Field Blog for 9/11 and 9/13

This week we continued our work on trying to finish our shovel test in transect two. However, this week was a little challenging because we did not have Dr. Dumas with us, so we were struggling a little with the holes.

Tuesday was not a very good day. To begin, our transportation to the fort was not available and all our vehicles could not hold our supplies. Luckily, I have a good friend who let us use his truck to go out and take our supplies. We finally got out there about 1:30 and began our testing. Michael and I began trying to finish the never-ending hole on transect one. It led to no avail and we went on to transect two. We began with shovel test one, and that one began to be a never-ending hole as well. We finally got annoyed with it and continued. We finished roughly half of the transect on Tuesday, even with the few troubles at the beginning of the day. To really make up for on that day, we found a piece of faience! Really gave us hope to continue finding artifacts.

Thursday was a more laid-back day. We could not get our equipment out to the fort because our van was unavailable as well as my friends’ truck. So, since we could not go out, we stayed in the lab and began water screening. With the help of Daniel, he showed us how to properly water screen, when to let things soak, and to just rub it all and get the mud out. Once everything dries, we hope to find more artifacts. We got most of the dirt in our buckets empty and hope to finish within the next week.

This week was a good one, but little upsetting that we could not get more done. We are all looking forward to continuing our work out at the fort and to hopefully keep finding artifacts. We all are looking forward to the return of Dr. Dumas, so she can guide us and show us proper ways of continuing our research and field work.