Making progress in all units

Nick Simpson and Kristina de la Cruz checking elevations in

a shovel test.

It's our second day in the field, and we now have four new excavation units open, covering 7.25 square meters, not counting a trench from 2011 that was re-excavated to make a detailed profile drawing of one of our well-defined wall trenches.  So far all units are moving down through recent deposits, and only a few sherds of Apalachee pottery have showed up amongst 20th-century nails, glass, and brick fragments, but the students are making great progress, and the weather has been generally pleasant, if inching up toward more summer heat.

Michelle Pigott and Kendall Burns record a profile.

We should begin to see colonial-era deposits tomorrow, and we're hoping that several of our excavation units will provide relatively quick confirmation of the course of wall trenches associated with the stockade and other structures.  The sooner we can track these trenches this summer, the greater the chance we will be able to trace out the layout of possible residential structures and the fortified cavalry compound at the mission over the next ten weeks.  More details to come soon...

Danielle Dadiego keeps up with her notes.

John Worth throws flat-shoveled dirt into a wheelbarrow.

Wesley Garrett and Brooke Joseph sift

excavated soil.