2010 Cabrillo College Archaeology Field School, Day 20, Friday, July 9, 2010. Written by Annamarie Leon Guerrero.

Photos, top to bottom: Student Ryan taking down the last column sample on the last day of fieldwork; The trouble with buckets never end - students Ryan and Tessa un-sticking buckets; Goodbye site; Field school students Matt and Angel helping fellow student Emily as she takes elevations in a deep unit; Field school student Lauren; Field school student Kelsey working hard in a unit; Field school student Christina with a great new find; Field School Instructor Dusty, students Matt, Angel and Kolin (from left to right) backfilling Unit 1

The last day of field school, or any fieldwork for that matter, is always a little hectic and often filled with mixed emotions. There is always a sense of urgency as you try to tie up loose ends, finish up sidewall profiles, take down column samples, make sure the data (boxes of soil, bags of artifacts, etc.) are under control, and attempt to remember everything that needs to be packed up. In the middle of all of this, there is this tug of war between being excited to go home and a little sad that the fieldwork is over.

And today is no different. Yesterday (Thursday) four of the six control units hit basement meaning sidewall profiles could be drawn, column samples taken and the units could be photographed and backfilled. If you have never backfilled a unit before, it is most definitely one of the most satisfying things in life. Especially if you are one of the ones who helped dig the hole.

Only the three groups that still had on-site tasks to complete headed out to the site today along with the crew chiefs. The rest of the crew was tasked with breaking down camp and organizing everything to expedite our departure. Unit 1 only needed to be photographed and then backfilled. The group working with Unit 5 (John, Kelsey, Christina and Emily) only had a few levels left in their column sample to go. Kelsey and Christina had done a great job in taking the column sample down yesterday and had no trouble in taking the rest of it down today. Once they were done, they were able to backfill the unit and head back to camp.

The Unit 3 group (Ryan, Lindsay, Melissa and Tessa) had taken their control unit all the way down to 180 cm before hitting bedrock yesterday. They were definitely under a little bit of pressure to get an entire column sample (a 20 cm x 20 cm column in 10 cm levels) done by noon. However, Ryan, in all of his stoicism, was definitely up to the challenge. He had at least half of the levels done before 10:30am. Lindsay and Melissa took turns taking down the rest of the column. One of the better moments of the morning was when Dusty and Tim helped to airlift Melissa out of the 180 cm deep unit. Getting in and out of units that deep is definitely a challenge. After the final photographs of Unit 3 were taken, the crew (plus a crew chief) backfilled the last open unit. Each of us took turns compacting the backfill dirt into the unit (who can resist the urge to basically jump up and down or dance a jig on a big dirt pile?).
I have to admit that I was a little worried about completing all six control units as they were opened just last week. But, with all of the students hard work, determination, thoughtfulness and their increasing ability to dig faster and cleaner we were able to able to accomplish this awesome feat. The past four weeks have pretty much been amazing. It has been a privilege to be a part of this field school and to be able to see everyone’s enthusiasm for archaeology and to watch as ever single person became more skilled and knowledgeable in field methods and technique. And, I have to say, that it was not just the students who were learning, I definitely learned something from every single person who either attended or helped out with the field school. I hope that, and am pretty sure that everyone will be able to, look back at the last four weeks and see the progress that they made and will leave the field school newfound knowledge and skill as well as new friends and colleagues.

As we gathered up the last bit of gear around the site, we all took one last look around at the place that had basically been our “office” for the last four weeks and said our final goodbye to the site and one last big “Thank You” for everything it had given us.

2010 Cabrillo College Archaeology Field School, Day 19, Thursday, July 8, 2010. Written by Candace Skinner.

Photos: Student field tech Candace screening for artifacts (bottom) and excavation crew (from left to right) Ed, Candace, Lauren and Tiffany (bottom) .

Today was our last day of excavating in the field. I’ve never had such a great experience with such a large amount of people. Everyone at this field school has such a great attitude and support for one another; it has really shaped the whole experience into something unforgettable. Every crew I’ve been on thus far has been extremely helpful, willing, and open minded to all criticism, advice, and guidance from Dusty, our crew chiefs, and our peers. It has really made for a productive and positive learning environment. At the end of the day we all went around and expressed our feelings and thoughts about our experience so far in field school. Overall, many of us expressed our gratitude and appreciation to Dusty for putting together such a great field school, and to the Native American monitors for giving us such a great experience and positive understanding of the importance of their culture in our research.

