| Entry: | I have been doing CPR/AED/First Aid training for the past few days so it feels like I have little to report (except that I have mastered chest compressions and the Heimlich maneuver!) but really, perhaps what is most exciting is that we have started excavating the north space (444) of building 96 and have already found our first x-find of the season-- a groundstone tool located in the blackest, loosest, most charcoal-rich spot of unit 20856, a burnt deposit which may represent an intentional fire. It is immediately on top of a denser, more compact and clay-y unit in which a whole deposit of small bull or deer bones (especially scapulae) are embedded. It seems like the burnt deposit (u. 20856) may represent an intentional burning event or repeated events, with the groundstone tool perhaps even laid at the point of ignition. All speculation of course, but still an exciting possibility! And when I get back into the field on Saturday, I'll have the chance to expose the faunal cluster more clearly so the faunal team can come up and give their expert opinion. It's all such a contrast to the cleanliness of all the floors in space 370, which have no finds and where excavation is a semi-mindless task. What is there to theorize about repeated plastering? Burning, ground stone, and dense assemblages of faunal material are so much more intriguing! |
