Tuesday, July 16, 2013
Monday, July 15, 2013
Going Ostrich: Sticking Our Heads in the Ground
Today we learned that archaeological field work is
subject to the world around us. From the
moment we stepped outside this morning we knew it would be a long day. The sun was barely over the horizon and it
was already blazingly hot. The weather
forecast for this week repeated two words, “hot” and “humid”. It would cost a lot of money to air-condition
the forest, so we had to tough it out.
This tends to make very irritable archaeologists. As we headed out into the field, it was clear
that everyone was excited to be back and eager to get down to work.
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| A flake of chert stone tool production |
Not much was uncovered today. A few chert flakes were found, as well as a
piece of lead shot with some white corrosion on it. This shows that we are approaching the level
of ground that represents a time before the site was inhabited. We will be heading down to the Fort site
later this week so stay tuned for upcoming discoveries and tales from the
field!
The chert flakes represented at the Lyne site offer
us a unique idea of the kind of stone tool production that took place in this
area. We are finding small pieces
(roughly the size of the nail on your little finger) as well as larger pieces
(some 4 or 5 cm in diameter). The larger
pieces represent early stage reduction and the smaller pieces represent late
stage reduction. With this information,
we can conclude that on this site, stone tools have been started, finished and
even refined on the Lyne site. Every
stage of production is represented on one site!
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| Washing some artifacts discovered this summer |
Despite the heat and humidity, we were all very
happy just to be digging again. The heat
could not dampen our spirits!
Unfortunately, some rain that swept through close to 3pm dampened the
site a bit too much to continue our work.
We arrived back at the stables a little before 4pm
and Katelyn was gracious enough to give us a “rainy day lecture” on some work
she has done on cataloguing ceramic artifacts from an archaeological dig in
Iowa. She photographed and catalogued
roughly 1500 artifacts!
Today was also our first day doing lab work. We learned how to properly wash artifacts and
soon we’ll learn the entire process of how an artifact goes from the ground to
part of our collection.
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| Who can tell us more about Goldie? |
We had another guest visit us at the stables today
while we were grilling burgers and corn on the cob for dinner! Dr. Nassaney pointed out a huge bird perched
on top of the stable roof. James soon
identified it as a golden eagle, which would be a sweet band name. We noticed that the eagle had its mouth open
and appeared to be drooling. We looked
this up on the internet and learned that this might indicate that the eagle had
just mated. Any eagle enthusiasts out
there? Tell us if you might know
anything more about this guy!
Wednesday, July 10, 2013
A Tour of the Sumnerville Mounds
 |
| Dr. Nassaney explaining how to excavate a trench properly |
Today we started to excavate in depth at the Lyne site. We already had our area where we were going to be working plotted yesterday, but we were unable to do much if any excavations due to the heavy rain we experienced that afternoon. Today we got to work fairly quickly since everything was already laid out. All the one by one meter trenches needed to be level before we could dig down. We put all the soil that was dug up through one-eighth inch metal screens to make sure we did not miss anything.
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| Looking for artifacts |
For dinner we were able to go and visit Barb Cook who, as a member of the Support the Fort Foundation, has been very supportive of the project. After dinner she showed us the ‘Sumnerville Mounds’ which consist of nine Native American burial mounds dating from the first through the fourth century C.E. of which two are right near the historic marker. I was surprised to hear that two of the mounds were not disturbed during the nineteenth century, since that was a fad of that era.
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| The group in front of the historic marker |
Overall it was a pretty good day, with great weather in the afternoon, and a great meal in the evening. I personally cannot wait to get back into the field tomorrow to excavate some more.
A Rainy Day at Lyne
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| The group clearing the Fort site |
The second day at the Fort ended up being a little soggy,
but I think it was a good start. We made
it to the Fort a little after 8 am and spent the majority of the day clearing
but right before we grabbed lunch at noon I had the opportunity to try my hand
at surveying. The clearing was, not
surprisingly, a test to my endurance and arm muscles. Even though it was a lot
of hard work some parts ended up being pretty fun, including my first time
using a machete!
