By Mercedes Harrold






It seems that since hurricane season began on June 1, the rain, which we had so greatly needed, has come…and now it does not seem to want to stop.

This morning, the future archaeologists carried the minimum amount of tools they needed out to their excavation units and Michelle and I headed toward the water screening area because once again I was the FS Tsarina. This means that I am responsible for keeping track of all the soil from various excavation units as it was screened. By the time we all got situated, the clouds opened up and we had to run everything back inside because the rain.

We did not waste the day though. We were divided into groups and five of us had the task of cleaning artifacts that had already been given a field specimen number. The other students were given tasks in preparation for public day this Saturday.

During the cleaning process, we each had a small tub of water and a toothbrush to brush off the dirt. We were very careful during the cleaning process because some artifacts, like daub and animal bones, are more fragile. These were not cleaned with water. The pottery was cleaned carefully also and only the edges were brushed to see the clay tempering.

We had a special treat at lunch today because the State Archaeologist provided all of us pizza. We were all very appreciative of the special treat and enjoyed each other’s company over our pizza and soft drinks.

After lunch the rain let up so we headed back out into our respective units and Michelle and I headed back out to the water screening area. Within a few minutes there were several buckets full of wet dirt. Since everything was wet, we had to wrangle up some more screens for drying the small materials recovered in the 1/16th screen.

The rain stayed away the rest of the day although we did end up having to hurry up the task of putting away equipment after finding out we were under a tornado warning.