Field School Wrap-up ... Block 5

When I sat down to type up more about field school I realized that I would have to take a different approach with the remaining stuff. Trying to organize it by week just didn’t cut it any more because of everything that was going on. So, rather than posting one long (and confusing) entry covering everything, I’m going to post several smaller entries broken down by the blocks we were working on.

By the time we were done we had opened up a total of six blocks. I’ve already covered pretty much everything that needs to be said about Block 3 in the previous “Week 5” posting. This was the excavation across the northern edge of the ditch and embankment. Not to slight Block 3 (it did yield good and useful data) but exciting things were happening elsewhere and I want to move along and focus on them. I’ve already talked a lot about Block 1 since that is where I spent most of my time during the first half of field school, but there is still more to add. And I haven’t said anything yet about the other four blocks at all. So, basically, I’ve got 5 blocks to talk about plus a little something to wrap up the whole adventure with.

For the rest of this entry I’m going to talk about Block 5. This is the area I focused on during the last 2 weeks. This block was composed of four adjoining 1m x 1m units located inside the enclosure. This location was selected based upon the amount of artifacts unearthed here by the shovel test probe. In some regards, this block was disappointing. It didn’t yield the kinds of artifacts that the test probe suggested it might. However, it did yield 2 things that none of the other blocks presented.

Here’s a photo of the northwest corner of Block 5 in the last stages of excavation…

Here's a little closer look at one of the noteworthy finds.

What you see there is a series of parallel lines of darker soil. This part of the enclosure was once under cultivation. What those lines represent are what we call 'plow scars.' This block has been excavated down to the same depth as that reached by past plow shares. This is the boundary point between the subsoil and the topsoil which was turned over by plowing. We didn't see remants of past, historic activity like this in the other blocks.

And this is a view of the other important find from Block 5.

At this point I've already excavated to get a cross-sectional profile of the feature. What was first noticed was a semi-circular area of darker soil. You can still see the western portion of that. Mixed in with that darker soil was signs of ash and burnt soil. This suggested that we were possibly looking at a hearth or some kind of fire pit.

As I excavated the profile, more ash and burnt soil was uncovered. In addition there were 2 fire-cracked rocks (FCR). These are rocks that had, at one time, been heated to the point that they shattered. It is possible that these rocks had been used to border a hearth. But that begs the question, "what happened to the rest of the border?" If we had had additional time we could have expanded this block to uncover the northern half of this feature and see if there was more large FCR there. Unfortunately, we had to halt the excavation of Block 5 at this point. Maybe somebody can come back at a later date and explore this area some more.