west and south east. The goal was to take two of the quarters down to the sub soil to look for anomalies found during geophysical testing that was conducted from 2002-2008.
Today they found several artifacts, both prehistoric and historic in nature. Of particular interest were a french gun flint (photo 2) and two glass beads (photo 3), both of which were located in the same unit. In addition to the artifacts, one of the quarters held two post moulds and another feature (photo 4). You can see the post moulds and chinking stones (stone used to secure the post in place) at the bottom of the unit. The other feature stretches across the top of the whole unit. Now the big question: are thefeature and post moulds associated with Pickawillany structures or are they from an older occupation? At this point that question has yet to be answered but hopefully at the end of the investigation the we will know more than we do presently.
The local newspaper, the Piqua Daily Call, paid us a visit, interviewed the students and took pictures for an upcoming article (photo 5).
Tomorrow’s goal is to excavate the the other two quarters down to the same depth as the ones they did today. So check back tomorrow for the latest update on the Pickawillany investigation.
