Picking up where I left off …
As I mentioned previously, the Kramer enclosure is a circular earthen embankment surrounded by a ditch. The area inside the embankment is termed the ‘central plaza‘.
What I didn’t mention before is that, in the many centuries that have passed since the site has been in use, it has become a wooded area covered in trees and brush.
Here is a view from our parking area. The site is in the trees, to the south, directly behind our tool trailer.
The area in which we are parking was once under cultivation. At that time the field extended into the enclosure itself. Many years of plowing have eradicated visible signs of the embankment on the northern side. Part of our project will be to excavate trenches in this area to get below the plow zone and determine where, exactly, the embankment had been positioned.
As to the site itself, this is how the central plaza looks today…
The embankment can still be seen on the eastern and western perimeter even though time has altered the terrain to some degree.
As I mentioned previously, the Kramer enclosure is a circular earthen embankment surrounded by a ditch. The area inside the embankment is termed the ‘central plaza‘.
What I didn’t mention before is that, in the many centuries that have passed since the site has been in use, it has become a wooded area covered in trees and brush.
Here is a view from our parking area. The site is in the trees, to the south, directly behind our tool trailer.
The area in which we are parking was once under cultivation. At that time the field extended into the enclosure itself. Many years of plowing have eradicated visible signs of the embankment on the northern side. Part of our project will be to excavate trenches in this area to get below the plow zone and determine where, exactly, the embankment had been positioned.
As to the site itself, this is how the central plaza looks today…
The embankment can still be seen on the eastern and western perimeter even though time has altered the terrain to some degree.
On Wednesday we started in on the first phase of the project. This being, to lay out a grid covering the site, both inside and outside the embankment. We did this by measuring out and placing flags every 10 meters along both the north-south and east-west axis. Effectively, then, each flag marks the corner of a 10m x 10m plot.
Given the environment, this was not often an easy task to accomplish. Too, the underbrush and vegetation easily obscured the flags once they were planted, as the photo below demonstrates (the circles mark where 2 of our flags can be found).
Laying out the grid took until late Thursday afternoon. While I was working on this, other crew members were starting in on the next step; shovel test probes (STPs)
The STP is a small hole dug with a shovel (duh). Each hole is dug down until an obvious difference in soil coloration is encountered. Soil characteristics and the depths where changes occur are recorded. The volume of soil taken from the hole is measured. Then, that soil is run through a 1/4" screen. This allows us to recover any artifacts that might be present. Here is Jamie doing just that...
This practice lets us get a representative sampling of artifacts for the entire site. All artifacts are bagged and labeled as to where they were discovered. By taking the soil volume and and quantity of artifacts found at every STP, we can map out artifact densities across the site. Areas of higher concentration may warrant further excavation
As of the end of the day Friday, we were still working on the STPs. Most have been done. Hopefully the rest will be completed by noon on Tuesday (Its a 3-day holiday weekend so we won't be out there on Monday).
As of the end of the day Friday, we were still working on the STPs. Most have been done. Hopefully the rest will be completed by noon on Tuesday (Its a 3-day holiday weekend so we won't be out there on Monday).
The next step will be to start excavating trenches across the embankment at select locations.
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