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.

2010 Cabrillo College Archaeology Field School, Day 13, Wednesday, June 30, 2010. Written by Kolin Taylor

Photos: Kolin examining a potential artifact from his control unit (top), a desert side-notched point (center) and students Kolin and Candace excavate as Daniel (Amah Mutsun monitor) and Dusty observe (bottom).

Today started like every other day out here…woke up, grabbed some breakfast, and readied the pack for the day. We made it to the site around 8:30am, just as I finished my cup of Yerba Mate. I was especially excited to begin the first of the control units because our shovel test units (STUs), 1 x 0.5 meter holes, had been so successful; I wondered what the bigger 1 by 1 meter units would turn up. My group (Angel, Candice, Ed and myself) was assigned to a unit four meters west of the highest producing STU, in really rich midden soil. In fact, as we began laying out our unit, there was a fine chert flake on the surface. We also seemed to measure and back stake our unit to a perfect 1 x 1 meter square smoother and faster than any other unit I’ve measured out.

As soon as our Native American monitors were on site we began our first 10 cm level, I was on the 1/8 inch screens. It was a little different at the control units compared to the STUs as far as screening goes because the goal is not to pick out all the artifacts/ecofacts you see but to break it down; remove all the definitively non-cultural material; and bag and tag what’s left in the screen. I had probably sifted 5 or 6 screens when I thought I saw a distinctive shape of a notch so I quickly slowed way down and picked through my screen carefully and sure enough there in my screen was a small desert side notch point. It was great to finally have some sort of indicator for the site’s age; its size and shape are typically associated with late period sites and probably indicate bow and arrow technology. After lunch it was my turn in the hole digging the 10 – 20 cm level. It wasn’t long before I was seeing faunal bone, flakes, and charcoal which was pretty consistent with what I was seeing in the screens from the first level. Before I knew it Angel turned up another projectile point in her screen, I couldn’t believe it.

Well it’s now 9:30pm and I am way tired from a great day of digging so I am going to wrap this up. We also found some sort of small mammal scapula, a really cool deer antler, and some possible perforated shell in our 10-20cm level. Other groups found mostly flakes, and one group found a really nice obsidian blade as well as a really cool ¼ of a disc-shaped rock with a hole drilled through it, which was very puzzling as to what it could have been for. Well I’m off to bed so I’m rested and ready to bust out some more levels tomorrow, although we would have to find some pretty crazy stuff to top today’s finds.

2010 Cabrillo College Archaeology Field School, Day 12, Tuesday, June 29, 2010. Written by Angel Ritchie

Photo: Student Angel Ritchie hard at work screening at a STU.

This morning my alarm went off too early. Tuesday. In the field, too early means six o’clock and late to breakfast is 6:40. We work hard in the sun all day and often tell stories into the night, but I always feel like I wake up too late. The breakfast scene varies. Perhaps someone is taking time by themselves eating a bagel watching the sun rise. Others are already laughing away. Some read our weekly articles. This morning I felt lucky to get a full cup of coffee from our sixteen-cup-percolator. As breakfast finishes, the sunblocking begins. I fill my three water bottles in between cramming as much sunblock onto my skin as possible. I burn easily and my shovel test unit (STU) is in the sun. Then we have a morning chat before trekking out to the site, a thirty minute drive. Today we are finishing up the STUs that we began either on Monday or last week. Tomorrow, Wednesday, we will start some control units. I am, and many others are, excited to dig bigger holes, ones that we can more easily move around in.

Then we gather into our vans and drive to the field. We constantly search the radio for a station that comes in and this morning my van was lucky enough to hear a few songs sung by the lovely Brittany Spears. When we arrived to the site, we grab the gear. At this point, it’s a mad rush. Everyone has their favorite tools. My crew arrived at our STU, 70S/20E and as we removed the cover, we found three dead mice, three large spiders, a frog in our 60 centimeter hole. The next hour was spent by our crew hypothesizing the faunal murder scene. Then Candace and I read aloud an article on women’s work and acorn processing while we waited the last thirty minutes for the awesome monitors, Daniel and Paul, to arrive so that we could begin digging.

