June 7, 2003

From: Scott Beld
Sent: Tuesday, June 10, 2003
To: Oxbow Archaeologists
Subject: Beginning the 2003 excavation season!!

Hi Oxbow Archaeologists,

We have a lot happening at Oxbow over the next couple of weeks including the beginning of the 2003 excavations at the Ponton site!

Last Saturday (June 7) I went over to the site in the afternoon and gridded out new units and put new tarps down (see attached map). Conrad and I had put a new tarp on the area west of last year’s block excavation a couple weeks ago – this is where I suspect the cellar might be and is drying out! Saturday I gridded and tarped the 5 x 5 m block to the north of this, though this will be too wet to dig for a few weeks yet. I also gridded the 5 x 5 m block to the east of last year’s excavation – this area had a tarp on it over the winter and is relatively dry.

Tomorrow evening (June 11) we’ll work in the lab and try to finish sorting the 1/8” screen samples from last year – there are four left that are partially sorted. If we finish these tomorrow evening, we’ll have managed to get everything washed and sorted over the winter and I’ll have done preliminary counts on all the material from the Ponton site!!

The next to weekends will be our 2003 workshop. The first weekend will be a little different from previous workshops. Because so few people signed up (2) and both have some knowledge of archaeology, I’ll do it a little less formally this year. Saturday (June 14) we’ll have a regular excavation session (and the first for the year). I’ll talk a little bit about archaeology for the workshop participants and explain the excavation and how to do it at the site before we get going in the morning – then we’ll excavate. On Sunday (June 15), I’ll be going to 20MD534 and showing how to excavate features and collect C-14 samples. There is a feature there that was producing Late Woodland pottery when we found it. I meant to go back and excavate it last summer but didn’t find the time. Hopefully we’ll be able to get an interesting date on some Late Woodland pottery as part of the workshop!!

The following weekend on Saturday (June 21) Terry Martin from the Illinois State Museum will do a workshop on identifying animal bones in the morning and afternoon (as we’ve done previous years). Then on Saturday evening (I think at 7 in the auditorium) he’ll give a talk on prehistoric utilization of lake sturgeon and some work he did with the DNR wildlife biologists about lake sturgeon on the west side of the state this year (more on this later). On Sunday (June 22) we’ll excavate at the Ponton site with Terry.

I’ll be hoping to see you at the site as we begin this season’s excavations!

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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