The crew woke up early today to attend Dr. Smith’s annual summer solstice sunrise event at the mound site just to the north of our excavations. Despite the early rise time, the crew seemed to be in good spirits. Perhaps we should begin all of our workdays at 5 A.M.
Before the sunrise, the mounds were surrounded by fog, but as soon as the sun started peeking over the horizon, the fog quickly dissipated.
After a brief post-sunrise breakfast, we headed over to our excavations to begin digging. We are almost done with Unit C19. Although this unit contained numerous pieces of historic ceramics and glass, very few nails were recovered, and there were no historic features. We decided to open up another unit nearby to see if we could identify any historic posts similar to the ones we found near this location last year. The first level of this unit was partially removed. If the rain holds off tomorrow, our Saturday volunteers can help us finish excavating this unit’s first level.
We were also treated to a visit from Sam Smith (on the right), the former Tennessee State Historic Archaeologist. Dr. Smith (on the left) was kind enough to help show him around the site.
Sam arrived just in time to see a metal rivet excavated from the C20-22 block in the eastern part of the field.
In the same soil layer as this rivet, Brittany and Joselyn discovered a bifacial stone tool…
… and what appears to be a piece of lead shot.
A few yards to the west of the C20-22 block, the unit C17 crew is nearing culturally-sterile subsoil. As this is below the artifact-bearing soil layers, Constants decided it was a good time to practice her dirt throwing skills. Summer, who was holding the screen, seemed a little apprehensive at first, until she realized that Constants always hit the screen (well, almost always at least…).