A few of us started our column samples today. I was the first to begin ours, and the last to finish it. It seemed easy, but just as we figured out in doing our first shovel test units, digging a square hole is much more difficult than I thought. Bioturbation, tree roots, and rocks made it very difficult to remove such a small amount of dirt without “bathtubbing” our unit or collapsing our sidewalls. Our column samples are going to be sent off to specialists who use the process of flotation to separate rocks from botanical remains, bones, etc. They will then analyze the “light fraction” of the sample to help Dusty answer his research questions about subsistence patterns. I know this process takes awhile, but I’m extremely interested in and eager to better understand the site that we spent three weeks working on!

A few of the other units were still trying to find basement in their control units. Unit 3 went down 180 centimeters and still ran across a few obsidian flakes and artifacts without much soil change. Since this was one of the deepest deposits we had run across, we had to wonder if the midden soil deposit had actually gone down that far, or if it was a result of many years of geologic activity and bioturbation. Dusty made the decision to discontinue the unit and begin sidewall profiling/ column sampling based on a relative comparison to the other units and their productivity. We finished the day with two units profiled, column sampled, and backfilled. The other units were either terminated or were finishing up their final levels of excavation or column sampling.

Tomorrow is our last day at site to finish up our research. I feel like we have finished with good timing, without stress or rushing. All the crews have worked really hard to get this point. I’m really impressed by everyone’s work ethic and ambition to learn more about archaeology and its importance in every aspect. I’m really excited about starting lab next Monday. I’ve never stepped foot in an archaeological lab, but I’m eager to start seeing some clarification in artifacts and to start making some interpretations.

2010 Cabrillo College Archaeology Field School, Day 18, Wednesday, July 7, 2010. Written by Mark Vedros, Jr.

Photos: Student field tech Mark accurately measuring elevation of a control unit (top), Dusty and Tim Gross supervising (center), and Arch. Tech. alumni Tim working with student field tech Lauren on a unit (bottom).

Well, the day started with the standard routine of a 6:00 a.m., waking-up, preparing the day’s lunch (turkey sandwich), and stuffing my face with breakfast (a turkey sandwich for breakfast—that varies though). I also attempted pressure flaking on an already flaked fragment of chert before leaving camp to complete control units (CUs) on Tim Gross’s layout near central camp. Tim brought quite an array of flaking stones, accumulating a seeming “Archaeology Playground” the day before with his various specialized tools, e.g. – deer antlers (for said pressure flaking).

Upon arriving at our site of excavation I and the other members, begin finishing level 7 (60 – 70 cm) of our unit. Stephen Henneck and I were the primary “shovels” of the CU, taking it to a depth of 90 cm before it was terminated due to encountering bedrock in level (80 – 90cm) and in the previous level (70 – 80cm). A possible scraper, two chert flakes and several bone fragments were observed in our 9th level (80 – 90cm); however, due to the encompassing bedrock it was determined that there location was likely to be the result of bioturbation, given their placement.

We completed 3 10cm levels total today, generating one obsidian flake, one fractured hand stone and 4 chert flakes at a depth of 60 – 70cm. One chert biface, multiple chert flakes and bone/charcoal fragments were found at a depth of 70 – 80cm. Level 9, 80 – 90cm, produced the above-cited scraper, chert flakes, and bone fragments.

A unit profile was also completed as Stephen Henneck measured layers while Dawn Johnson profiled the east side wall. Four distinctive layers presented themselves: The first (closest to the surface) consisted of midden and silty loam soils; in the second, caliche inclusions appeared in loam; in the third, silty sandy loam were present; and the fourth (the deepest) included decomposing rock within the bedrock, among other numerous features within the soil deposits (color, other texture/changes, etc).

Stephen Henneck displaced a root that was 91.5cm or 3ft. long, 7cm wide, 18cm in diameter, that extended from our southeast wall edge to the northwest perimeter via handsaw at depth: 70 – 80cm (ya go my shirtless friend : ).

