Day 3 of field work

Day three of the field is done! It has been raining, but sunshine and heat this afternoon, which is great and all of us are loving. We spent the first day out here in the field setting up base camp and getting organized (in the rain) for the next six weeks. Day 2 was spent on a tour of the site area, and clearing some of the bush and undergrowth.
Today, the real fun has begun. I spent the day organizing excavation units, and then starting to excavate a disturbed midden.
What I mean by a disturbed midden is just that it has been effected by activity (in this case a fire lit was dug into it) in the recent past.
The first picture shows the disturbed midden after we had created out 1m X 1m squares but before we began to excavate.

The second picture shows some of the work done today in one of the 1 X 1 squares. We removed all the grass and the top surface of the soil. It is easy to see the difference between the midden (top south of the picture) and the other soil.

The third picture shows a larger view of the midden, with a few other sections being seen. The large pile in the center is where the soil from the hole was put, which makes the side wall of the closest square much deeper.
All of the soil that is removed from an excavation has to get sived through a screen. This allows any small artifacts that were missed by the excavator to be collected and labeled. Picture four shows a set up where the screens are attached in a swinging like manner, which allows one person to screen tbe soil

Thr free coloured string marks out the 1X1 squares and the flaged stakes are the corners.

TThe first layer, the surface soil, has been from this square. If you look closely, you can see the crushed shell of the middle in the top of the square.

View of larger part of the excavationa so far on the middle .

The swinging screens.