MAY 29, 2004

From: Scott Beld
Sent: Sunday, May 30, 2004
To: Oxbow Archaeologists
Subject: Ponton Site - May 29, 2004 - Season Begins!

Hi Oxbow Archaeologists,

We made it out to the Ponton site yesterday (Saturday, May 29) and began the 2004 field season! Marianne, John O., Greg, Lia and I came out. The ground was still to wet to screen plow zone and we had to park on the north end of the field because of some puddles/muddy spots in the two-track.

In the morning Marianne, John, and I shoveled the dirt off the tarps over the features, pulled the tarps off and exposed the features. In the afternoon John, Greg, Lia and I reestablished grid lines to plot the features and cleaned up the site (see Photo 1 in the photo gallery below).

Later in the afternoon, Greg, Lia, and I went back to the RB and did some lab work (sorting and analyzing). Greg and Lia were finding pins and some beads in Ponton 1/8” screen samples. I’ll claim the major find of the day – while analyzing a bag of artifacts from the 2003 season I identified a basal thinning flake of Bayport chert that is very likely a Paleo-Indian channel or fluting flake (see Photo 2 and Photo 3 in the photo gallery below). Channel or fluting flakes were flakes that were struck from the base, up the axis to thin the point. In the pictures the “striking platform” end of the flake is at the bottom of the pictures – the striking platform is broken off this flake. In the dorsal picture, note the flake scars originating from the sides – this is characteristic of channel flakes. This flake is pretty much identical to the channel flakes from the Barnes site (compare our webpage of Barnes site CHANNEL FLAKES). We’ll need to keep our eyes open for additional evidence of Paleo-Indian occupations as we excavate this summer!!

I’ll probably run up to CNC tomorrow (Memorial Day) and head out to the site – even though it is supposed to rain a little. I’ll try to get Feature 4 (the smaller rectangular feature) drawn and photographed so we’ll be able to start excavating next Saturday (I may start excavating it tomorrow also). On Wednesday we’ll plan on doing lab work and next Saturday, weather permitting, we’ll be at the site excavating.

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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