October 9, 2006

Note: this is a summary of the day's events. Full fieldnotes forthcoming!

Today was Columbus Day, which is a Brown University Holiday. As a consequence, no classes were scheduled for today. Nevertheless, a few hardy students volunteered to excavate on their day off.

We concentrated on unit A-4. This 0.75 x 3 meter trench is located on the eastern side of the property. This unit was placed over the magnetic anomaly detected using the Ground Penetrating Radar equipment at the beginning of the class (See videolog).

The anomaly was detected at 1.5-2.0 m along the width of the trench, measuring from the southwestern corner of the unit.

Because we are interested in the interior of the anomaly and its wall rather than the exterior, at this time, we devoted the day to excavating the western side of the unit, in 10 cm lots. Next week we will excavate the other half of the unit.

Lots 1-3 had already been removed previously, so today's excavations removed lots 4-8. Each lot measured 0.75x1.50 m by 10 cm. We excavated to a depth of 80cm below current ground surface measured from the northeast corner of the unit.

There was a dramatic soil change in lot 4/5 comprising of a tan sandy soil that was intrusive into the brown silty soil of the previous layers. The sandy soil began at 30cm from the western wall and continued right to the 1.5m mark where it ended. This similar soil is beginnnig to be found in A2, which is located nearby. The soil was relatively free of artifacts. This is in marked contrast to the brown soil layers we have been excavating.

Rocks were plentiful in the sandy mixture, but they do not appear to have been purposely placed, ie., there is not a clear pattern to their distribution.

Each layer was photographed when it was cleared, and some rocks removed so that the excavation could proceed.

Photographs from the day are located in the Photolog, 2006 section.

Student excavators include: Melissa, Aaron, Tina, Christian, and Chase.

October 9, 2006 (photolog)
Fieldnotes, 2006