OCTOBER 13, 2007

From: Beld, Scott
Sent: Sunday, October 14, 2007 6:53 PM
To: Oxbow Archaeologists

Hi Oxbow Archaeologists,

We made it out to Sias East yesterday and a good day excavating. It was a little cool and breezy in the morning but turned out to be a beautiful sunny day. Kevin, Becky, and Nik came out in the morning. We also had three U of M students (part of the archaeology club) help us – Melissa (from Australia), Fred (from Korea), and Brandon (from Michigan) -- and Chris came out in the afternoon.

In the morning we extended the trench on the east side of the 110 West Block to the east (see map-10-13-07.gif). We opened unit 1S-98W and excavated it to 30 cm. It had several flakes and bone fragments as well as plenty of roots from a nearby tree. We also excavated 1S-99W from 25-40 cm. We found a small folded and hammered fragment of native copper in the 30-35 cm level (see copper frag 1S-99W.jpg).

In the afternoon, we excavated to units on the west side of the trench deeper, 1S-105W to 50 cm and 1S-104W to 45 cm. There appears to be a feature in 1S-104W that contains some bone fragments, though it could also be a rodent burrow. Unit 1S-105W seems to be going sterile at 50 cm – only a few flakes and small bone fragments were recovered.

This week on Wednesday we will be at the Resource Building sorting 1/8” screen bags and washing artifacts. Next Saturday we will plan on excavating at Sias East.

Hope to see you at the site.

Scott

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Scott G. Beld, Ph.D.
Research Laboratory Specialist - Intermediate
The University of Michigan Museum of Paleontology
1109 Geddes Road
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1079
Phone: 734-764-0489 (UMMP Main Office)
734-763-9253 (My Office)
Fax: 734-936-1380
Email: sbeld@umich.edu
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