As usual, we began our first day in the field with a brief tour of the site. This year’s tour was led by Maddie Laderoute, the Assistant Project Director.

After the tour, Hannah, Fiona, and Brandon showed everyone how to properly set up a 2 x 2 meter test unit.

There are a total of 17 students in the field crew, including 7 returning students from the 2018 excavations. This means that we have enough people to have at least 5 test units open simultaneously.

Units C15 and C16 are located just to the south of a trench that Drs. Kevin Smith and Emily Beahm, and their 2005 field crew excavated. Units C17 and C18 are on a low, linear rise in the eastern part of the site that was built up by the site’s Native American occupants in the 13th century. Although much of the field is prone to flooding, this rise usually stays dry, making it an ideal location for any structures. And our last unit, C19, is located adjacent to a unit from last year that contained several historic posts.

Each unit group started by removing the sod in blocks and stacking them neatly near the tree line. Once we are done, the sod blocks will be put back on top of the units. The Wynnewood Site Director, Ron Borders, had not excavated sod in about a year—a task he clearly missed—so he stopped by to help.

We managed to get through a good bit of the plowzone today finding a few flakes of lithic debitage and a couple small pieces of historic ceramics.

At the end of the day, Maddie, Brandon, and Brandon’s biceps went on an errand to collect plywood and bricks to cover up our test units. Although Brandon’s biceps were able to move many bricks, Hannah was not impressed.

Right as we were about to call it a day, we were overflown by a white blimp. We are interpreting this to be a good omen.