Wash out

It does seem as though our plans were overly ambitious. Heavy rains tormented us all week.

On Wdnesday the crew listened to the research presentation of UWF professor candidate Jennifer McKinnon. Following this early morning meeting, weather outlets overwhelmingly predicted imminent doom. In order to spare the crew another soaking, we all headed downtown to tour the Destination! Archaeology Resource Center housed in FPAN's building. Here, the students were able to take a "road trip" through Florida's archaeological and historical resources.

After that, the crew headed over to visit the T. T. Wentworth, Jr. Florida State Museum. This was an excellent opportunity for all of the students (especially the out-of-towners) to learn all about Pensacola's historic and archaeological past. On the left, you can see a herd of elusive archaeologists outside their natural habitat.

Students were able to learn about Pensacola's earliest prehistoric inhabitants, Spanish, British, French, and American occupants, Pensacola Bay's shipwrecks, and about the eclectic character known as T. T. Wentworth, Jr.

Above, you can see our UWF archaeologists admiring an exhibit about UWF archaeologists.

Finally, on Friday we were able to have our first full day of field work for the week! The students gainfully returned to their posts excavating levels and features. On the right, Trey Ropelis excavates a builder's trench features using a spoon to get into a tight spot.

At the end of the day, the students learned how to use the Pythagorean theorem to set in two new 2 meter by 2 meter units adjacent to the east side of Block 1. We will be photographing and mapping these two one Monday before beginning with excavation.

These two new units are particularly promising, because they will more than likely contain the unexcavated portions of a number of artifact rich, archaeologically interesting features. Likewise, there have been tempting views of a number of large artifacts in the walls that we will finally be able to remove for study after having identified them a whole year ago.

Check back in the next couple of days to monitor our progress!

Rain!

We're making excellent progress towards completing the units in Block 1! Of the four 2m x 2m units, two are nearly complete. Unit 6 in the block's northwest corner has proven to be a complicated mix of fill- and construction-type features that the students have had to use their best archaeological skills to figure out. Here (left), students Meagan Rhea and Amanda Dahlberg display yet another pipebowl fragment recovered (this time with a maker's stamp!) and the saucer that had been teasing us since Week 1.

Unfortunately, rain has plagued the last two weeks, hampering our thus-far awesome progress. Last Wednesday, the crew got caught in a torrential downpour! The students were able to quickly protect the exposed archaeological remains and paperwork, sometimes at the expense of their own personal belongings!

Here (above) the crew recovers from last week's deluge.

After a nice, relaxing Memorial Day weekend, the crew was anxious to get back to work. We hope to expand Block 1 east to chase some rather awesome, artifact rich features. The features, seen in Unit 3, Unit 5, and Unit 6 of Block 1, have contained dense concentration of domestic and personal artifacts that are informing us about the types of people that occupied the house over time and who worked in the Arcadia complex.

Unfortunately, today we weren't able to make the progress we'd hoped. We did manage to get in a few photos. Here (right), Trey Ropelis and Meagan Rhea show off their crazy photo prep skills: They managed to not only shade the unit for the photo by elevating the tent, but keep creatively keep their feet out of the shot, as well!

At promptly 10:45 am thunder rolled in. We managed to eke out a bit more work before it became abundantly obvious that all hope was lost. Fortunately, unlike during last week's storm, we made it back to the Visitor's Center before becoming well and thoroughly soaked.

After lunch, students got a chance to learn how to assemble and prepare our Sokkia Total Station unit. This is a surveying machine we use to make accurate and thorough site maps, as well as record elevations. The students found out it is far trickier to get the Total Station perfectly level than one might think. Here (left) Salina Hebert and Meagan Rhea give it a try.

Though the ten-day forecast doesn't look too promising, the Arcadia students will be doing their best to squeeze in what little work we can manage to between the raindrops. Check back soon to see how overly ambitious this plan turns out to be!

Geophysical

We were lucky enough to have UWF graduate and geophysical guru Sarah Mitchell at the site today. She brought with her two of UWF's geophysical machines: the soil resistivity and magnetometer. Under her direction the students lay out two adjacent 20 x 20 meter grids in Area A in which we would run the soil resistivity machine.

Here (right) Capri Wright lays down tapes.

Resistivity involves the measurement of resistance to an electrical current, which is passed through the ground. The amount of resistance is affected by how much moisture is present in the soil. Fortunately for us, two of our students, Meagan Rea and Salina Hebert, already have had practice running the soil resistivity machinery and were able to assist the rest of the class.

After the machinery was put together, students took turns running it up and down our established grid lines. This was a unique opportunity to explore a piece of scientific equipment that few other undergraduate field schools have an chance to use.

Here Peter Sittig (left) gets his chance to try out the machinery, while Becky Jadallah (right) makes sure that the lines don't get tangled.

Unfortunately, we ran out of time to use the magnetometer. Sarah plans to come back within the next week to complete this portion of our geophysical survey. The results from our soil resistivity survey are due back in only a few days. Stay tuned for the results! We hope that these surveys will reveal further evidence for architectural features or other similar occupational zones.

And to wrap up today's post, please check out the video below to see the resistivity machine in action! That's Salina Hebert and Peter Sittig making science look easy.

The 2010 Field Season Begins!

Classes have ended and the weather has become increasingly oppressive, which can only mean one thing: it's once again time for the UWF field school season! UWF is again offering three well-attended field schools: the Colonial Frontiers terrestrial project near Molino, Florida, the Maritime field school in Pensacola Bay, and the Arcadia Mills Village project here in Milton, Florida.

This year we hope to expand upon work done last summer. The 2009 crew uncovered evidence of a pier-supported house in the northwest portion of the Arcadia Mills property held by UWF. The 2010 crew will continue to excavate the block of units started by last year's crew, as well as open a number of other units and trenches in order to determine the nature and period of occupation of this fascinating structure.

We have an outstanding crew this year who are coping well with being thrown right into the thick of things. These brand new students are employing their recently learned techniques to tackle complex units and features, and are doing so admirably!

During the first half of the week the students were introduced to the site and taught the skills they'll need to undertake the summer's work. Fortunately, there was a large pile of re-excavated screened backfill dirt on which the new archaeologists could practice what they learned. On the above left, students practice the fine art of shovel popping. On the right, students discover the light hand necessary for preparing an excavated area for photos, also known as photocleaning.

Even though we're only at the end of Week One, the 2010 UWF crew has already made outstanding progress! Although we've only had two real day's worth of digging, the students have uncovered a host of domestic-related artifacts like a number of different types of ceramic, window glass, nails and fasteners, bottle glass, and two different molded pipebowls.

At the above left is am in situ shallow whiteware bowl or deep saucer. On the right are Arcadia field school students Trey Ropelis and Amanda Dahlberg with the molded clay pipebowl they recovered. These great finds are just the beginning of all the wonderful work that will happen this summer. Check back often for updates on our excavations and the artifacts we've found, as well as student highlights.

Next week we will be doing additional geophysical surveys in Area A. UWF graduate student Sarah Mitchell will instruct the students in the use of soil resistivity and magnetometer. The results of these surveys will help us direct our future work on the site. This promises to be an exciting summer, and we can't wait to share it with you!

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.