Student Highlight of the Week- MARISA FOSTER

Marisa Foster is an undergraduate student at UWF majoring in Maritime Studies. Originally from Minnesota, the land of 10,000 lakes, her interest in the underwater world started early. Marisa is soon to be a graduate student working toward a master's in Anthropology. She is in the process of acquiring her captain's license and becoming a certified dive master.

Last week of Field School

We are nearing the end of the summer 2009 field season at Arcadia Mill. All of the 1x1 meter and 1x2 meter units have been documented and backfilled! We are using the last few days of field school to document our Block 1 excavations by photographing and mapping each unit as well as the block as a whole.

We have taken several wide-angle photographs of the entire block as well as individual unit photographs. It is very important to document all of the profiles/stratigraphy (sides) as well as the plan view perspective (floor) for each unit.







We have found some very neat artifacts and pictures are soon to come! The block yielded many personal items including eating utensils, buttons, pipe bowls, and pipe stems. Check the blog again soon for artifact photos and a comprehensive analysis of the excavation results!

Student Highlight of the Week- AMELIA EASTERLING

Amelia received an Anthropology B.A. from the University of South Alabama in 2008. She particpated in the excavations at Ft. Mims and Old Mobile during the USA's 2008 spring field school. Currently, Amelia is a second year graduate student pursuing an Anthropology M.A. at the University of West Florida. Her interest is in Precolumbian archaeology and she plans to study a Santa Rosa-Swift Creek shell ring for her thesis.

Student Highlight of the Week- BILL BROWN

Bill is a 42 year old returning student with a previous BA in social work. He is a senior seeking a BA in general anthropology. He's an active member of the SCA following an 11th century Spanish refugee persona. He's mostly interested in early colonization of Spanish Florida. He intends on pursuing a Masters with a heavy emphasis on GIS map applications.

Artifact Density Analysis

The maps below represent the architectural and ceramic distributions for the Area A-10 meter interval shovel tests. The highest concentrations for both architectural artifacts and ceramics are located within the general vicinity of Block 1, Units 3-6 (pictured in previous blog update). The shovel test data corresponds very well with the placement of Block 1. The locations of the sandstone structural features and artifact concentrations (using both shovel test and unit data) suggest that we have located the interior and exterior of a residence.

The architectural concentrations clearly surround the exterior of the structure (outside the sandstone corner features). Ceramic concentrations occurred in both the exterior and interior areas of the proposed structure.

Architecture

Ceramics

Student Highlight of the Week- JENNY OWEN

Jenny is a senior majoring in biological anthropology at the University of West Florida. She is particularly interested in the pathologies associated with industrialization and she plans to pursue a career in bioarchaeology.

Structural Features

We have opened all of Block 1, which consists of Units 3-6. Since opening all four units, we have exposed many more bricks and structural features. It appears that we have remnants of a chimney along with the adjacent chimney-fall, which has a very dark, ashy appearance.

The above photo shows Block 1, Unit 3 after all of the structural features were exposed. This shows a somewhat square shape to the articulated bricks and brick rubble.

The above photo shows Block 1 (bottom of level 1, 0-10 centimeters below surface). This photo displays the chimney remnants along with the chimney fall in the upper right 1/4 of the block.

Block 1 has yielded several features that we will begin removing after the overall Block 1 map is complete. Block 1 has yielded numerous artifacts including several types of ceramics, bottle and window glass, a spoon bowl (sans handle), a turpentine tool, pencil lead and a black- glass faceted cuff link or button. We are very excited to continue excavations in this area!

We have exposed several different pieces of sandstone in this area, which were likely used as piers or cornerstones for a structure. We have identified two sandstone slabs that are in aligment with eachother. Sandstone does not occur naturally in this area of the site though sandstone was readily available from a large outcropping located near the museum. The above photo shows the two sandstone slabs (one on the far right side of the photo and one on the far left).

Along with Block 1 we have also excavated several 1x2 meter units. Units 1-2 and 7-9 have been completely excavated and documented. We have begun backfilling these units so we can focus more attention on Block 1. We opened Unit 10, 1x1 meter, (shown to the left) over a partially exposed sandstone feature, which is located within a tree-fall depression. Based on the resistivity data, it appears that this sandstone feature may be the anomaly identified in this area of the grid.

We have been lucky to have plenty of visitors recently! Dr. Matt Clavin, UWF History Department, has brought out two different groups of teachers from all over the country. The teachers are participating in a workshop about African-American history. We've also had visitors from our very own UWF Archaeology Institute! We have two weeks left before field school officially ends, so if you can't make it out to see us please continue to follow our progress here on the blog!!!