MAY 18 & 21, 2005

From: Scott Beld
Sent: Sunday, May 22, 2005
To: Oxbow Archaeologists
Subject: Riverbank tests - 5-18-05 & 5-21-05

Hi Oxbow Archaeologists,

We made it over to the Ponton property on Wednesday (May 18) and Saturday (May 21) and excavated test units along the riverbank (see Photo 1 and Photo 2).

On Wednesday, Nik, Brigitte, and I opened another unit adjacent to the test unit we opened on May 7. We did this in order to get more room to work the shovel as we get deeper. We took the unit down to 30 cm on Wednesday night, excavating in 10 cm levels. We found a few bone fragments, F.C.R. and one flake. Two of the bones we found were large phalange which might be a very large deer or elk – I’ll let Terry make the call (see Photo 3 and Photo 4).

On Saturday, Nik, Marianne and I continued to excavate the test units. The most interesting “find” was a buried A-horizon containing fire-cracked-rock between 60 and 70 cm. I managed to get one of the units excavated to 80 cm by the time I left. The stratigraphy as seen in Photo 5 consists of a thick dark gray-black A-horizon about 30-35 cm thick at the top, followed by a dark yellowish-brown B-horizon about 20-25 cm thick. Below this B-horizon is the buried A-horizon consisting of a dark grayish-brown slightly sandy and friable silt about 10 cm thick. This layer contains numerous relatively small F.C.R. (up to 3-4 cm diameters). I probably got about 0.5-1 kg in each unit at this level. We did find one very small flake and a bipolar core or shatter at the top of the A-horizon. The 10 cm I excavated below the A-horizon consists of mottled dark grayish-brown and dark yellowish-brown silt with a little scattered charcoal.

I wouldn’t characterize the material we’ve found so far as particularly “dense,” but the quantitiy of F.C.R. in the buried A-horizon suggests that there may be an occupation or activity area nearby! We’ll try to take these units down further this week (Wednesday and Saturday – maybe Monday?). Then we’ll return to Ponton in June.

I’ll send an email Monday or Tuesday about this Wednesday.

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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