While they are pretty good at keeping the rain out, no amount of covering will keep out the rising water table, and so, units C15 and C16 in the low lying northeast corner of the field may be a lost cause at least for the rest of the week.

There were several scattered thunderstorms throughout the day, but we still managed to almost get a full day of work in. (Un)fortunately, one thundershower forced us to take an extended lunch break. Despite the occasional shower and above-average humidity the crew did a commendable job today. Brittany, Richard, and Joselyn finished drawing the soil profile for Unit C18. After the profiles were completed, Brittany tossed some modern debris into the unit so that if any future archaeologists dig in this location, they will know that it has already been excavated.

After this, it was backfill time. With about half the crew working to refill the unit, we were able to complete this task in short order.

After, the crew took a well-deserved break.

Having finished one unit, we decided to open another. This new unit is named “C22” and it forms a small block with units C20 and C21.

The C20-22 block produced an interesting assortment of artifacts today including: the tip of a heat-treated projectile point…

… and a rim sherd from a historic ceramic vessel.

Not to be outdone, the Unit C17 crew, in the thick of a dense late prehistoric trash deposit, uncovered numerous pieces of animal bone, lithics, burned earth, and shell-tempered pottery sherds.

At the end of the day, we had to come up with a way of covering the C20-22 block, since our sheets of plywood are not long enough to span the units by themselves. Our solution to this problem was to place a series of large metal canopy poles across the block to support the plywood and the plastic sheeting. There is rain in the forecast for tonight (surprise!), so we will know if our supports worked tomorrow morning assuming we don’t get rained out.