JULY 6, 2005

From: Scott Beld
Sent: Thursday, July 07, 2005
To: Oxbow Archaeologists
Subject: Riverbank Testing - July 6, 2005

Hi Oxbow Archaeologists,

Nik, Marianne, and I excavated on the riverbank yesterday evening (see Photo 1).

In the afternoon, I finished excavating the animal burial (Feature 1). I exposed the neck and upper back vertebra, a front leg (scapula, humerus, radius, and ulna from the right leg – the foot bones from this leg were the first bones we found last week), and another scapula that was located over the vertebra (from left front leg) – see Photo 2 and Photo 3. Photo 4 shows the verterbra after removal of the scapula. Photo 5 shows the right front leg after removal of the vertabra and ribs. I still suspect this is an animal buried in its den or a relatively recent burial. Several things support this, including, the matrix of the burial is the A1 silt (humus/top layer soil), I noted several uncharred seeds directly beneath the burial, and all of the space between the bones wasn’t filled with sediment (particularly among the vertebra under the left scapula). This animal is a little larger than my adult fox skeletons and it is a young animal -- the epiphyses of the humerus, radius, and vertebra were unfused and the centra of two of the thoracic vertebra were also unfused.

We also excavated 60W-South3, 65-80 cm. 65-75 cm was the 2nd A-horizon. We found numerous fire cracked rocks and several flakes of pebble cherts.

Saturday we’ll plan on working at the riverbank. It looks like it should be nice weather.

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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