By Michael Birt

I spent the day in the pool. Not a pool filled with water, rather a pool filled with dirt where we are water screening all of the soil that comes out of the units. Although I was not excavating in the units, I did get to see some amazing finds. This morning Michelle and I found small iron fragments of what has the potential of being pieces of chain mail. Later, Michelle found an almost undeniable piece of chain mail. We are fairly positive it is a fragment of chain mail worn by one of de Soto’s men, making it an exciting find. Mercedes made her way down with the last half bucket of dirt left over from yesterday. She dumped the dirt into the screen and I ran my hands over the top of the dirt, I saw a bone sitting on the screen. Michelle confirmed that it was the left tibia of a small mammal.

A film crew from FSU came down to the site today around 9:00 AM to videotape what we have been doing over the past couple weeks. While Michelle and I played in the water elsewhere on the site people were excavating. Paul and Erin continued to work around Feature 1, a large trench. They ended excavating at a depth of 45 centimeters below datum. Jennifer and Evan uncovered to a possible feature and area. Unfortunately they appear to be root stains. Mercedes, Moe, and Juan continued excavating around a very large root. When the root was removed they found a large stone preform. Moe and Juan also laid down two more units which we planning on opening up tomorrow. Nothing to exciting happened in the afternoon hours. The pool area was filled with screens holding dirt and artifacts to sift through. The others continued to dig and bring bucket loads of dirt to the water screening area. Only two more days until Public Day and we are trying to get the units to look pretty while at the same time preparing our individual stations. Until tomorrow I bid you ado to you, and you, and you.