June 07 2013 - The Beginning of the End.

The rain returned today, which made meeting in the lab that much more enjoyable. The fact that Waves continues to provide coffee for us every Friday didn't hurt either. Thank you Waves, we really appreciate it!

A collection of artifacts from past and present field schools.

An enthralled class.

The beginning of the morning was spent primarily with a review of some of the artifacts discovered this week. We focussed on the Bovril bottle, the probable sumi-e inkstick, the possible gaming piece, and the metal lid with the etching of a Japanese landscape. We have been fortunate as two students- Wendy and Tiana, are quite familiar with Japanese culture, including inksticks, the Japanese game of Go, and what appears to be the etching of a famous Torii gate in Japan that was on the metal lid.

Possible sumi-e piece found by Caitlin.

 

Tin lid etched with Totti scene, found by Tiana.

Possible "Go" gaming piece, found by Amanda.

Following the artifact review, using the blackboard, Amanda led the summary and discussion of the emerging features and important artifacts discovered in the area where she, Kelsey, Tiana, Cameron, and Nathan have been excavating. This area has revealed the only location of a  building with visible floorboards (i.e. decomposing cedar planks with nails) and an assortment of artifacts including the metal engraved lid with an etching of a Japanese landscpe, a gaming piece (go), coin, bullet, shells, workboot and more.

The joys of archaeology.

An in situ glimpse of the ceramic door knob found by Richard.

 Afterwards, Richard used the blackboard to summarize and lead the discussion on the important finds of the area where he, Nadine, Stuart, Wendy, Kathleen, Erinn, Jeneva, Ananda, and Emma have been working, highlighting the many ceramics, cans, and bottles coming from that area. Besides diagnostic bottles and jars, one of the most interesting artifacts that we discovered in this area was what appears to be a ceramic door knob. We then briefly shared the progress we are making in our personal projects. Students will continue  breaking up their time, spending some time in the lab, and then some time in the field.

Richard captivating the class, and explaining what was found in one area of the site.

A couple of bottles which Nathan is working on finding patents for.

Stuart, Nathan, Kathleen, Tiana and Wendy getting to work.

We wrapped up the class by outlining the logistics for the two remaining weeks of the field school. Some students stayed behind after the lab to work on their projects. Kelsey worked on her line drawings, Stuart weighed and recorded waste results from the week for his audit, Kathleen and Nathan took some pictures to help in deciphering dates for the artifacts, Ananda worked on the field school Facebook page ( new photos uploaded ), and Tiana continued to catalogue the artifacts.

Richard and Tiana finding the lighter side of gluing the artifacts back together.

A sample of Kelsey's line drawings.

Kelsey doing what she does best.

June 06 2013 - The Day we Almost Lost the Plot.

The sun shone once again for our last day in the field of week five. Today, some students continued to excavate at the site and some stayed home or in the lab to work on their personal projects. Wendy worked on her project at the site, and did some filming throughout the day,

Bob mentioned that usually, after about five weeks, people get a little loopy on site. I have no idea what he referring to.

We had our first visitor of the day arrive in the morning, Tomas, Bob's son. He had returned for his second time to the site and took part excavating in a unit with Cameron. As Tomas is not an archaeology student, he was in need of a trowel. Bob allowed him to use his very first Marshalltown, which dates back to the days when Bob was an archaeology student during the Palaeocene.

Cameron and Tomas in action.

Caitlin, working hard, unaware that it's all about to pay off.

Amanda found an interesting artifact in her unit in the afternoon, a small flat circular piece of stone, which Wendy believes could possibly be a gaming piece associated with the Japanese game Go. Caitlin also found an interesting object while excavating in her unit. The piece resembles a piece of graphite or charcoal, and Wendy thinks it could have been used for the art of Japanese ink-wash painting and calligraphy, sumi-e.

The piece of possible sume-i found by Caitlin.

The possible "GO" gaming piece found by Amanda.

Towards the end of the day we had some more people drop by. First we had Rastko, Bahram, and Tyler make a visit, and again Bob took them for a tour around the site. Bahram was a 2007 field school student, and a University of British Columbia (UBC) Archaeology graduate. Rastko has completed his archaeology degree also at UBC, and is currently working on finishing his PhD at the University of Toronto. Tyler is an archaeology graduate from the University of Toronto.

Ananda, hoping "X" marks the spot.

Tyler, Bahram, and Rastko all smiles on the site.

The last guests of the day were Mykol Knighton, and Ryan Sagarbarria. Mykol was a 2005 field school student, and both studied archaeology and now work as archaeological consultants for Antiquus Archaeological Consultants Ltd..

