Week 2 begins

Bold incised sherd dating to the mission period.

Summer weather is definitely here, with 96 degree temperatures by early afternoon and sporadic thunder showers in the later afternoon and evening.  Despite the heat, our crew continues to make great progress in all our excavation units.  All units are either rapidly approaching or already within mission-period deposits, and Spanish and Apalachee artifacts are becoming more frequent, including several types of Spanish majolica, lead shot, seed beads, and Native American pottery such as the incised sherd shown above.

Bobby Bernal and Kendall Burns photo-clean a 2x2 m unit.

Photo showing distribution of yellow and gray clay cap layers.

Our first 50x50 cm shovel test was completed today, and several of our larger units were brought down to the bases of arbitrary 10 cm excavation levels and mapped after careful photo-cleaning (shown above).  Once unit floors had been scraped level and photographed (shown to right), measured plan view maps were drawn in order to record the exact location of each soil color variation, in many cases corresponding to cultural features such as wall trenches or pits that will become more clear deeper in the units.  While painstaking, this level of detail in archaeological excavation is absolutely essential in squeezing every possible bit of information from the pristine deposits at the site.

More action shots of the crew are below.

Bobby Bernal and Kendall Burns mapping the unit floor.

Michelle Pigott examining a find while troweling.

Wesley Garrett and Katie Brewer mapping another unit.