The Dirt on Archaeology: The Dirt on Archaeology in Range Creek June 22-28, 2009

This week we uncovered a beautiful paved hearth with ash originating on the first, bright-orange floor, with oxidized and charred areas along the edges, and found a whole, perfect two-hand mano just above the floor (hopefully this will match up with the trough metate found last week). We also uncovered part of the rim and shoulder of a large decorated grayware applique jar in a small subfloor pit not far from the hearth and mano, in addition to a complete Bear River side-notch projectile point, charred animal bone, ceramics and lithic debitage in the levels above the floor. The crew has been taking sediments for analyses from all levels, and we have found lots of charcoal for radiocarbon dates. Artifacts sitting on the floor are remarkably sparse, but do include the large jar fragment found near the hearth by the SciGirls last week and dozens of tiny micro-debitage flakes in one corner of floor-- It looks like we may have a layer of roof fall along with rocks from the back wall of the structure overlying the floor and associated occupation level in the central portion of the structure.

Melissa- "This week I have really enjoyed! I feel like I've learnt alot- more than I have in the past 2 weeks. I also feel I have more confidence with the excavating techniques, identifying artifacts and especially with the total (station). I've also enjoyed working in two other grids with a different person- gaining experience in using hand-tools, learning about stratigraphy and all the recording procedures that are involved. Its definitely been a hot week (very different from the first two) but its been extremely productive. My highlight would have to be finding the mano- the most complete and larges artifact so far found! So far its still difficult to tell if the Fremont inhabited the site for a long period. I do think the site is a house of habitation, backed up by the hearth, the food grinding materials and the ceramics."

Lisa- "This week brought us gorgeous weather. It wasn't until Thursday that we got rain, and then it didn't stop until Friday morning, just in time for breakfast. Monday through Thursday we worked at the site. Mel found an intact mano!! (edit) Celia and Kim found some charred bone. Friday we (edit) surveyed. We leave this week once again with sunshine. Joe and Ingrid: unfortunately nothing else was found in the other half of F18. Sad day."

Celia- "Wow although we didn't find any really cool artifacts in our grid, I have to say this week has been a rather enjoyable one. I think mostly because of the warmer weather, it brought out a kinder attitude from everyone. Oh and the stream... so much more enjoyable, when one is not freezing (edit)! We finally got around to mapping F8, which actually wasn't so bad. The total station can be fun. I had originally started my grid unit w/ Mel for the first two weeks, but changed over w/ Kim for this week. :) Both girls have been great to work w/. Heard some stories about bears around the canyon, which was truly nerve-wracking. Missed some people back in town fierce this week. Got a terrific tan :) But now I'm ready to have a long shower, sleep in a warm DRY bed and visit people I haven't seen in weeks!"

Kim- "This was my first week of the Range Creek field school. I came in two weeks later than the other students that have been here all month. I spent four days of the week helping to get one of the grids in the site down to floor. Through the week there were several fairly large finds. A mano was uncovered and some pottery that was situated in a wall. There was one feature that was in the floor that was mostly charcoal that still needs to be excavated further to learn more. On the last day we (edit) surveyed (a) new site, and (discovered) more above and below (edit). The weather was nice mostly all week, except Thursday it rained. But apparently that was less than the other weeks so I was grateful for that."

Casey did not write a weekly summary this week, but says about the survey: "We found many concentrations of lithics including a projectile point (which Casey found) that showed a probable Fremont occupation of the area. Additionally, we found a tree that had been cut down in historic time. We finished the day having GPS'ed the site (Casey also did the GPS'ing) and logging what we found."

We excavated and mapped during the week, and then on Friday conducted a survey and found three new sites-- mainly lithic scatters, perhaps indicating hunting camps and/or butchering stations 1000 years ago. The crew did a systematic sweep of the site flagging debitage concentrations and tools, learned to record on an IMACS survey form, and gps'ed the site using a Trimble.