JULY 8, 2006

From: Scott Beld
Sent: Monday, July 10, 2006 9:19 PM
To: Oxbow Archaeologists
Subject: Sias East - July 8, 2006

Hi Oxbow Archaeologists,

We made it out to the site on Saturday. Nik and I opened a new unit, 0S-107W, in the morning and I trowelled the 25-30 cm level of units 0S-107W and 3S-107W in the afternoon (see MAP).

There was a lot of chippage in the plow zone (0-25 cm) of 0S-107W and Nik found a very heavily reworked projectile point (see Photo 1) and a biface (see Photo 2) in the 0-20 cm level and a biface fragment (see Photo 3) from the 20-25 cm level. Biface #2 (from 20-25 cm) is interesting for a couple reasons – 1) it has a different flaking pattern with shallow flake scars and a relatively thin/broad cross section than the points/bifaces we’ve been finding and 2) the Bayport chert this biface is made from has started to develop a patina (this is the first piece of Bayport we’ve recovered in the 110 West Block with patina). If you look at the photo, particularly side “b”, you may be able to make out patches of brown – that is the patina. In my experience this type of patina doesn’t take long to form and is associated with wet environments. I once accidentally left some Bayport flakes under the eave of my house after a flintknapping session. About a year after that flintknapping session I noticed a patina had developed on the flakes similar to this biface. This biface having a patina doesn’t necessarily indicate greater age, however it would seem to indicate that it originates from a different depositional environment than the rest of the material we’ve been finding! There are several possible scenarios for this (everything from being found and brought by the Middle-Late Woodland occupants to being pushed up to this location by the soil removal to the north), but the best would be if the digging of one of the features in the central part of the block brought it up from one of our buried soil horizons!!

The 25-30 cm level of units 0S-107W and 3S-107W contained several flakes with some bone fragments and fire cracked rock and a couple GTP sherds. There was also one utilized flake in 3S-107W.

This Wednesday we’ll work at the Resource Building. We’ll plan on washing 1/8” screen bags and processing flotation samples. Next Saturday we’ll plan on digging at the site. We have one more unit (1N-107W) to open on the east side of the block, then we’ll start taking the units on the west side deeper.

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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