SEPTEMBER 16, 2006

From: Scott Beld
Sent: Monday, September 18, 2006 9:24 PM
To: Oxbow Archaeologists
Subject: Sias East - September 16, 2006

Hi Oxbow Archaeologists,

We made it out to the site on Saturday. It wasn’t as nice as the weatherman predicted but we had a good day excavating anyway. Besides myself, Kevin, Nik S., Chris, Nick J. and two new participants – Justin Halteman (former CMU student, going to grad school in Dec.) and Jenny Caron (getting degree in Dec.) – made it out to the site.

We started the day excavating the 35-40 cm level of the drain (4S-7S-110W – see Map). Kevin found another expanding stem point in unit 5S-110W (see Photo 1). As we were going down the slope (units 6S-110W and 7S-110W) it looked like we might be cutting across strata (B1 unit – A2 unit – B2 unit) on the slope. However, when I was taking cores in the main part of the block a couple weeks ago I couldn’t see the A2 unit. It’s still very unclear what’s going on and what we’ll find deeper, whether it will be like the 85 West Trench or not.

Later in the morning, we excavated the 30-40 cm levels of units 1N-110W and 1N-109W. These units were disturbed by the “dirt removal” in the 1960’s. We found some flakes, bone fragments and couple pottery sherds in these levels.

In the afternoon Conrad and I worked on Feature 2 and 5, respectively. We took flotation samples – not much else to report on them this week.

I’ve been thinking about what we can get done and trying to set priorities this past week. We’ll probably excavate the eastern part of the block to 40 cm. I don’t think we can finish deeper units this season and it will be easier to prepare a 40 cm “hole” than a 1 m “hole” for winter. Also, I took a look at the material we have for dating this week. I know there is enough char from Vessel 2 (probably Late Prehistoric) and enough charcoal from the hearth part of Feature 2 that contained a sherd of Vessel 1 (the vessel with coil breaks). I weighed the char I scraped off Vessel 1 sherds – it weighed 20 mg (50 mg is recommended). I’d like to get more char from Vessel 1 and date it and Feature 2 (if not we’ll date Vessel 2 this year). So, I think we’ll spend a lot of the remainder of the season excavating the 30-40 cm levels of the eastern part of the 110 West Block hoping to get some more sherds of Vessel 1 with char. If we get done with that I’m thinking we’ll close the block for the season and maybe open a few test units at the “riverpoint” at the end of the season (November).

This Wednesday we’ll be at the Resource Building. We’ll try to wash 1/8” screen bags and process flotation samples if it’s not too cold – otherwise we’ll be inside washing and sorting. On Saturday, we’ll plan on excavating at the site.

Hope to see you at the site.

Scott

*************************************************************
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
*************************************************************