Column soil samples are on top for Thursday and Friday for units that have reached sterile. As we near the end of an awesome field experience, having Mark Hylkema as well as Tim Gross readily accessible for their input and advice has been quite a treat indeed.

Mike Newland’s delicious feast and career-oriented lecture last night (Wednesday evening) was an illuminating light down the tunnel so to speak. He talked about subjects ranging from CRM vs. academic archaeology, ethics with regard to Native American Culture, and work ethic, to the plausible dynamics of personal relationships within archaeology (quite full-circle).

2010 Cabrillo College Archaeology Field School, Day 17, Tuesday, July 6, 2010. Written by Melissa Lewis.

Photo: Student field tech Melissa excavating.

Waking up this morning, I could barely see anything outside of my tent. A thick layer of fog lay stagnant in the valley below us, and most of us packed our sweatshirts in our day packs, unsure about what the weather was going to be like for the day. As we were packing up and preparing to leave camp, Dusty introduced us to his friend Tim, a Cabrillo College Archaeology Technician alumni, who along with Erin, are our designated crew chiefs for the rest of the week. Before we left camp, Dusty discussed the importance of not only making sure we’re doing everything correctly with excavating, perfecting our methods and our techniques, but also developing our own interpretations this week. He stressed taking into account all of the readings we’ve been doing, all the artifacts and ecofacts our field school has observed, in preparation for our discussion Thursday night.

The weather cleared up, and by 9 o’clock, my team, made up of three other individuals, finished up our 40-50cm level. Before lunch, we managed to finish the 50-60cm level, and with working through lunch, we completed the 60-70cm level. Most of what we’d been finding in our unit before today, consisted of chert flakes, some obsidian, and saucer shaped Olivella shell beads. Our team worked well together, switching off between 1/8 inch screening, excavating, finishing the control unit (CU) paperwork and labeling our bags correctly. I was screening as we finished the 40-50cm level, and all of a sudden, I caught a glimpse of obsidian. In the first week of excavating, I found multi-colored chert flakes, quartz flakes, and historic artifacts, but I had yet to find any obsidian. I pulled out an intact contracting stem point, a projectile point with a later date than the desert side notched points we’d previously found in the site, worthy of hydrating during lab week. Before lunch, members from the Santa Cruz Archaeological Society came to visit our site and lend us support.

After lunch, our unit turned up less charcoal than we had previously, and our soil changed in color and texture. We continued to find faunal bone fragments, some fire affected and some not, and a broken saucer-shaped Olivella shell bead. We’re hoping to get down to sterile tomorrow, so we have time to column sample, side-wall profile and backfill, all before Friday. Before leaving the site, we did “data control” and did a count of all of our unit bags to make sure our paperwork and data corresponded, an important aspect to fieldwork.

2010 Cabrillo College Archaeology Field School, Day 16, Monday, July 5, 2010. Written by Lindsay Kiel.

Photos: Student field tech Lindsay screening for artifacts (top) and crew chief Erin and Dusty conferring (bottom).

Being the day after the Fourth of July, we didn’t pull out of the Cabrillo parking lot until around 8:30, which was nice. It was definitely a nice change to get to sleep in for a couple of extra hours, and because Jenna, Brittney, and Stephen stayed the weekend at the camp site, we didn’t have to take down our tents on Friday and therefore didn’t have to spend the time this morning to set them up again. So basically, we didn’t end up losing much time in the field, even though we got to camp late. We had our customary Casa de Fruta stop where we met up with Erin—one of our new Crew Chiefs—and Dusty’s dad. Pulling into camp was amazing. Our line of four vans and three cars pulled in and immediately we saw Dusty’s tent sitting on the roof that covers the picnic tables. At some point over the weekend Stephen had that genius idea and he pulled it off perfectly, though apparently they were all terrified that a ranger would show up and force them to remove the tent before the rest of us showed up to see it. At least Dusty appreciated the joke.

We got out to the site around noon and split off into our new groups. Some of us got to stay at the units that we were working in on Thursday, which was nice because some of us were really attached to our units (especially Kolin who was very upset at the end of last week when he found out that he probably wouldn’t be back at his unit). For being a half day it was a super productive day. Almost all of the groups completed three levels and group six completed the final STU (Shovel Test Unit), going down to 140 cm. Our group found some pretty cool stuff. We found 5 pieces of obsidian, 1 Olivella shell bead, 1 claw of some sort, 2 faunal vertebrae, and a faunal mandible that had a canine and four other teeth still attached. Dusty says we’re going to take our unit down to 150 cm. and I’m excited for it to be so deep. This will be a great week.

