Heat, mosquitoes, and rimsherds

A larged pinched rimsherd from the stockade trench.

The rimsherd still in place in the trench fill.

We are well into week six of our 10-week field season, and despite hordes of mosquitoes and intense heat, students continue to make good progress in all our active excavation units.  The eastern stockade wall is turning out to be considerably more complex than the northern wall, with a double row of nails adjacent to the main trench, and other features we are just beginning to see.  A large Apalachee potsherd with a pinched rim was found within this trench today, as pictured above.

Kristina and Wesley excavating the midden.

To the south, work continues in Area C in two units, both of which are nearly through the yellow clay cap layer and beginning to push into the underlying dark midden soil.  With luck, we should know more about the extent of the structural wall trenches running throughout this area within a few days.

Area C vessel rim with a pinched rimstrip and traces of red filming.

Work also continues in the burned structure floor in Area E, and also in our easternmost unit in Area B, where several small probable prehistoric postholes have been found well beneath mission-period deposits.  By week's end, we hope to have opened our last new unit for the season, after which we will focus on more in-depth feature excavation within all the units we have already opened this year.