Well, it did rain all day last Thursday and the students took tour of Wynnewood and then visited the Sumner County Museum. As the dire predictions of the tropical storm promised yet another 2 or more inches on Friday -- we decided to cancel Friday and Volunteer Saturday to give folks enough notice. The storm did slip to the east of us and only about 1/4 inch of rain on Friday. Better safe than sorry. We did of course check on things over the weekend. Hydraulic engineering is one of the lesser known and less appreciated skills of the archaeologist -- when I visited on Saturday morning, the units we covered to my full specifications after 30 years of experience were perfectly fine... The others held up well enough -- but not perfectly. Secret recipe is secret recipe....
I was off site once again for the morning, so missed the bailing party, but Dr. P shared a few photos... Amanda was NOT thrilled by the 60+ gallons of water on her plastic.... But, Lauren was enthusiastic about bailing...
But, all the hatches were properly battened apparently and all the units were ready for diggin'. Learning those new positions for unit cleanup in deeper levels is a tough thing....
Dr. P was not satisfied with the walls on this unit, so dove in to fix things before a photo.
And yeah.... they're learning the ropes pretty well at this point only four weeks into the game...
Still lots of interesting ceramics coming out of the ground -- super big rim sherd of a jar.
And then this really intriguing only slightly flattened loop handle -- which suggests they are getting down into a ca. late AD 1100s or very early 1200s Mississippian deposit.
As we always expect from the extraordinary site of Castalian Springs Mounds -- magnificent things lie beneath us everywhere, and our work yields things everyday that we will ponder for many years to come. Tomorrow is once again another day.