AUGUST 20, 2005

From: Scott Beld
Sent: Sunday, August 21, 2005
To: Oxbow Archaeologists
Subject: 20MD263 - August 20, 2005

Hi Oxbow Archaeologists,

John, Nik and I made it out to the site yesterday. We continued excavating the 2x 2 m unit at 46-47 west.

In the morning we excavated the 30-35 cm level and the 35-40 cm level in unit 1N-46W. Nik made the major find of the day – a fragment of a copper awl (see the photo below). This artifact was made by hammering a piece of native copper flat and then rolling and hammering it into shape. This type of artifact can be associated with most all periods of Michigan prehistory and in fact also occur on historic sites (note the two specimens we found in the Cater site midden made from rolled kettle brass -- see Brass Awls). It started to rain at 11:30, so we went back to the Resource Building and ate lunch and did some lab work. I went back to the site at 2:00 after it stopped raining and finished excavating the 35-40 cm level and the 40-45 cm level. We are now near the bottom of the top A-horizon. In addition to the awl, we also were finding pottery sherdlets, some small calcined bone fragments, 1 Upper Mercer flake, and a little fire cracked rock. At the 35-40 cm level we also found about 5 or 6 pieces of limestone.

This Wednesday we’ll plan on working at the Resource Building processing flotation samples, etc. On Saturday we’ll plan excavating at the site as usual.

A week from Wednesday (August 31) I’d like to have a meeting to make final plans for the MAS Fall Workshop – maybe at 6:00 P.M. Let me know if this time is ok.

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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