Summer Dig 2016

While summer may not "officially" start for a couple more days, it has been here in south Arkansas for a while.  We've embarked on another hectic summer schedule, with our work weeks punctuated by explorations of regional culture...The picture above and below are from a local festival held in Magnolia, Arkansas, featuring a steak cook-off (and, obviously, a car show, as the gorgeous Plymouth GTX pictured above shows):

Our big event early in the summer is the Arkansas Archeological Society's annual training program.  For most of the past decade, Bragg Family South has joined dozens of other archeology enthusiasts and professional archeologists for days of digging...Well, all is not digging--we have a blast camping with a great bunch of people!  Below is a picture of the camping area, hosted by Parkin Archeological State Park in eastern Arkansas:

Over the years, we have become close friends with many of these people, and made new friends constantly.  They've gotten to watch our kids grow up, too:

What a bunch of fun characters--people like Marilyn Knapp, pictured below, who helps run the program and keeps us in line:

And we get to reconnect with friends who have moved from Monticello, like our former neighbor Jessica (Howe) Cogburn (we helped with her wedding earlier this year):

We also periodically get evening programs on archeological and local history topics, such as the one given to us by Faye Futch, the Arkansas Archeological Survey station assistant for Parkin and a local historian of a number of topics.  The excellent talk she gave us this night was on the local "juke joint" scene that saw many famous musicians (such as B.B. King) over the decades:

Can't forget about the digging, though--Beth and Stephen were more active participants this year:

I was initially involved in helping work a deep trench along this year's dig site, which revealed some interesting features and artifacts:

In the picture above, Arkansas Archeological Survey archeologists Julie Morrow (in trench) and Jeff Mitchem (green shirt) help document the location of a significant artifact.  This year's dig site, the same as last years, is in a bean field not far from Parkin, Arkansas...Which means we periodically got close-up views of crop dusters:

In the picture below, Marilyn Knapp prepares to interview our kids for a promotional piece for archeology:

In the next picture, Parkin Superintendent Ben Swadley showed us his expertise in flint knapping:

I also got to take a short course in human osteology (the study of human bones), which is a vital skill to have on many archeological sites.  Below, my instructor Mel Harvey (woman with glasses and long brown hair and gray shirt on left) tells us about the bones of a couple of her cats:

We actually spent most days looking at human bones, but for respect, we do not take pictures of those remains.  By the end of the dig, we had turned several parts of this bean field into a matrix of square holes roughly 6 feet on a side and 2-3 feet deep:

Another great adventure in the hot, muggy, bug-filled bean fields of Arkansas!!