Dig Diary Entries (By: Laura)

Tuesday: Today we found our site to excavate. We worked in an area near the garden. We put flags anywhere that there were rocks and dirt that seemed out of place. We placed more than 25 flags. Our class chose the site by seeing which area had the most flags. We picked a point and measured out a 2 meter square. The excavation site was marked by orange string and stakes. Although it was only about 8:30-9:00 AM when we were at the dig, the sun was beaming down on my back and it was very hot.

Poem:
We didn’t dig
Too bad
Gosh darn it
So sad
I wish I could see the artifacts beneath
But we didn’t dig
Too bad
Gosh darn it
So sad

Wednesday: Today we finished measuring our site and split it in to four quadrants. Mackenzie, Devon, and I got quadrant A. It has a lot of dirt clods and a patch of grass in the middle of it. We started digging today and we haven’t found any artifacts yet. Hopefully we will find some artifacts soon. All the digging archeologists do takes a long time and sometimes after spending all day in the sweltering heat you don’t find anything but dirt rocks and it is disappointing. I found out that digging with small trowels is very difficult and that digging with rakes is surprisingly easier and more efficient.

Thursday: *Field Trip* NO DIG!

Friday: Today I had an orthodontist appointment and missed most of the dig. In the five or so minutes that I was there Devon and I found a blue marble. We were excited to have found an artifact. Mackenzie was leaving for Portland, Oregon that day so she missed out on our exciting discovery! Unlike the sweltering heat that we were complaining about on Tuesday today the temperature was much cooler. We were all complaining about the cold and on top of that it was rather windy as well.

Monday: *Columbus Day* NO DIG OR SCHOOL!

Tuesday: Today we continued to dig on layer one. Mackenzie was back and we had our whole group there. Today we dug and dug and were hoping to come along another artifact. After many minutes, which seemed like hours, of digging we were nearing the end of the class period. I was sad that we hadn’t found anything. But, when Mackenzie gave a startling shriek saying that she had found what she had thought to be was a hand axe I was happy! I rushed over from sifting and looked at it. We don’t know for sure if it a hand axe yet but we think it could be.

Wednesday: Today we finished digging on layer one and began layer two. The temperature today was just right. Today we found three artifacts. The first one that we found was what seemed to be like another hand axe. The second artifact was a really long stick that seemed to be burnt or worn at the edges. Last but not least we found something that had sticks woven together. Today was an interesting day in the field. Ryan, Clint, and Kevin found a cool skull but touched it so now we can not date it. I think now we will begin to find and uncover many more artifacts.

Thursday: Today we finished excavating our site. Over the course of many hard working days filled with digging, sifting, recording, digging, finding artifacts we are finally done with all that work. Today was just like any other day of this dig. Finding artifacts and digging like crazy is well… fun. Today our class found many artifacts including hand axes, a bowl, burnt wood, a spear, and a shelter type thing. I think we didn’t uncover all the artifacts because it seems like we didn’t find as many as we should have and also because we had to go out of our quadrant a little ways and extend it to get a few artifacts.
Friday: Today instead of digging we recorded our artifacts. There were four different stations and at each station we had to do something with our artifacts. At the first station Mackenzie and I were at we had to label our artifacts with our period number, quadrant letter, artifact number, and the layer that we were digging on. Example: P1L2A7 would mean that Period 1 found it on layer two and it was the 7th artifact that quadrant A had found. Mackenzie and I figured out that it is very difficult to write on burnt wood and on small objects. Fortunately we have small handwriting to begin with or else we would have probably had a difficult time making it legible. At the second station we were at we had to draw our artifacts on a big artifact sheet for layers zero, one, and two. Next, Mackenzie and I made labels for each artifact and wrote on a piece of paper our period number, dig quadrant, layer number, and artifact number. Plus, we also wrote a description on what we thought it was.