Kyle

Day One
August 19, 2001

Today was basically an intro to what we will be doing for the next five days.

We were taken to the site of our excavation and showed where the different structures were and how they knew.  For example, they found several buildings just by flagging the square nails + bottle pieces they found.  And from this and further excavation in the area they found that these new found buildings matched another historical map.

One of things I found interesting was the obsidian, I thought that they were petty cool because they looked cool with the white + purple and how they were so smooth and sharp.  Supposedly obsidian was used as a currency between the local tribes because it was so valuable as a knife and/or weapon.

During the tour of the site, we were given the basics in our excavation procedure.  It is really simple.  You just pick up what is unordinary for a river, look at it thoroughly (?) for any markings or ID, and if it doesn’t put it back and watch it float away.  But if it does you point it out and see if it worth the effort to keep or not.

The rest of the day was ours and so we ate, played football, and explored.

Day 2
August 20, 2001

Today we began the search.  At first I had no idea what I was looking for.  Rocks were all that I saw and they looked like a lot of things.  It wasn’t until I found a piece of ceramic that I was somewhat confident of my searching abilities.  Then I just started looking w/o worrying about what I missed or didn’t.  And by the end of the first transect, I found 2 chunks of ceramic, and 2 pieces of green glass, one which was ribbed and that was a find. 

The worst thing about the search was the fact that every other transect, you had to use the goggles.  It wasn’t really hard or difficult, it was just the fact that the goggles flooded and then you had empty + empty +empty it every 10 seconds.  Very frustrating.

The two search teams meet in midriver.

Day 3
August 21, 2001

The thought that sticks in my mind about today is the thought of pokey rocks scouring my feet.  That wasn’t very fun because after every transect I had to empty the small numbing rocks from my shoes.   But anyway. 

Today was also a very good artifact finding day.  We found several very cool objects like a semi-coroded tin spoon (full), a full bottle, and several ceramic and glass pieces with markings.  That was very exciting.  Today we bagged a lot of artifacts. 

The moss was probably the most difficult part of the search.  I say this because to find stuff under the “moss” (I guess I don’t know what it is, some sort of vegetation that is long and rusty colored.)  so moss  is to feel for smooth or I guess any objects under the moss, but when you pull your hand back up, it is covered with little back gooey things, pretty nasty but I still did it.

Day 4
August 22, 2001

Today must have been the funnest day that I have had in a long time.  I think what made it so fun was that to avoid injury I had to combine my experience in the woods with the knowledge of how I would have to step or move to get from point A to point B.  So when I came to a hill (down) I would basically run.  Making my body react to every change and object in my way, avoiding things, letting myself slide then jump, reverse my footing and then slide so more, then jump on the log balance for ½ a second, then run down it, jump over the thick brush and run diagonal to avoid the huge mass of trees in front of me.  Then when I reached the bottom I would jump to the other side and use my momentum to jump up two f.  Anyway, I loved it.  Thank God we took a shower. 

Day 5
August 23, 2001

 We worked again.  Then we went to the bird show. 

Day 6
August 24, 2001

Today I packed to get wet but I didn’t intend to go snorkeling.  But in the end I did and it was so cool being completely submerged, then coming up for air w/o putting my head up.  Swimming w/o worrying about breathing.  Very fun.  Sorry, out of time.  Thanks so much for washing my clothes and for the fun.  Kyle