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| My first time surveying! |
The surveying was fascinating because, even though I am a
student with an interest in anthropology and archaeology, it is not every day that
one gets the opportunity to use surveying technology.
We cleared at Fort St. Joseph in preparation to excavate
later on this summer and surveyed the Lyne site which we will begin excavating
tomorrow. Lunch was a relaxing break,
where we were surprised with yummy cookies from Mary Ellen.
Before we put in units at Lyne, Seth, a fellow classmate who is Ojibwa, informed us about a tobacco giving. As archaeologists we often take from the land to learn, and we were able to give back to the land in a spiritual way that is new to us as students of archaeology through giving tobacco. He taught us that tobacco, or semaa in
his Native American language, is given to the land to say miigwech, which means thank you.
We all grabbed a pinch of semaa,
sprinkled it across the land wherever we liked, and said miigwech in return for the knowledge and artifacts that are taken. Afterwards, as we all were assigned pits and
began measuring them out, a decent amount of rain hit us and we all scrambled
to the cars.
It slowed and we decided to go back to the Lyne site. Anna and I were able to finish measuring our
pits, staking in the correct points, stringing our pit, and began to set up our
screening area to look for artifacts.
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| Hayden and Alexis measuring their unit with the help of James |
At that point, a hard downpour began and we all ran for our
lives, but even so, we ended up like wet puppies. We headed over to the local YMCA, trying not
to track mud everywhere, and were able to take an amazing shower thanks to
their hospitality. The last excitement
of the night was a group dinner of stir-fry that was a ton of fun and much
needed after our first full day of work.
Monday, July 8, 2013
Our First Day in Niles!
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| Our first group photo! |
Hello from
Fort St. Joseph's 2013 field school members! Today we left from WMU's campus at
8:45 AM to spend the day in Niles for the first time. After unloading our personal gear at our new
home and organizing our dig equipment at the field, we came together as a group
to talk about our initial feelings toward this experience. Many people (including myself) were nervous –
even though we've had a four day orientation at WMU, I still felt unprepared
for actually being in the field. But
everyone expressed excitement about doing real archaeology, most of us for the
first time. After our discussion, we met
our wonderful host Stephanie and her family, who have generously offered us
their home, the Stables, for the group to stay in for the next six weeks. She gave us a tour, and then we began to
prepare for actually working in the field.
It had been
raining throughout the day, and we had to tramp through the mud to get to the
flooded Fort St. Joseph site. We talked
about some of the difficulties of the area – from the 1930's to the 1960's it
was a landfill, so today some parts are impossible to excavate without digging
through six feet of twentieth century trash first. Also, as the area is a floodplain, we will
need to drain the area of water first, a process which has been started by our
staff member, Alex, as well as an extremely helpful volunteer, Neil. We will also need to clear the area of
vegetation before we can dig.
 |
| Admiring the massive boulder |
After seeing
the floodplain, we quickly stopped at the recently re-dedicated Boulder. It was placed in 1913 to commemorate Fort St.
Joseph, although how (or why!) they moved a 65 ton boulder is beyond me.
Next, we
went to the terrace to see where we will begin digging. Pits have been dug here by previous field
schools, but there is still a blank area on our map which we want to learn more
about. We spent an hour or so clearing
the site with machetes, grass whips, and rakes, and kept an eye out for spiders
and tick bites after swapping scary bug stories earlier in the day. It was hard work, but we managed to do okay
for a first time – Dr. Nassaney gave us a B+.
 |
| Aaron and James getting acquainted |
Finally, we
came back to the Stables for a dinner hosted by Stephanie, her family, and her
friends. It was overwhelming to me how
much everyone in this community I've met really does care about the Fort St.
Joseph Archaeological Project. Dr.
Nassaney had told us that the community was supportive, but after the delicious
dinner and friendly new faces I am starting to understand how right he is. I was nervous before coming, but now that I
have met people interested in what we are doing and gotten to know my fellow
students better, I already feel comfortable and excited to continue. Our first day was long, but I have a feeling
that this whole thing will be finished all too soon.
-Alexis
Tuesday, July 2, 2013
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