Last-but-not-least Student Highlight! Robin Hardy

Robin is a student of the University of Wisconsin- La Crosse. This fall she will be entering her senior year in hopes of graduating in the Spring with a Bachelor's in Archaeology, minoring in Anthropology. She's originally from Minnesota and became part of our field school because she plans to go into Maritime archaeology and wanted to take part in both Maritime and Terrestrial experiences.

The time has come

Alas, all good things must come to an end. Such is the case with our 2010 Arcadia Mills Village field school. All in all, we had a terrific season! We finished three 2x2m (3.3 x 3.3 foot) units, and made significant progress on six more. In total, we moved enough dirt to equal the weight of a school bus! We're all very proud of how quickly our students learned and developed into proficient archaeological field techs. Any one of them would do well in a professional position.

Before I get into the events of our last week, I'd like to show you the results of some of the geophysical surveys done. Unfortunately, the raw GPR and Gradiometer results are quite complicated and need additional processing before they can be interpreted here. I will, however, present to you our soil resistivity results (below).

On the left, are last year's results, and on the right are this year's. The dark bands running in perpendicular lines align nicely with our previously suspected architectural features, and further suggest that there were a number of additional structures in and around the area where our Block 1 and Trench 1 are located. Future work will prove just what these variously resistive soils indicate.

The crew spent much of the last week rushing about, making final maps (left) and preparing for final pictures (right). All this tedious work is in an effort to document exactly how our units looked before we filled them back in. For some units (units 4, 5, and 6), this documentation will mark the final glimpses of what the units' whole picture looked like. Those three units are now completed and will not be uncovered next year. For the rest (units 3 and 12 in Block 1 and units 13, 14, 15, and 16 in Trench 1), these maps and photos will give next year's archaeologists an idea of what was discovered during the 2010 season before work in the 2011 season begins.

These two photos below show just how far we excavated in Block 1 this year. On the left is a shot of Block 1 taken 20 May 2010. On the right is the final picture of the Block taken on 22 July 2010.

It's remarkable how far we got! Well done, 2010 Arcadia Crew!

Finally, it was time for backfilling. We lined the unfinished units with gardener's filter cloth to protect and delineate the exposed surfaces, then filled in the units from our mountainous backdirt pile. Before filling in the finished units, we tossed 2009 and 2010 pennies into the sterile bottoms. This was to create a new terminus post quem. This is a Latin term used by archaeologists meaning "time after which." This will show future (possibly very distantly into the future) researchers that past archaeologists have disturbed those sediments, and anything found therein is likely of a very disturbed context.

And then it was finished. (Except for the months of labwork, of course...)

I'd like to thank our two crews of rotating maritime/combo students and our steadfast core of solid terrestrial students for being archaeological rockstars. I'd like to thank my awesome supervisors Tara Giuliano, Kad Henderson, and Andrew Christensen for their wonderful support. We also have to recognize the fine efforts of our fearless leader, Mr. John Phillips, and the overwhelming and obliging hospitality of the Arcadia Mill staff. This has been a wonderful and rewarding experience, and I'm glad I've been able to share it with you!

Thanks for reading!

Melissa Timo

Graduate Director-in-Training

Arcadia Mills Village 2010 Field School

Student Highlight! Bob Rutledge

Bob retired from a career in social services and continue to operate rental properties in his hometown of Bemidji, Minnesota. He has a BA from the University there. His training in chemistry and biology dovetailed nicely with his interests in the history of human evolution and cultural development. He's returned to school as a senior in anthropology. Bob plans to work toward a MA with a dual focus on maritime and terrestrial archaeology. He expects to spend his future traveling the world, from project to project, experiencing a wide range of cultures and environments along the way.

Student Hightlight! David Hodo

David retired from the U.S. Army Reserve in 1996 and the Little Rock, Arkansas Police Department in 1999. From 1999 until 2000, David visited and studied archaeology sites and institutions in the Middle East, Mediterranean, and Europe. He became an online and on-campus student in the UWF Maritime Studies Program in August 2008. Last summer, David excavated in Bylazora, Macedonia with the Texas Foundation for Archaeology and Historical Research. He is currently in UWF Combined Maritime and Terrestrial Field Schools.

Student Highlight! Thomas Kirkland

Kirk left Auburn University School of Business in his sophomore year. He earned his six pack captain's license in 2006. He worked in the parasail industry in Panama City Beach as a captain until 2009. Kirk began attending University of West Florida in the fall of 2009 for a bachelors degree in Maritime Studies. He would like to go to graduate school at UWF for a masters in Historical Anthropology. After graduating Kirk would like to get a job with a government agency doing some sort of archaeological or coastal zone management job.

Like sand though the shaker screens, these are the days of our lives

Things have truly kicked into high gear on the site! We're down to six open units and a ton of dirt yet to move!

In our block (left), a number of complicated brick features in Units 3 and 12 have been recorded and removed at long last. This means that digging should proceed much more smoothly.

Also this week we said good-bye to the large metal plate that spanned the southern corners of Units 3 and 12. Unfortunately, after being exposed on and off for two field seasons, the plate's integrity did not hold. We managed to salvage and transport the pieces as intact as possible.

This, of course, did not mean that the archaeological fun stopped once the brick and metal plate were gone. Along the east wall of Unit 12 Salina Hebert and Melissa Timo discovered yet another sandstone block. This smaller block is at a different elevation than the others discovered. Does this mean that it's from another building? Another, later floor support? A victim of the building(s)'s destruction? Only time and future work will tell.

In the trench south of Block 1 (above, right), Kad Henderson and his students have reached the bottom of the tree fall disturbance. They now finding intact deposits that have produced a number of interesting artifacts, including writing slate pieces and our ninth pipebowl (below, left).

Unfortunately, our time is nearly up. Next week is our last week, and it will be filled with all those things that need to happen to put a site "to bed," so to speak. These will include extensive mapping and end of excavation photographs, inventorying and returning equipment, and backfilling the nearly 18 cubic meters (nearly 60 cubic feet!) of dirt we removed and screened this year into the excavated units to protect them until the next field season.

Stay tuned for the frenzy!

Student Highlight! Shane McDonald

Shane is majoring in Anthropology with a specialization in Archaeology. He graduated from Wewahitchka High in 2006. Although he has lived all over the US due to being from a military family, Wewa is where home is. Fall 2010 begins his senior year at UWF, and his future aspirations are high. Vote for him as presidential candidate in 2024!