Another beautiful day at the site! We’ve managed to avoid any rain for several days, and as a result, units C15 and C16 no longer have standing water in them. However, they are now home to a solid number of crawfish. The crawfish, helpful animals that they are, are doing their best to help excavate by digging as many burrows as possible. Despite their best efforts, it does not look like the crawfish will be winning the “unit of the day” award.
Although the excavation techniques of the crawfish leave much to be desired, the field crew is quickly mastering the basics of archaeological field methods. Below, Joselyn is expertly cleaning the base of her level in Unit C18.
The Unit C18 crew also uncovered two features today. The first feature, appears to be an animal burrow into the second feature—a small concentration of charred corncobs. It is possible that the latter feature could be a “smudge pit,” but we will have to wait until tomorrow to finish exposing it.
This unit also yielded part of a projectile point today. Usually, these kinds of points are found in contexts that predate the Mississippian occupation at Castalian Springs by a few centuries.
Meanwhile, Unit C19 is still finding historic artifacts, many of which look like they could date to the late 19th and early 20th century.
But, there are still no features as of yet. If there are features to be found in C19, there’s a good chance they will appear as the unit is being clean troweled. Luckily for the crew, they also have a couple of expert clean trowelers…
… and excavators.
