Still, I can briefly describe the day's activities.
Shelly and I continued excavating Unit F outside the embankment. Ours is the deepest unit dug so far. Our goal there is to dig below the topsoils and find the original contour of the ditch.
Work continued to progress on Units D and E. Unit B was also re-opened Monday. We had extra people present so could give it a little more attention.
However Unit C, in the center of the trench, remained the focal point. I'll explain why in a bit.
Tuesday turned out to be a day of mixed activities. It was raining in the morning so work in the field was delayed until after lunch. During the morning hours we all worked on cataloguing in the lab.
In the afternoon we picked away at Units B, E, and F. Here's a photo, taken from the top of the embankment, with Shelly in our unit (Unit F). In the background you can see some large sheets of plastic. We use these to cover the units each day before we leave.
And here is a shot of the entire trench taken from outside the ditch.
In this photo Amy is wrapping up excavation of another level in Unit B.
Now I need to stop and explain a little bit.
In front of Amy is Unit C. You can see the boundary line between Units B and C by the apparent change in color of the soil. There really is no actual difference; its just that Unit B has been freshly worked while Unit C was left untouched this day.
The thing to note, though, is that Unit C has only been partially excavated. What we've done there is created a 'profile' wall mid-way through the unit. When we find interesting soil features, such as discolorations, this allows us to get a cross-sectional view of what we have found.
We have found several circular soil discolorations in Unit C which is why we are focusing a bit more heavily on that unit. Each of these points have been flagged, and will have a profile taken. Some may turn out to be nothing but others may offer evidence of something we were hoping to find here.
Here is a view of those discolorations, looking downward from the embankment.
And here is a closer look at one of them in profile.
It may be difficult to make out in this photo but in the middle of the profile is a V-shaped section where the soil is somewhat darker than the soil around it.
This is a post hole.
One upon a time a wooden post had been erected in this spot. Over the many centuries during which this site was uninhabited, the post decayed. In its place it left new soil high in organic content; different from the surrounding soil. Too, as it decayed, additional topsoil eroded into the void it left behind. What you end up with is a 'mold' in the shape of the original post.
So, why is this significant?
A string of such post molds would tell us that there once had been a wooden stockade erected around the enclosure at the crest of the embankment. We anticipated that this would be the case but needed to get below the layers of topsoil to see if the necessary evidence was there.
Granted, one post mold does not make a stockade. But, if we continue profiling in this manner we may get additional. supporting evidence. What it looks like at this point is that we may have a double line of posts. Here is the same photo but with hypothetical lines drawn in.
We should have a better grasp of the situation in a couple of days. However, somewhat regretably, I'm not going to be on hand to report on this as it develops.
The decision was made mid-afternoon Wednesday that I am to head off to tackle another project. A new unit is to be opened up in another part of the enclosure on Friday and I get to go excavate there.
So, with that in mind, I'm gonna wrap this entry up a bit early in the week. Today (Thursday) was spent in the lab again. Nothing new really to add on that topic.
Here is a parting shot as I left our trench on Wednesday. I expect that by the time I get back here to take photos again, it will have changed significantly.
I'll wait until next week to talk about my new excavation unit.
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