F 13-05

Another surprise from Feature 13-05...

Final week!

It's our last week of excavations already... time sure flies. We will be running errands on Thursday, but today, Wednesday and Friday we will be digging 8:30-4. Saturday and Sunday are backfill days.

Feature 13-05 showed some promise, and then turned out to be filled with pottery, chert fragments and large chunks of charcoal. Cynthia and Jim had their hands full recording all of the data afforded by this shallow pit feature. The plow probably removed much of the upper portion, but enough remains for a nice dataset.

Cynthia exposing FCR and large potsherds in Feature 13-05.

Recording an artifact from Feature 13-05.

At the base of level 2 in F 13-05, a large potsherd still pokes out of the next level. Note rodent burrows eminating to the north.

Feature 13-06

Large pottery fragments, charcoal, and now a nice triangle... may Feature 13-06 yield much more data as we progress...

Jill's "jackpot" from the plow zone above Feature 13-06.

pottery

This rimsherd and several other fragments of the same pot are turning up at the base of a plow furrow. The sherds resemble sherds found on the surface a few years back (see the upper left corner of the photo of the 13 unique vessels from the surface surveys on the Bockmier Point and Bockmier 1 page). The design motif along the rim is called Middleport Crisscross.

Area C

Area C has become a "hot spot" of activity, since two large features have appeared within the last few days. Features 13-05 and 13-06 appeared as large negative spikes on the gradiometer maps, and both have been hit by the plow a few times, pulling up large chunks of pottery. Our hope is that the majority of these features were left intact, and will yield subsistence information, like charred food remains and seeds. We are currently expanding units around the features, to get a plan view before cutting into them for profiles. Exciting work, so come on down to volunteer or just see what we're up to!

 

 

Feature 13-05 emerges in the north half of the unit. Flakes and pottery can be seen in situ along the north wall, above the North Arrow. The dark soil to the south is a deep plow furrow running from NW to SE. 

Pow Wow

 

AVP volunteers enjoyed a day of culture at the Seneca Pow Wow Saturday. 

T shirts

The site t shirts are available! They are provided at cost ($10 each), but supporting members get a $5 discount. Come down and get yours! Don't forget to "like" us on Facebook!

Atl Atl Day

Yesterday's technology lesson ended with a session of atl atl dart throwing... volunteers of all ages enjoyed a few tosses.

 

 

 

Volunteer Tim and Vision 2020 intern Caleb.

 

 





 

AVP intern Daniel.

 

 

 



Canticle Farm manager Mark.

 

 

 



Volunteer Celia.

 

 

 



AVP intern Ariel.

 

 

 

 

Daniel again. 

 

Volunteer Jill.



Pow-Wow

As a part of the AVP experience, we will be attending the Pow-Wow in Salamanca this Saturday. We will be digging at the site today through Friday from 8-4, and all volunteers are welcome!

Schedule Change

We will be off on Monday, July 15, and will resume excavations the next day. Come out and join us!

Features!

We now have three numbered features, two of which will be expanded through additional 1 X 1 pits. One appears to be a cylindrical pit, used for storage, and the other appears to be a hearth. We are still hoping for postmolds...

 

 

Volunteers Tim, Jean and Leigh working at N 238 E 184, where the possible hearth (F13-03) was later found.

 

 



Museum Tour

Jare Cardinal gave a wonderful tour at the Seneca-Iroquois National Museum for our interns and volunteers. Thanks Jare! We're back at the site 8-4 for the next several days, and we welcome local volunteers of all ages! Hope to see you soon!

A Day in the Life...



 

How do we spend our day at the AVP? Here are a few images from throughout an AVP day.

 

 

 

 

 

Greeting the morning sunlight from the window of the "shalley" (Jean speak for chalet).

 

 

 

 

Master Tom preparing some of us for the day's work with a little morning yoga in the greenhouse.

 

 

 

 



 

Daniel and Ariel preparing a new screen.

 

Now they're setting up a 1 X 1 unit to use the new screen.

 

 



 

 

Jim showing off the unfinished celt he discovered on the surface at Area C.

 

 

 

 





 

We work in the field...literally.

 

 

 

 

 A plan view of Feature 13-02, beautifully prepared by Becky, Tom and Jim.

 

 

 

 

Tom and Laurie washing artifacts in the on-site lab space provided by the wonderful people at  Canticle Farm.

 

 



 

 

 

 

The crew enjoying an evening at Napoli Pizza in Olean.

 

 

Then, of course, we head off to our quarters and sleep soundly, awaiting the next eventful day...



Area C

A portion of Area C (the target area) has been cleared and set into the grid. Peripheral units are being finished up, and soon we will all be excavating in the 'hotspot'. Hopefully, the anomalies will turn out to be data-rich, and we also hope that some postmolds have survived the deep plowing.

Volunteers!

Virginians and Texans have arrived. We still have plenty of room for local volunteers, as we have only two student interns. Remember to check us out and 'like' us on Facebook!

Update

 

 

We've had a few nice days in a row. While we're waiting for the cover crop to be turned down in the target area, the perimeter test pits are turning up plenty of debitage and pottery fragments.

 

Volunteers Laurie and Tom screening at Area A.

Our first 1X1 of the season

Yesterday we were lucky enough to have a full workday without a drop of rain! We set up grid points from the 2007-2009 grid and used the gradiometer data from 2009 to choose a couple initial locations for test pits. Our first 1X1 is located over an anomaly at N258 E202, and we were nearly at the base of the plow zone before it finally began to rain. We will hopefully finish the plow zone level today, and map the base... and find out what the anomaly represents. The test pit has so far yielded some flakes (clarence onondaga and huronian cherts) and a tiny fragment of weathered pottery.