APRIL 29, 2006

From: Scott Beld
Sent: Monday, May 01, 2006 12:32 AM
To: Oxbow Archaeologists
Subject: 20MD263 - April 29, 2006

Hi Oxbow Archaeologists,

Marianne, Kevin and I made it out to the site yesterday and began the 2006 field season (see Photo 1).

This year we’ll try to clarify the stratigraphy that we encountered last year at the site and expand our excavations of the 110 West Block. I talked to Bill Lovis (MSU) last Sunday at the MAS Annual Meeting – he just co-authored a book on buried sites in Michigan and was quiet interested in our stratigraphy (in case your interested the book is Modeling Archaeological Site Burial in Southern Michigan by G. William Monaghan and William A Lovis – MSU Press). They were finding buried layers that can be correlated with high and low water stages of the Great Lakes. The elevation of 20MD263 (around 606-608’ above sea level) suggests that our strata may be similar to the ones they’ve documented. Within a few weeks we’ll be establishing some bench marks on CNC’s grounds to allow us to get more precise elevations of our strata. That should help to begin correlating our work with other research in the Saginaw Valley!

I’ve attached a profile of the west wall of the 85 West Test Trench that we excavated last year (see Photo 2). As you will recall, we have a ca. 25 cm thick plow zone (black silt) that contains some cultural material (Upper Mercer flakes seem to indicate that it extends back to early Late Woodland times, ca. 600-900 A.D.). Below that is a brown silt layer about 10 cm thick that contains a little cultural material. Below the brown silt is a dark grayish-brown silt that is probably a buried A-horizon (ca. 50-65 cm below the surface). This layer contained a lot of fire cracked rock as well as a few flakes and bone fragments – hopefully we’ll find diagnostic material in it this year! Below this A-horizon is a yellowish-brown silt layer followed by a dark brown silt layer that could be another A-horizon. This dark brown silt layer had a few fire cracked rocks at the top (ca. 80 cm).

We’ll be trying to clarify this stratigraphy in the 110 West Block. You will recall that we opened a 3x5 meter area there at the end of 2005 and were finding a large amount of debitage, some pottery, bone fragments, and features, mainly just below the plow zone at 25-30 cm (we only got down to 30 cm at the end of the season). We’ll be expanding this area this year and taking it deeper (about 2 m to the west, 1 m to the east as well as 1 or 2 m south down the slope). Over the winter there were a few developments as I analyzed the material from this area. I think were coming down on a nice little Middle Woodland occupation – it has a lot of similarities to little Middle Woodland sites I’ve excavated before. There were over 8,000 flakes excavated last year. We found several point bases and “ears” in the 1/8” bags in addition to the one we found in the field last year (see the photo gallery on our web page for this point as well as pictures of the two vessels we found last year - OCTOBER 22, 2005). I initially thought the two vessels might be late, mainly because of the exterior modified lip on vessel 2 and an appliqué strip on a bodysherd probably from vessel 1 (see photo gallery on page SEPTEMBER 17, 2005). However, as I was analyzing the pottery this winter I noticed numerous bodysherds with coil breaks. This would be unusual in a Late Prehistoric ceramic assemblage (paddle-and-anvil technique is mainly used then), but is very common in Middle Woodland assemblages. The exterior modified lip on vessel 2 is probably lip-notching common on Middle Woodland ceramics. I’m not sure what to do with the appliqué right now, but it did come from the plow zone and could be later(?). Also, as I was going through the 1/8” screen bags I noticed quiet a bit of charred walnut shell, so we’ll be taking lots of flotation samples this year!

That’s the big picture. Yesterday, Marianne and I shot some elevations first thing in the morning. When Kevin arrived, we started expanding the 110 West Block by opening unit 1S-111W. In the morning, we excavated the top of the plow zone (0-20 cm) and recovered several flakes. In the afternoon, I trowelled the bottom of the plow zone (20-25 cm) and the first level below the plow zone (25-30 cm). There were numerous flakes and bone fragments in the 25-30 cm level as well as two small rimsherds of vessel 2 (see Photo 3). There was charred material on the interior of both these rimsherds, so we’ll certainly be able to get a date on it!!

ON WEDNESDAY, we’ll plan on excavating at the site. It looks like the weather might be all right. If not we’ll be at the RB.

Next Saturday, we’ll also plan on digging.

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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