NOVEMBER 5, 2005

From: Scott Beld
Sent: Sunday, November 06, 2005 9:24 PM
To: Oxbow Archaeologists
Subject: 20MD263 - October 29 and November 5, 2005

Hi Oxbow Archaeologists,

We made it out to the site both yesterday (11-5-05) and last Saturday (10-29-05). I didn’t get an update out last Sunday because I was excavating at Gordon Hall, a mansion outside Dexter, so I’ll catch-up this week.

On October 29 Nik, John, Dave, Conrad and I excavated at 20MD263 (see Photo 1). In the morning we opened a new unit (0S-110W) on the north end of our block. This is about as far north as we can go before we get to the area of topsoil removal. In the afternoon, Nik and John trowelled the 25-30 cm level of 1S-109W, Conrad began trowelling 3S-108W and I trowelled the 25-30 cm level of 0S-110W. We continued to find lots of flakes, bone fragments, and grit-tempered pottery bodysherds. I found a bear canine while trowelling 0S-110W.

Yesterday (November 5), John, Marianne, Nik, Kevin, and I made it out to the site (see Photo 2). It was cloudy all day but didn’t rain until after dark so we got a full day excavating. We opened unit 0S-109W. John finished trowelling the 25-30 cm level of 3S-108W. We found numerous flakes, bone fragments, and GTP, particularly in the 25-30 cm level of 0S-109W and 3S-108W. No major artifacts this week.

Wednesday evening we’ll meet at the Resource Building to do lab work. A week from this Wednesday (November 16) is our Christmas Party at the Visitor Center from 6-8 P.M.

Next Saturday, we’ll plan on excavating at the site weather permitting. There is one more unit (0S-108W) in the 110 west block that I’d like to get down to 30 cm before we close. There is also a little backfilling to do (not much) at the 46 west 2x2. We’ll try to close the site for the winter next Saturday.

Hope to see you at the site.

Scott

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Scott G. Beld, Ph.D.
Research Associate II
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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