2010 Cabrillo College Archaeology Field School, Day 15, Friday, July 2, 2010. Written by Crew Chief Kristin Hoppa, a.k.a Sneaky Shark

Photos: Crew chief Kristin a.k.a Sneaky Shark after winning a battle with the buckets (top), and Sneaky Shark supervising a group of students (bottom).

Sneaky Shark reporting from the field: Happy to be on-site for Cabrillo College’s second week of excavation at STA-207. This week the crew finished their 1 x 0.5 m shovel test units and began excavating their 1 x 1 m control units. Although I arrived bleary eyed from a long night of driving, the crew was energetic and enthusiastic, welcoming me onto the project on Monday morning. Their enthusiasm quickly caught up with me when I arrived on site. STA-207 is a multi-component site with a rich, fluffy prehistoric midden, and a scattering of historic artifacts near the Orestimba Corral. The crew uncovered historic ceramics, glass and bullet casings; as well as obsidian and chert flakes, a wide variety of mammal bone, some freshwater clam, marine shell, and some diagnostic olivella shell beads, and desert side notched points. Our monitors, Paul and Daniel, were on-site to consult about findings and share their knowledge. They were even so kind as to brew us some yerba buena tea and warn us of the dangers of the Kukusui.

Dusty kept morale high with his usual song and dance (even some harmonica), while Annamarie kept us all together, even when coming apart at the seams herself (tent malfunction = living in a van down by the river). Visits to the swimming hole, tie-dyeing, and fireside performances made our evenings, as well as a guest lecture from Mark Hylkema and visits from Rae Schwaderer, Associate Archaeologist for California State Parks Monterey District, and Myriah and Callum. Overall I had a great time with the crew here and I look forward to seeing more of them in the field and at conferences. My only regret: I was told them there’d be free ice cream.

2010 Cabrillo College Archaeology Field School, Day 14, Thursday, July 1, 2010. Written by Lauren Wysham

Photos: Crew members Brittany and Stephen carefully measuring elevations (top)and student Lauren Wysham at a screen (bottom

I’ve always known that I wanted to be an archaeologist, but until this experience I never really knew how much. It’s always exciting to learn about new things in the classroom that fascinate you, but to touch and feel it, it really brings it all home. On that note, let me tell you about one day in the life of a budding, hopefully, wannabe archaeologist. I woke up at an ungodly hour to the owlish stares of my comrades. We did our usual morning routine of breakfast and packing up before heading out to our super awesome beautiful site. It is so helpful to be conscious of the environment that people may have lived in, though different, it helps to be there. We started on our shovel test unit (STU) at 60N/40E that we were working on the day before. The crew that I was working with today was a group that knows a lot about what we were doing; their individual knowledge created a whole that made a beautiful unity of minds, that helped us create something together that we could be proud of.

Though we didn’t find much more than some flakes of chert, and other materials as well as charcoal, we made the most of it and though it wasn’t as exciting as other units, we did our best. I heard the excitement in the voices of the other groups during our lunch break about what they were finding, and although our unit wasn’t as prolific, I understood their feelings. Learning to recognize cultural material amongst all the other detritus is a skill that I feel I am learning so much more about in just the few weeks that we have been here. I feel so much closer to becoming what I want to be, and I am learning from the experience as well as my peers and instructors. One of the best parts was when I heard about the bifaces and partial points, and interesting shell beads and objects that everyone else was finding. It didn’t hurt that they had to relocate a baby rattlesnake from under an oak tree, while our unit was so safe and peaceful on the periphery.

The culmination of our day was when we finished up our STU and measured out our new 1X1 control unit. It isn’t as easy as it sounds to dig a square hole, and even harder to measure it out in dirt that doesn’t follow your instructions. But we did it a little quicker than before and I feel that with time we’ll all become pros. I am so excited to learn even more, and hopefully be an even bigger part of contributing to the archaeological record.