Even More Glunk Digging

May 8, 2014
36LY0345 Glunk Site
weather: sunny, humid, wet
time: 12:30PM-6PM

EU 18
-We began the day by building a small dike to prevent water from getting into our square

SW Quadrant 24-33in. (Level 3)
dig: Emily       sift: me

artifact notes: -brick fragments (historic)
-iron nails and pieces (historic)
-glass shards- window pane late 1800s (historic)
-limestone fragments (historic)
-worked stones (prehistoric)
-chert flakes (prehistoric)

feature notes: -new stain theory #1: -the stain is evidence of a limestone kiln.
A)-evidenced by fire cracked rocks and large amount of limestone
B)- the iron pieces could be evidence of tools
C) although- there are no by-products of a limestone kiln

Here is a drawing of the SW Quadrant
 27-33in in EU 18

NW Quadrant 27-33in

digger: me         sifter: Emily

artifact notes: - brick fragments (historic)

-rocks (indt.)

-glass shards- window pane late 1800s (historic)

-pottery fragments (prehistoric)

feature notes: -stain theory #2:

A) collapses chimney- accounts for fire cracked rocks as well as the large sandstone, limestone, and bricks

B) the stain itself is due to some type of seepage (oil?)- need chemical analysis to be sure

-stain theory #3: Borrow/Trash Pit::

A)- people threw things in the pit in the late 1800s- glass nails, bricks etc.

B)- stain  comes from something thrown in the pit (container of oil?)

Here is a drawing of the NW Quadrant
 from 27-33in.

NE Quadrant 27-33in.

digger:me      sifter: Emily

artifact notes: -iron pieces (historic)

--small stones (indt.)

-brick fragments (historic)

-quartzite stones (indt.)

-chert debitage (prehistoric)

feature notes:- roughly the same stain and charcoal patterns as before in other quadrants

Here is a drawing of the NE Quadrant
 27-33in down

Wall cleanup: I cleaned up the NW and SW Quadrant walls using the trowel as a scrapper

Emily began on the SE Quadrant wall cleanup, but we did not finish today.

More Glunk Digging

May 7, 2014
36LY0345 Glunk site
weather: cloudy, and chilly (around 45 degrees F)
time: 9AM-1PM

EU 18
NE Quadrant 12-27in
digger: Emily      sifter: me

artifact notes: -brick fragments (historic)
-limestone fragments (historic)
-iron nails (historic)
-glass shards- window pane late 1800s (historic)
-stones (indt.)
-chert flakes (prehistoric)
-jasper chert flake (prehistoric)

feature notes: -the yellow-orange sand matrix (munsel color: 7.5YR/4/4) had patches of black charcoal in it
-the red-brown stain (munsel color: 10YR/4/3), previously thought to be a fire pit, is now thought to possible be a stin from an oil spill
-the historical artifacts are now thought to be evidence of a historical era shed (possible storing oil?)

SE Quadrant 19-33in
dig: me         sift: Emily

artifact notes:- stones (indt.)
-limestone (probably historic)
-chert debitage (prehistoric)
-iron fragments (historic)
-glass shards- window pane late 1800s (historic)

feature notes: - I took the bisected part of the SE Quadrant down from 19 to 33in.
-Same feature noted for the previous section of the SE Quadrant
-I began SE Quadrant wall cleanup- though did not finish

Here is a drawing of EU 18
features from 20-27in

After leaving the site around 1PM (due to the threat of rain), we returned to campus, where I worked on taking inventory of some artifacts for around two hours

May 6th Glunk Dig pt. 2

Here is a drawing of EU 18
SE-NE Quad. wall 12-31in.

NW Quadrant 12-23in. down

dig: Emily         sift: me

artifact notes: -fire cracked rocks (indt)

-wood fragments (indt.)

-charcoal (indt.)

-brick fragments (historic)

-glass shards (hisoric)

-small stones (indt.)

-rubber (historic)

-chert flakes (prehistoric)

-iron slag (historic)

feature notes: -in this level, we found fire cracked rocks in the stain, along with wood, and all other artifacts were round outside the stain

-she used the trowel in the same manner I did

-I had to wash and then bite the rubber to determine that the object was rubber

Here is the drawing for the NW Quad
at 12-23in down

May 6th Glunk Dig pt. 1

May 12, 2014
Glunk Site 36LY0345
weather: sunny, chilly
time: 9AM-4PM

EU 18
SE Quadrant 10-20in.

feature notes: -I dug the whole quadrant down to 20in.
-I used the trowel as a scrapper, and used the clippers to cut troublesome roots
-the before mentioned stain went down to 20in. The professor then told me to bisect the quadrant, with me taking the West half down to 31in. (where the stain broke up into spots).
-the only things found in the stain were fire cracked rocks (supporting the fire pit hypothesis), with the historical artifacts in the surrounding sand matrix (which included things such as glass shards, nails, rubber, and varius pices of iron), as well as a part of a possible prehistoric worked stone pendant. A sample of the stain was taken for possible testing. After finding that the stain petters out around 31in., I did several drawings, while Emilt took several pictures.

