Summer Dig 2014
Of course, every June my thoughts nowadays turn to archeology, and the annual summer dig hosted by the Arkansas Archeological Society and Arkansas Archeological Survey. The summer dig is the combination of a training program, large-scale excavation, and two-week block of fellowship, all rolled up into a bug- and poison ivy-wrapped package. This year's program was a continuation of a dig in a prehistoric site in central Arkansas. I left during the week (Hope and the kids remained behind) to set up camp and begin digging. On the first day, things looked pretty good, as I found a dart point chipped out of a stone called novaculite even before the formal excavation commenced:
I have written about this stone known as novaculite before--it has been the focus of a number of the prehistoric excavations we've worked on in Arkansas over the years. Here's a good website, for those of you interested in more on novaculite: http://arkarcheology.uark.edu/novaculite/index.html#
We made good progress on our first day of this dig (Saturday, June 7). Hope and the kids couldn't join me until later that evening, as Kenny and Beth were in a swim meet back in southeastern Arkansas. They arrived Saturday night, as did a major storm system that brought heavy rain and lightning much of the next couple of days! Hope, Beth, and Stephen returned to Monticello (as planned) and Kenny and I took advantage of a brief respite from the rain to explore parts of the Ouachita Mountains in western Arkansas:
We drove about a half-hour west of where we were staying to start a pretty driving tour in these mountains known as the Talimena National Scenic Drive (http://www.talimenascenicdrive.com/), which actually extends all the way into Oklahoma. The low clouds and periodic rain showers blocked some of the views, but we did get a chance to get out and enjoy the drive.
The next day, Kenny started a training class called "basic excavation" which I did when I attended my first annual dig. Heavy rain on Monday kept us out of the field, but on Tuesday things dried out enough for us to start excavating. Below, Kenny starts shoveling out our 2 meter by 2 meter "test unit", found in a 30-year-old pine plantation:
Our site was a large prehistoric village, occupied for thousands of years. Specifically, our location was looking for prehistoric trash pits and other sites of habitation. The artifacts scattered on the ground surface strongly suggested we were in the right spot, as did the small arrow point below:
Archeologists are very interested in prehistoric trash pits because they contain the remains of meals and every-day items of use. Most fortunately, we happened to find one of these trash pits in the unit we were excavating in! Below, Kenny is instructed by an archeologist with the Arkansas Archeological Survey, Carl Carlson-Drexler, on how to draw what is known as a "profile" of our trash pit:
This profile is a "map" or drawing of the shape, contents, layers, and soil colors of the feature that we were excavating. Below you can see that we've removed approximately one quarter of this trash pit, and we're mapping the profile of this wall of the pit. The items sticking out of the soil in this wall are various kinds of artifacts, including broken pottery, mussel shells, animal bones, chipped stones, and turtle shells:
This was really a spectacular trash pit--it contained lots of artifacts that will help the archeologists get a much better feel for how these prehistoric peoples were living, especially regarding what they were eating. Below, Kenny holds one of several very large potsherds we found in this trash pit.
Unfortunately, my camera's battery went dead and I didn't have the proper recharger with me, so I only took a few more pictures with my cell phone. Kenny and I survived a week of this basic excavation together (I needed to be with him because he was a minor), and we had a really good time together, both digging and socializing in the evenings with each other and the other campers. We had to return after a week so I could get back to work, and Kenny could return to swim team, but we're already planning for next year's summer dig!
I have written about this stone known as novaculite before--it has been the focus of a number of the prehistoric excavations we've worked on in Arkansas over the years. Here's a good website, for those of you interested in more on novaculite: http://arkarcheology.uark.edu/novaculite/index.html#
We made good progress on our first day of this dig (Saturday, June 7). Hope and the kids couldn't join me until later that evening, as Kenny and Beth were in a swim meet back in southeastern Arkansas. They arrived Saturday night, as did a major storm system that brought heavy rain and lightning much of the next couple of days! Hope, Beth, and Stephen returned to Monticello (as planned) and Kenny and I took advantage of a brief respite from the rain to explore parts of the Ouachita Mountains in western Arkansas:
We drove about a half-hour west of where we were staying to start a pretty driving tour in these mountains known as the Talimena National Scenic Drive (http://www.talimenascenicdrive.com/), which actually extends all the way into Oklahoma. The low clouds and periodic rain showers blocked some of the views, but we did get a chance to get out and enjoy the drive.
The next day, Kenny started a training class called "basic excavation" which I did when I attended my first annual dig. Heavy rain on Monday kept us out of the field, but on Tuesday things dried out enough for us to start excavating. Below, Kenny starts shoveling out our 2 meter by 2 meter "test unit", found in a 30-year-old pine plantation:
Our site was a large prehistoric village, occupied for thousands of years. Specifically, our location was looking for prehistoric trash pits and other sites of habitation. The artifacts scattered on the ground surface strongly suggested we were in the right spot, as did the small arrow point below:
Archeologists are very interested in prehistoric trash pits because they contain the remains of meals and every-day items of use. Most fortunately, we happened to find one of these trash pits in the unit we were excavating in! Below, Kenny is instructed by an archeologist with the Arkansas Archeological Survey, Carl Carlson-Drexler, on how to draw what is known as a "profile" of our trash pit:
This profile is a "map" or drawing of the shape, contents, layers, and soil colors of the feature that we were excavating. Below you can see that we've removed approximately one quarter of this trash pit, and we're mapping the profile of this wall of the pit. The items sticking out of the soil in this wall are various kinds of artifacts, including broken pottery, mussel shells, animal bones, chipped stones, and turtle shells:
This was really a spectacular trash pit--it contained lots of artifacts that will help the archeologists get a much better feel for how these prehistoric peoples were living, especially regarding what they were eating. Below, Kenny holds one of several very large potsherds we found in this trash pit.
Unfortunately, my camera's battery went dead and I didn't have the proper recharger with me, so I only took a few more pictures with my cell phone. Kenny and I survived a week of this basic excavation together (I needed to be with him because he was a minor), and we had a really good time together, both digging and socializing in the evenings with each other and the other campers. We had to return after a week so I could get back to work, and Kenny could return to swim team, but we're already planning for next year's summer dig!
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