Mykol and Ryan sharing some archaeological pointers. Wendy, photobombing.

June 05 2013 - Another Day, Another Dig.

Today was another lovely sunny day, and everyone was out of the lab and able to enjoy the weather at the site.

A nice photo of the SFU students on their grand tour of the site yesterday. Photo courtesy of Bob Muir.

To begin our morning, we continued to excavate and Bob had Stuart, Wendy and Nadine set up two new excavation units south of the old first growth tree stump where we have been finding cultural evidence over the last few weeks.

Kelsey, Cameron and Tiana getting back to work.

Share your lunch, share your cutlery; it's the archaeological way.

Over the course of the day people were constantly finding cultural material such as nails, metal fragments and pieces of ceramic. Richard was  successful in uncovering what appears to be a metal handle/knob and Tiana found the lid to a small possible tin pill box. There is a scene etched into the small silver lid which looks like a gate, a torii, and entrance to a temple. The torii appears to have a symbol which looks like it could represent Kyoto.

Small tin lid found by Tiana.

Richard and the knob he found in his fruitful unit.

The sunshine continued to entice people to make the trip to the site and we had a couple of other guests stop by today. Our first visitor was Leanne Riding. Leanne specializes in Japanese internment camps, and was interested in checking out the site and sharing some of her information. Our second visitor was Dave, Kathleen's husband. He stopped by in the afternoon and Bob was happy to give him the tour of the site.

Leanne Riding having a look around the site.

Dave and Kathleen all smiles before hitting the trail.

Today also marked perhaps one of the last days we will all be together on site, as from now a lot of students will be spending time in the lab.

June 04 2013 - Sunshine, Visitors and Artifacts, Oh My!

Today was the first full sunny day in the field, which proved to be a great day for excavating and having visitors.

SFU students arriving at the site.

Some of the students; Amanda, Erinn, Jeneva, Wendy, Caitlin, Cameron, and Tiana, continued to work on their projects in the lab, and the rest of us returned to excavate our units in the sunshine. We welcomed Nathan back to the field, after working on his project in the lab and at home due to an injury, he was ready to once again get his hands dirty.

Nathan happy to be back, Kelsey happy to be excavating, and last year's students happy to be relaxing.

Throughout the day, everyone was successful in finding cultural material in their units. Richard found some small tin cans and what appears to be a stove damper handle, and Kelsey found an interesting tubular metal artifact. Others continued to find nails, ceramic and pieces of metal.

Tubular metal artifact found by Kelsey.

The collection artifacts Richard found today.

Some artifacts found at the site by previous field schools, on display for visitors.

With the good weather came a slew of visitors. We had some students from the previous year's field school stop by. Mark, Ryan and Spencer had a look around and Alexis returned for her second visit to the site this year. We also had quite a few hikers and cyclists step off the trail to have a look and ask for information and tours.

A sunny stroll down memory lane. Alexis, Mark, Ryan and Spencer sharing their Marshalltown memories.

For the last half of the day, students from the Simon Fraser University Field School arrived. The students will start fieldwork at sites with an early 20th century Japanese component at another site in the Greater Vancouver area next week. The class of 18 students, and two instructors (Dr. Bob Muir and Dr. Doug Ross) all walked the 5.5 km in and the 5.5 km out, and Bob gave them a grand two hour tour of the site, including all the walking, jumping, and climbing we did on our first few days.

The SFU Field School students taking it all in.

June 03 2013 - Lab Day Fun Day

Today, since we have accumulated so much cultural material during excavation, Bob decided to call a lab day. Most were able to work on their projects in lab, but some did so from home. After three weeks of excavating in the rain, the first full sunny day came, and we got to spend it indoors. Also, today was convocation day at Capilano University, and Kathleen, Kelsey and Wendy were all each receiving a credential. Congratulations to all three!

Amanda photographing a milk bottle from an early 20th century Japanese camp.

Amanda got to work this morning on photographing the artifacts from previous years. She is creating a photographic inventory of several hundred artifacts from the Japanese camps including ceramic dishes, bottles, cans, coins, stove parts, buttons, toothbrushes and toothpaste.

Jeneva familiarizing herself with some of the ceramics in the collection.

Jeneva's project is to classify the ceramic dishes from the Japanese camps. These include rice bowls, tea pot fragments, and more. Erinn is working on the classification of glass alcohol bottles from the camps. These include Japanese beer and sake bottles, as well as some local varieties.

Erinn familiarizing herself with some of the bottles in the collection.

