Day 15! Finding features!

There was a lot going on today in several units, so I didn't have time to get many pictures. But as most units are making progress on digging into Level 2, we are starting to see some interesting features pop up, as well as interesting artifacts. Above is a sherd of grog-tempered ceramic from Unit 11. Grog tempering means that old pottery is crushed up and incorporated into the clay used to make new objects. Most Oneota ceramic is shell-tempered, so it is neat to see another option that people had!

In Unit 02, there is a line of post holes running at a perpendicular angle to the wall trench in Unit 01. These lines are poised to intersect just north of Unit 01, and may indicate that we are very close to finding a corner of a structure. This could reveal where the inside of the structure was, and thus the area that people would have inhabited.

In Unit 05, there are hints of another wall trench beneath the plow zone, but we'll have to do a bit more digging to tell for sure. Because the soil in buried features has a different composition than the B Horizon surrounding them, sometimes they absorb moisture from the soil above at different rates. This is what we are observing in Unit 05; a line of plow zone soil that consistently dries out faster than its surroundings.

Unit 07 may have the beginnings of a pit feature in the Northwestern quad, but again, we'll have to do a bit more digging. So far, we have observed some large pieces of pottery (including two that refit together!), concentrations of charcoal, and a distinct soil color/texture.

Finally, in Unit 11, we have something a little odd. In some ways, it resembles a wall trench, but it is much wider and runs perfectly North to South, unlike other features we are finding that run about 35 degrees east of magnetic North... stay tuned!