Last day in the AC...

May 16th,2014
        Today was rainy as predicted and so we continued to wash and accession our artifacts. Today is our last day of the class so we are all going home after this artifact cleaning session. I had a lot of fun learning about and experiencing American Archaeology. 

At the site and a little artifact sorting...

May 15th,2014
         Today is out last day out in the field. We are working at the site til about noon. Sam finished taking down our wall in the SE quad. Once that was complete we helped Chris and Elizabeth in their pit by transporting their buckets to Dru and Sammy to screen. After they finished up Sammy and I got down into the pits and began taking the southern corner balks down in our pits. Then we went back to Lyco. Once we got back to the AC we began washing artifacts. We sorted them out by excavation units so that each group can wash their own artifacts, so we could see what actually came out of our pits. Once I washed bags of ours I found that we actually had a good bit of Indian pottery. Our pit was a historic site in which we believe was a barrow pit. I thought it was very beneficial for us to see exactly what we found in our own pits.

Glunk site

May 14th,2014
        Today the weather didn't hold us up at all. We went to the field at 9 am and dug all morning and afternoon. Sam started off the day breaking down the wall in the SE quad to the 12 in to meet what I dug yesterday.  We continued to find nails, brick, and glass. Once Sam finished I started working on the same wall to bring it down to 24 in, even with the floor in Chris and Elizabeth's unit. Once I finished, not finding anything of significance, we switched and Sam dug in the NE quad breaking that wall down to 24 in as well. In between these two breakdowns we had a lunch break and then continued working. After Sam finished I dug the NE quad wall down to 33 in, even with the floor in our pit. After that we wrapped up for the day and got ice cream from Eder's, I got chocolate supreme which was delicious!

Flint napping and digging...again...

May 13th,2014
         Today there was dreary weather so we started out with flint napping. I had a flake that I started to shape yesterday. I continued to work on it using better tools this time like an antler and the copper headed tool. I made a pretty decent point with it, if I do say so myself. After lunch, and the weather cleared up, we went down to the site. I continued and finished the wall between our's and Chris and Elizabeth's unit in the NE quad to the 12 in mark before the day was finished. We found more nail and brick in the wall breakdown.

Flint napping and digging...

May 12th,2014
         Today there was supposed to be bad weather, and so we started out the day in the AC watching flint napping videos and attempting to flint nap ourselves. We had very poor chert because the local chert in our area is not very good, but I did have a couple good flakes which I broke trying to make them into points. Dr. Knauth came to give us better tools for our flint napping. Then, we went to the site to do some digging because the weather turned out to be much nicer. Once on site we unpacked everything and I started on finishing the SE wall clean up. After I finished, Sam took over cleaning the wall of the NE quad. All our walls were now cleaned and then Sam drew the wall profiles for the North and East walls. I then began to break down the wall between our unit and EU 17. It was very hot, and I didn't get much done before it started to drizzle and we had to pack up.

In the AC...

May 9th,2014

        Today we stayed inside to round up all paper work on New Berlin. We needed to make sure we had all the paper work in line with that so we could also properly accession the artifacts from New Berlin. The others in the group worked on the accession once all the paper work was located. I used google sheets to input all of the already accessioned artifacts from New Berlin. I have updated google sheets with all the artifacts accessioned up to date from New Berlin for everyone to use.

Glunk Site

May 8th,2014
        Today I started out digging in the SW quad. It was dug down to 33 inches, even with the SE quad. At 25 inches there was a rock 7 inches long protruding out 3 inches from the wall in the SE corner of the quad. Also once I leveled out the floor there was still charcoal and the greasy stain which we mapped out in the SW quad, and the brown greasy stain was in the middle, SW, NW and NE corners of the quad. The new layer of orange yellow sand matrix Munsell soil reading is 7.5 YR/4/4 from 27" to 33" down. Next, Sam dug the NW quad to meet the previous 2 at 33 inches. We finished out the leveling of all 4 quads and a wall clean up on the NW quad, SW quad, and started to clean up the walls of the SE quad.

Glunk Site

May 7th,2014
         Today I finished digging in the NE quad to level it with the north and south west quads. All 3 quads are now sitting at an even 27 inches. While digging the NE quad I uncovered much more charcoal, and that greasy brown/black staining. I also continued to find historic artifacts like glass and nails. There must have been a trash or barrow pit where the people here burned their trash. Sam and I mapped out the stain and charcoal patterns. There was also another stain that was a rust color about 28 inches down and 3 inches deep. It was a rather interesting feature. Later, after lunch Sam dug in the SE quad to even out the level from the feature we bisected yesterday. Nothing of interest was uncovered while evening out the SE quad. Sam then continued to do a wall clean up in the SE quad. We only cleaned up the Southern wall because we are getting ready to break down the walls, or balks between each pit.

Glunk Site

May 6th,2014
         Today we continued excavating our feature in EU 18. The soil is filled with charcoal and a greasy brown looking soil. Robin wanted to see how far down the stain went so we bisected the feature in the SE quad and continued digging on its west side. This was so we could see the profile of it, While digging half of the feature we continued to find historic artifacts, but we also found what appears to be half of a stone pendent. We marked it as a special find. While digging we also took Munsell soil samples of the different colors of soil we were seeing. A sketch of the stain was also done on graph paper.

Muncy Historical Society

May 5th,2014
        Feliz Cinco de Mayo! Today we traveled to Muncy to visit their historical society. It is in a very old home, and there are lots of very cool artifacts inside. I found the working loom and square piano the most interesting. Once we received the tour of the house museum we ventured down to the Muncy Heritage park and Nature trail, which is a project of the historical society. The park was very nice with a trail that wrapped around Fischer's pond. We learned a lot about canals and the lock system. There was a very fascinating story about the last raft. When a group of older men in 1938 decided to build a logging raft like they used to in their youth and sail down to Harrisburg one last time it didn't exactly go as planned. They made it to Harrisburg just fine, but on their way back up the Susquehanna it crashed into a pier on the bridge in Muncy and 7 people died. That was the end of an era, or time when rafts were used to carry logs to other cities. We then ate lunch at the Indian Park in Montoursville, and then got ice cream at Eder's. I got mint chocolate chip, which was very good. We then, went on a little adventure up through the mountains on a Willards rum rd. Overall, it was a very interesting and educational day. Oh, and we also found some chert and hammer stones to use as flint napping tools later on in our field school.

Glunk Site

May 2nd,2014
           Today it is a bit chilly outside and we are down 2 members of the crew. Sam and I finished our wall clean up, and we must continue onto a level 2/3 transitional phase cautiously because of charcoal evidence found on the floor of our pit, which we found mostly in the SE quad. We have past the arbitrary level 1, and are now continuing on now by natural soil level changes. The top level is dark brown and it continues to a lighter yellow layer. We had many features in our pit so far and we have mapped out our EU at level 1. We have a large historic cluster of brick and limestone in the wall of the south west quad as well as other historical features we included in the map.

Glunk Site

May 1st,2014
        Today we got a late start because on an early afternoon thunderstorm. Also, we started at around 2 because Robin wanted us to meet some of the members of NCC8. We continued on digging with the members, and we met Andy, who has a formal degree in archaeology. Also Matt was introduced to us, and he took the same class as we are with Robin. It was a very productive day as Sam and I hit a new level in the soil, marked by a lighter yellow colored soil. While digging at level 1 I found a large limestone block (8x6x2.5 in). The large limestone brick was 14 inches deep, but it was to only one we found in level 1. We also uncovered a small brick protruding from the North west wall at the depth of 9 in.