September 13, 2003

From: Scott Beld
Sent: Sunday, September 14, 2003
To: Oxbow Archaeologists
Subject: Ponton Site - September 13, 2003

Hi Oxbow Archaeologists,

Dave, Marianne, Conrad, and I made it out to the site yesterday and had a good day excavating.

We excavated three units in the 515R495 5x5m block to establish the eastern boundary of the feature/stain that we’ve been tracing this summer (see potonmap 9-13-03.pdf).

515R493. We started the day excavating this unit (Dave, Marianne, Conrad and myself). The southeast corner of the feature was in this unit. Decorated earthenware included Brown Transfer, Polychrome Handpainted, a fragment of Blue Edge with a painted blue strip around the rim, and a fragment with a green band around the rim (I think it’s a base or lid to something that’s why its photographed upside down) (see 515R493.jpg).

516R493. Conrad and I excavated this unit. The picture of the unit floor shows the feature in this unit – it’s northeast corner (see 516R493.jpg). I suspect that the two roundish/lobes are postmolds. I took a core from the northern (top) one. The core indicated that the feature is at least 30 cm deep and there is a charcoal layer – about 2 cm thick – 22 cm deep. We recovered several interesting artifacts from this unit (see 516R493artifacts.jpg) including an open pontle bottle base, a brass tack, and a fragment of Black Transfer earthenware (upper right – this is only the second piece of Black Transfer I’ve noticed from the site). Other decorated earthenware included Old or Staffordshire Blue, Light Blue, and Brown Transfer and Blue Edge.

517R493. I excavated this unit in the afternoon. Only a trace of the feature appeared along the south edge. Decorated earthenware from this unit included Red, Old or Staffordshire Blue, Brown and Light Blue Transfer, Polychrome Handpainted, and Green Edge.

This coming week should be pretty busy for us. On Wednesday evening we will excavate at the site (weather permitting – if it is raining we’ll be at the RB). If it’s good weather, go to the site. I should be there around 5:00-5:30.

Next Saturday and Sunday is Fall Festival at CNC. We will have a table this year and we need volunteers to help man it. If you can help, let Dennis Pilaske [dpilaske@chippewanaturecenter.com] know.

A couple of other announcements from the MAS Executive Board meeting today…

Sunday, October 5 is the MAS Fall Workshop to be held at the Castle Museum in Saginaw and hosted by the Saginaw Valley Chapter. I’ll be speaking in the afternoon. This is also the kickoff event for a large exhibit of Saginaw Valley Archaeology that is going to run at the Castle Museum for a year! I’ve attached a scan of the announcement for this event. This should be a good Fall Workshop and you won’t want to miss it.

The following Saturday, October 11, is Michigan Archaeology Day at the State Museum in Lansing. I’ve attached a scan of the exhibits and programs. This year were not going to have an exhibit but I’ll probably be going for a little while. Is there any interest in going as a group? (If you go you can get a really neat poster – “Fish Tales”).

Hope to see you at the site Wednesday!

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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