Spring Break 2011!!!

March 27, 2011

Here's Kenny the alter server, looking all angelic... Kenny recently started this new duty, and has really enjoyed it--he actually has squabbled with another youngster from church as who gets to serve in a particular weekend... I'm sure the enthusiasm will ebb at some point, but it's nice to see for now!

We're just wrapping up our spring break period, and unlike some of y'all from up north, we can truly say it has been spring-like here--above the boys are running around in a sprinkler as the high temp on this day exceeded 80 degrees. We've actually had a number of days over 80 this last month, and with a lack of meaningful rain and some gusty winds, we've had a bit of a fire problem this year. However, this has made for some good archeological opportunities, for which the picture below shows me building some screens to look for artifacts with:

I've been doing some work on our unit's experimental forest (with the local USFS archeologist's blessing, I may add) on a prehistoric site. The shovel testing I'm doing is on a 16 foot by 16 foot grid, and I'm digging holes 1-2 feet into the ground looking for artifacts. We're trying to define the extent of this site, so we can figure how it may affect our management of the experimental forest. I've also done a little exploration for new sites on our forest in that area, and have located at least one other site, which yielded the dart point below:

This new site is possibly more significant than the first one I've been shovel testing--it has yielded more artifacts, and the dart point above may be from the Dalton time period, which would place its manufacture about 10,000 years ago!!

Over spring break, we've also done some more recent archeological volunteering. The picture above shows me shoveling out a 6 foot by 6 foot test unit (that's Beth and Stephen in the pit helping move dirt) at Historic Washington State Park in Arkansas. This state park features an old (well, at least for Arkansas) American settlement along the old Southwest Trail, which went into Texas (which was initially still part of Mexico). In fact, many troops passed through this town on their way to fight in the Mexican War in the 1840s. Later, during the Civil War, Washington was the capitol of Confederate Arkansas after the Union captured Little Rock. Later in the 1800s, the railroad bypassed this area, leading to a gradual decline of the community. A few of its historic buildings have been preserved, and the Arkansas Archeological Survey has worked frequently on this site to help determine its history. Below, Beth and her new friend Gabby helped move some dirt:

The kids also enjoyed going to the next block over and playing on a huge southern magnolia that had been planted by one of the earliest settlers in 1839:

This state park has a number of tourist-oriented features, included the restored houses and museums, living history reenactors, and surrey rides around the townsite, which Hope, Beth, and Stephen enjoyed:

(That's them in the back seat). Kenny and I spent quite a bit of time digging--much of Kenny's digging involved playing with some other kids in the dirt that we had already screened for artifacts. As with many historic sites, this one was rich in artifacts, including a pitcher handle I uncovered:

The black transfer print design apparently fell out of fashion before the beginning of the Civil War, indicating that this was discarded early in the history of the town. We also found lots of nails, bricks, other historic ceramics, animal bones, and other materials of life during this period. We dug for a total of three days during this break at Historic Washington, before returning back to Monticello. I then helped the UAM station archeological assistant Jessica Howe do some more shovel testing on a prehistoric site here in Drew County:

We were trying to define the extent of this site on a slight rise in this cotton field (note the old cypress and gum filled cutoff lake in the background behind the van) before the farmers plowed their fields again.