May 14 2013

We had our first visitor to the site today. Dr. Takashi Sakaguchi, an archaeologist from Hokkaido University in Japan arrived with Bob this morning. They had already spent some time at the lab on campus early this morning looking at some of the artifacts already collected. Dr. Sakaguchi visited the site previously when Bob was working there with the field school group from 2005.

 

The Crew with Dr. Takashi Sakaguchi.

One of the major tasks of the day was to complete a surface surveys of areas immediately south and west of the site, looking for any evidence of cultural activity. The areas had been surveyed before but Bob said that sometimes buried things works their way up to the surface and erosion also exposes cultural remains, especially in creek embankments. Students reported various pieces of broken glass in the area west of the site, on a mountain slope.

 

Kelsey, Amanda, and Caitlin mapping coordinates.

Another task was to find the site datum (a piece rebar sunk vertically into the ground) and re-establish some site coordinates. Basically, Bob wanted to establish markers every 10 meters throughout the site, running north-south and east-west.  We used compasses and tape measures. We got about half the site done.

Nathan, Stuart and Cameron measuring and mapping coordinates.

 

About 50 meters away from the site,  a relatively recent artifact was discovered. It is an empty can of ‘Colt 45’ Beer, that looked to my perhaps only days old.  It is a rather odd place to find it since it
is so far away from the pathway most users of the area take. At first Bob thought it might have been left by a previous field school student who came back to visit the area with a cold one, but after asking around and discovering that ‘Colt 45’ is not likely to be a beer of choice by archaeologists, we are still left wondering who was drinking the beer and why they were there.

... one of these things ain't like the others.