Community Archaeology ended last Friday after a day and a half of backbreaking backfilling. All the dirt from 3 1/2 weeks of excavation went back into the hole. Why is it that we have our smallest crews when we backfill? For the stretch run of week 4 we lost 2 of our veterans Chase and Rose but gained Molly Odell. Molly came down to join us from Fairbanks were she has been working with Justin Hays at a contract archaeology firm (top photo). Nothing like professional help! Molly got her start as an archaeologist as a Com Arch intern at Zaimka Mound back in 2002. Now she is at graduate school at the University of Washington. We're proud of our hometown product and it was good to have her back.
On the second to last day we had a crew lunch at the Rendevous to charge up for the backfilling to come, and Zoya, Nora and Stu joined us (second photo). And yes I am wearing a tiara. I promised the crew I would wear one out of solidarity for our all female intern crew (I really wanted a 'Power Puff' teashirt). It got a little embarrassing later in the day back at the site when we had visitors and I forgot I had the tiara on. Half way thru my site tour spiel I was wondering what the big smiles were all about, and then I realized.. ..It's the tiara. How stupid I must have looked!
During the last week we also finished excavating what we hope will be a 7000 year-old house. It had stacked sod walls, a stacked sod bench and huge postholes. It measured almost 5 meters across! The big discovery for the week was that the house is associated with a thick layer of midden (trash). It indicates that this was more than just a temporary camp 7000 years ago. In the bottom photo you can see this house in profile. It is the black layer near the bottom. In the photo above, Don Clark takes a break while Mark Rusk directs and and everybody works on uncovering the house floor. Patrick
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