Fieldwork and an x-ray

X-ray (right) of brass button with iron shank (left).

More progress was made in all units during fieldwork today, with most units now pushing into mission-era deposits.  Within a day or two we hope to be able to delineate several wall-trenches, including (we hope) some evidence for the course of the presumed stockade line.  In the meantime, however, the brass button discovered yesterday was x-rayed in the UWF Anthropology Department conservation lab by Dr. John Bratten, and the results show a remarkably clear image of the construction of the button, with an iron loop set into a cast brass shank, which was discovered in what appears to be an undisturbed 18th-century midden layer with a number of large Apalachee potsherds in place around it.

Below are some shots of the crew working today.

Michelle Pigott flat-shoveling through the yellow clay cap.

Nick Simpson documenting a feature in his shovel test.

Danielle Dadiego clearing dirt from an area of mottled soil.

John Worth using a pickaxe to break through the dense clay.