1,000+ years ago a craftsman sat in virtually the same spot I am

And, using the ancient art of flintknapping he created tools and weapons. We can note this due to not only the amount of debitage (material produced during the process of lithic reduction), the amount of different types of core material, and because of the differing sizes of the flakes. The larger ones are from the beginning process of lithic reduction (the careful process of turning big rocks into little ones) and the very small one’s are chipped off during the finishing process. The different types of material would indicate a different group of people and or different time frame the pieces were being worked. What I found was a workstation. A place ancient craftsmen regularly went to practice their art. And, probably as noted by the differing types of material over a long period of time. As the pieces were flaked off they lay their undisturbed and untouched for over a thousand years, until I found them. They literally went from the craftsman’s fingers to mine.  

SUPER FEATURE (cue Superman music).

Okay maybe not, but this tiny 20x20 centimeter around 6 centimeter deep feature produced 34 flakes (some beautiful heat treated pressure flakes), and a large piece of prehistoric pottery (which promptly broke into two). Everything was found within 2 centimeters of the surface and the remaining fill soil was sterile. Which would mean there had been a lot of artifacts in the soil that had been there. Unfortunately, the damn bulldozer which was to scrape the surface dirt away went way too deep and scraped away a lot of irreplaceable artifacts.  

You’re Looking at an Approximately 9,000 Year Old Piece of Grass.

We found a sealed feature in the BE horizon 30 centimeters deep. As per “school energy&environment” it takes 200 to 400 years to create 1 centimeter of soil. If we take 300 years as a mean and times that by 30 centimeters deep in the soil we can estimate its age at 9,000 years. We found several pieces and each were as soft and pliable as if it were still alive. ARCHAEOLOGY FUCKING ROCKS!!

Nazi U-boat found after almost 73 years.

http://www.foxnews.com/science/2018/04/19/missing-wwii-german-submarine-found-after-nearly-73-years-lost-at-sea.html

It's such a lovely winter we're having this spring

Rain and heavy winds once again turned our project area into a quagmire. Raining now and till midnight when it starts snowing.

When is Winter Ending

Bisecting and Dissecting Features

In Archaeology features can tell us a lot, or in this case tell us this was probably a tree that was hit by lighting and burned to cinders. We can note this by the bisected shape and that is was a straight down excavation.

Bisecting a Baby Featrue

Found a Beautiful Lithic Core and Flake

35 degrees and snow in the morning - 60 degrees and sunny in the afternoon

Teaching Day

A local high school's Archaeology Club came to our site today to learn about the real thing. They dug, troweled, and screened their way to being tired and sore.

Lithic Core

An important piece in Archaeology. A core is a parent source through which lithic reduction (knocking pieces off) is used to produce tools and or weapons.

Much like a classic sculptor would use a hammer and chisel to create, the Native American's used a stone age tool called a hammer stone and the antler of a deer or antelope to shape and create the tools they needed to survive. I found three lithic core's today and two beautiful flakes.

WW2 U-boat found off coast of North Carolina

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/a-german-u-boats-watery-grave-off-north-carolina/

Measuring and Mapping

On a very cold day we were measuring and mapping features in 10 x 10 meter blocks. Features as previously noted are stains in the soil. From them we can learn about ancient civilizations.

We found a nice bifacial piece. Bifacial meaning having two sides. In Archaeology a bifacial is important as it is a piece that has been worked. We find a lot of flakes. Which are small pieces knocked off a core piece in the process of making a tool or weapon. A bifacial piece means it was intended to be something and was being worked (created).

Rained Out

Pouring rain left our Phase 3 project a soupy mess. Walking on it caused more of a mess then it fixed. Today's not looking good either....

Bisecting a Feature

With the sun out it turned out to be a nice day. We found some small but nice pieces of pre-historic pottery as well as quite a bit of historic pieces (nails, pottery).

Below Freezing Archaeology

It's all of 24 degrees and of course windy as hell. I'll be piling on clothes to the point of being the kid in a Christmas Story - "I can't put my arms down"!!

Happy Easter / April Fools Day

Interesting combination of timing. Wonder if that's an omen as to the rest of the year.