Here is a picture looking at the base of the bisection

Here is a picture looking down at the bisection of the SE Quadrant 

Here is a drawing of the two quadrant
 drawings of the SE Quadrant

SE Quadrant Wall 20-31in

Here is a drawing of the Se Qd.- Ne Qd.
wall from 12-26in.

More Museums

May 5, 2014
-Today, the team went up t the Munsy Historical Society. There, we were given a tour of the museum. I was personally very interested in one of the rifled muskets made by a gunsmith sometime before he died in 1811. The only problem  is that the rifle had a percussion lock, which would was still in development in 1811, but could not see use in America for several more decades. This means that the rifle was passed down over several generations, and at some point in its use- was converted from flintlock to the new lock. After the museum tour, we toured the local heritage park with the remains of the 1800s canal. After that, we had lunch (and ice cream) and traveled the back roads for a while before returning to college.

More Glunk Site Digging

May 2, 2014
-the day began with the team working at college fr about 1/2 hour taking inventory of some artifacts we had found
-we then went to the Glunk site

Glunk Site 36LY0345
weather: overcast, chilly, but no rain
time: 9AM-3:30PM

EU 18 SW Quadrant Level 2: 10-24in.
dig: me           sift: Emily
artifact notes: -stones (various) (indt.)
- chert debitage (prehistoric)
-iron nails (historic)
-red okre (prehistoric)
-limestone (historic)
-brick fragments (historic)

feature notes: -due to the fact that the main features of Level 2 were stains in the soil.
- I did not use the shovel, and instead used the trowel as a scarper, and a brush for cleaning the delicate features
-In this level, the soil changes into an orange-yellow sand matrix
-the presence of both historic and prehistoric artifacts in the matrix shows that this suffered a historic era contamination
-as before, there were a large amount of roots, which required the use of clippers
-in order to not go down too far in one quadrant, we stopped at 24in down. Emily then took the SE Quadrant down to 24in.

Me digging the SW Quadrant

SE Quadrant Level 2 10-24in down
dig : Emily            dig: me

artifact notes: -plastic (historic)
-stones (various) (indt.)
-charcoal (indt.)
-glass shards (historic)
-wood in-situ (indt.)
-limestone fragments (historic)
-brick fragments (historic)
-chert debitage (prehistoric)
-iron nails (historic)

feature notes: -again, the soil changes to a yellow-orange sand matrix
-the presence of both historic and prehistoric artifacts leads me to the hypothesis that this pre-historic layer was dug into the historical era
-several features were found in this level
-this shows evidence of a possible Native American fire pit
-the red brown stain is thought to be soil stained with animal fat from cooking, it also had small fragments of wood in-situ
-the charcoal matrix is more evidence of a fire pit
-samples of the wood and charcoal were taken in case more testing could be done
-Emily used the scrapper- brush technique I did, with the same tools.

here is a drawing of the SE Quadrant Level 2

Here is a drawing of the SW Quadrant Level 2

-

Another day of Glunk Site Digging

May 1^st 2014

Glunk site 36LY0345 weather: muddy, damp, cool, overcast

Time: 9AM-4PM

EU 18

here is a picture of me excavating the
 surface layer of soil in the SW
 quadrant (before i switched to the trowel)

NE Quadrant

Dig: me                sift: Emily

0-14in: artifacts: -glass shards (historic)

-limestone chunks and fragments (historic)

-brick fragments (historic)

-various stones (indt.)

               Feature notes: - at 14 inches, the soil changes to a yellow-orange sand matrix with streaks of black charcoal in it (signs of s fire pit?)

               -I originally started off with the shovel, but then (after some thought) switched to the trowel and used it as a scrapper so I could more easily discern soil features

NW Quadrant

Dig: Emily            sift: Sam

0-10in: artifact notes: -iron nails (historic)

-limestone fragments (historic)

-pottery shards (prehistoric)

-chert flakes (prehistoric)

-brick fragments (historic)

-various stones (indt.)

               Feature notes: -while digging, Emily came across a rather large limestone stone, which was removed after being documented

               -in between sifting, I aided in the removal of roots in the pit with the clippers

Here is another picture of me excavating the SW quadrant
with the rest of the team in the background