Today was our first of three “Volunteer Saturdays.” These are designed for people of all ages who want to tour the site or work with the field crew. It was a busy day with at least 40 volunteers.
Two of the first people to arrive were Cameron and his mom Daryl who were treated to a tour of the site by Field Assistant Maddie.
Between digging levels and screening, Fiona also gave several tours of the site to some of our visitors.
Of course, no tour would be complete without getting to climb down into C19, our deepest test unit. Below, Hannah, one of our field school crew chiefs, is giving a tutorial on proper troweling techniques.
With the help of our volunteers we were able to find numerous artifacts…
… and features, including this cluster of burned limestone in Unit C17. We’ll need to do some more work on this feature next week, but it looks like this limestone could have been part of a prehistoric hearth.
Curiously, this feature is only 50 cm southeast and at approximately the same depth as another cluster of burned limestone.
While Isaac and field school student Summer were busy working on their feature, the volunteers in Unit C20 were busy finding dozens of nails. We are still in the plow zone in this unit, but the quantity of nails recovered so far suggests that we may be about to come down on one of the historic cottages or bathhouses built near the mineral springs.
After a long morning of digging, screening, and giving site tours, the field crew worked up quite an appetite. Luckily, Jann, Anastasia’s mom, brought drinks, watermelon, and brownies for everyone.
All in all, I’d say we had a pretty successful day, and we are looking forward to our next Volunteer Saturday on June 22!
