Week 3 Wrap-Up: New Units and House Excavation

During our third week of field school, we exposed more of the house in Block 1, found our first domestic feature in Block 2, and started new units on the other side of the site in Block 3.  And this was despite losing half a day to the rain.

Bailing water out of Excavation Block 3

In Block 1, we recovered many charcoal samples from burned timbers.  The mapping and photography work is slow and painstaking, but being able to reconstruct how the house may have collapsed is worth the effort.  This week, we hope to be able to take some of the units down through the floor to find where the posts are located.

In Block 2, the unit placed over a shovel test with Archaic artifacts, we found our first domestic refuse pit!  Undergraduate supervisor Michael Carlock spent Friday mapping and photographing the pottery sherds and rock exposed at the top of the feature and next Monday, we'll start taking soil samples and excavating it.

We opened two new units on the western side of the site, in what is now know as Block 3.  There is certainly at least one other Caddo household in this portion of the site, based on the amounts of pottery and lithics we have recovered.  Below the Caddo occupation level, on Friday afternoon, we recovered three Archaic points.

While shovel testing in Area 3 of the site, Bryce found a large cluster of fire-cracked rock.  We probably won't have time to investigate this further, but we have identified another potential occupation area at the site.

With only two weeks left, it's getting down to the wire.  This week we'll have teams mapping, profiling, and excavating features, so check back and see our progress!


Amanda Regnier
Oklahoma Archeological Survey