Tiana is working on her artifact inventory project and will be producing a catalogue of all the artifacts collected in 2013. Artifacts collected so far include bottles, cans, ceramics, buttons, a work boot, a coin, and more.

Tiana holding a fragment from Heinz bottle collected during test excavations.

Cameron's project is to classify the cultural material collected during the test excavations. The material includes some artifacts, broken glass, nails and metal.

Cameron sorting cultural material collected during test excavations.

Richard's project is to classify the non-artifactual cultural material collected from the excavations; mostly nails, glass fragments, and bits of metal.

Richard sorting, classifying and weighing cultural material from excavations.

Stuart is working on the waste audit of the project, for the days we are in the field. On a macro level he is distinguishing project trash from personal trash. Highly visible components of the project trash so far include flagging tape, duct tape, string, ice packs, empty can of bear spray, and compass packaging. Personal trash includes lots of organic waste, soft plastic (food wrapping), hard plastic (eg. yogurt containers), and paper food wrapping (eg. energy bars).

Stuart deciphering trash.

May 31 2013 - That's a Wrap on Week Four.

This morning, as per every Friday, we all met in the lab. We were lucky to have our caffeine fix provided for us, courtesy of Caitlin and Waves Coffee.

Thank you Waves, thank you Caitlin, for making the lab a better place.

We spent the majority of the morning in a round table group discussion. We took turns recapping the week, and everyone talked about what they had found in their units and the possibilities of the camp layout.

Janeva, spending some quality time with her Bovril bottle.

We shared some information regarding our progress with our personal projects. As Nathan has been taking some time off from the field, and working in the lab due to an injury, he was able to talk about some of the approximate dates for a few of the artifacts; those from brewery companies and the cold/hand cream jars from Ponds.

Nathan just can't stay away from the artifacts.

I shared some of the stats with the class regarding the blog. So far, people in Canada, the US, the UK, the Netherlands, Spain, Japan, South Korea, Russia, New Zealand, Australia, Mexico and Germany have viewed the blog.

We've got Waves on our side, next, Home Depot.

We discussed our plan for next week, and most students will be attending a lab day on Monday, they can begin their projects, since we now have artifacts and level bags to work with. The sun decided to come out as soon as the class ended, and some of the students joined Ananda, who is a qualified yoga instructor, in an end of week archaeology yoga class.

Hey Bob! Like our pose? Hands up for archaeology.

May 30 2013 - Patience was a Virtue.

Today marked the last day in the field for week four. All students arrived on time ready to get back to work. Thankfully today, although the sun did not shine, at least the rain held off for the majority
 the day.

Stuart, Wendy and Kathleen, getting back to business.

A lot was accomplished today. In the morning, Richard set up a new unit on the south side near the large first growth tree stump. He has already found a collection of cultural evidence: more metal shards, some ceramic and a tin can. Richard also came across a more recent artifact, a hammer, which looks like it dates back at least 5 years, and is most likely evidence of field school students.

White ceramic with blue writing, and a tin can, in situ.

Anyone missing a hammer? Send your info to Bob and he'd be more than happy to return it to you.

Today, after much restraint, Tiana was able to fully uncover and excavate her finding, a very well preserved mens leather boot.  Jeneva has also shown great patience, she first discovered the base of a bottle two days ago, but has been working throughout her excavation unit before finally being able to expose the whole bottle. After uncovering it today, Jeneva was able to make out some writing on the bottle, and we discovered it was an old 8oz Bovril bottle.

Another day, another artifact.

Jeneva and the Bovril bottle she finally got to get her hands on today.

Thursday proved to be another productive and exciting day in the field. Kelsey and Cameron found two bottle caps, Amanda found what appears to be a small gaming piece, and others found more nails, more twisted wire and Japanese ceramics.

Stuart and Wendy working hard at excavating some more tin cans and metal from underneath a tree root.

Amanda sitting proudly with her possible gaming piece.

We also had the pleasure of two more guests this afternoon. Dr. Laura McKay, a professor of Psychology at Capilano University, and her husband- Archaeologist Dave Hall, both guests made the trek out to site on bikes and in the rain. Dave is a professional consulting archaeologist in British Columbia and has his own company- Arrowstone Archaeological Research and Consulting Ltd. Dave took some time to talk to the students about his work in British Columbia as a consulting archaeologist (including the necessity of working in the rain). He works with both First Nations and resource companies, doing extensive field work in both interior and coastal areas.

Laura and Dave, on their way out, excited about the prospect of cycling in the rain. Again.