Halfway done already???


Awesome work on your first week of excavations, everyone! Sean, Rick, and I are so proud of how far you all have come, and all the progress that you've made. Keep up the great work, and as Rick says, "Give yourselves a pat on the back... and now over the other shoulder."


Lots of units either finished Level 01 today, and the rest are on track to finish Monday. Some will have a bit more work to do before they get to the B Horizon, such as in Unit 10 (left). In other areas, like Units 01 and 02 (right), erosion and compaction of the soil since the field was last plowed has thinned the plow zone, and we can start to see some features. In Unit 01, we have a wall trench (running southwest to northeast on the western side), as well as a potential posthole in the northern corner of the southeaster quad.

A couple of neat surface finds today, though not much came out of the units since many people were working on wall/floor cleaning. Angelina found a retouched flake (left) just south of Unit 12, and Veronica picked up a possible end scraper made from a primary reduction flake west of Unit 4.

That's not to say nothing interesting was found in the units; here's a really cool piece of pottery that was decorated using a grooved paddle. This style is known as Busseyville Grooved Paddle, and is well-known from work at the nearby site of Carcajou Point.

We've been lucky enough to have not one, but TWO bald eagles visit the site this week. Thursday, a juvenile eagle flew over shortly after first break, and again right after lunch. As eagles are important symbols of authority and spirituality among the Ho-Chunk and other successors to the Oneota people we are studying, we took this as a sign that it was a good time to make an offering of tobacco, a sacred medicine among many Indigenous Nations. Everyone who wanted to participate sprinkled a pinch of dried tobacco on the ground near their unit as a way of communicating our gratitude for being able to excavate at this site and take part in re-discovering this community. Friday afternoon during second break, an adult bald eagle visited us and circled the site for several minutes. I am interpreting this as an indication that our offerings and gratitude have been accepted, though it may also be worth noting that our tarped-over units are very attractive to field mice and thus may attract hungry birds of prey.

On a lighter note and back by popular request, some photo highlights from this week: 





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