Around nine, they do arrive and the work begins. We start digging our third level in the STU. I screen. We found lovely artifacts. A nice chert flake at least two inches long and some possible groundstone. In our next level the ground got hard and more clay-like. Our finds grew smaller, but we did find a very nice possible core. Not to mention the day before, we found an obsidian flake in the second layer. Very exciting! It does make the digging easier when you find artifacts. We picked our way through the fourth level. At one point, I heard one of the screeners say, “I am finding a flake every screen,” a very nice thing to hear when the sweat is dripping down your entire body.

I always get a little delirious before lunch, making jokes with my crew and getting clumsy with my tools. My peanut butter and honey sandwich felt very nourishing. We ate lunch underneath the same oak tree we do most days at the sight. It is a large umbrella and one can’t help but under how it was used by past groups. From far away, you can’t even see the twenty-five people eating lunch under there. After lunch, the sun shone brighter and the sweat rolled harder. It’s getting hotter progressively throughout the weeks. Our last level, the fifth, was sterile…enough. There was no evidence of further cultural material would be below this level. We drew our profile drawing and tomorrow morning we will backfill our STU, which is amazingly and surprisingly satisfying.

2010 Cabrillo College Archaeology Field School, Day 11, Monday, June 28, 2010. Written by Dawn Johnson

Photo: Student Dawn Johnson taking a break after working hard in a STU.

It’s amazing how much you can accomplish when you only sleep four hours a night. It’s not easy getting packed and into a waiting van in Aptos by 6:00 a.m. on Monday morning when you’re still swimming in Tahoe at 6:00 p.m. on Sunday night. But not only was I able to have a very productive day excavating at our site, but my terrific team mates also had a great day (actually, they did all the work, but they certainly made me look good!).

In our first shovelful of dirt, Lauren found an obsidian flake. This is pretty amazing, when you consider that this soil came from 80 cm below the surface. This is the fourth flake to come out of our fruitful little 1 m x 0.5 m shovel test unit (STU). Last week team members, Brittney, Angel, and Kolin found their first shiny, black obsidian chips in this STU. A few minutes later, Stephen held up a beautiful talon or claw. In my highly uneducated opinion, I believe it could be a coyote claw, but a trip to the Santa Cruz Natural Science Museum next Saturday may shed more light on the subject.

While the temperatures were pretty toasty today, everyone in the field school seems to be loving the work, and morale is fantastic. You couldn’t ask for a better group of soon-to-be-highly-skilled archaeologists. And the dinners would put Alice Waters to shame.

2010 Cabrillo College Archaeology Field School, Day 10, Friday, June 25, 2010. Written by Carrie Reichardt

Photos: Crew chiefs Carrie and Kaely (top), students Stephen, Matt, Melissa and Ed working hard on a hot summer day (middle), and crew chief Carrie, field school instructor Dusty, and crew chiefs Annamarie and Kaely (bottom).

I have to admit, I’m currently writing this entry within the comforts of air conditioning back in Sonoma County. I am, of course, thinking of all the students who are probably frantically trying to bust out the last few centimeters of their Shovel Test Units (STU) with pick-axes and cursing those pesky rocks that come between them and the coveted straight test unit side walls. This ice-cold iced tea is for you guys, cheers!

Our second week was great! Both Monday and Tuesday three crews covered major swaths of two project areas. As a side bar for those who have never experienced archaeological survey, don’t let the idea of hiking in a state park for work fool you. It’s entirely off-trail hiking directly up mountains, fighting the charcoaled remains of tree victims of last year’s wildfire and the nasty vegetation that takes root in disturbed areas – namely, poison oak. Many a rattlesnake made an appearance, many a rash showed up on body parts, but the students persevered with enthusiasm and hard work! On Wednesday, one group continued to survey (I was among them) and the remaining groups started opening up their first STUs! We were lucky to have Frank, our Amah Mutsun monitor, who shared his great stories with the crew while they fought the hard battle against uncooperative rocky soil in the heat.

Some teams had fierce artifact mojo and found lithics in their units, including a couple of obsidian flakes! Many others had units which had very few artifacts. Such is archaeology. The days, weeks, and months of finding nothing make the days where you find that one tiny piece of something so much more exciting. And, as a historical archaeologist, I have to mention a small glass fragment scatter we found while surveying. A beautiful piece of a deep aqua soda water bottle base found in a rodent burrow back dirt pile was my personal favorite.

Steering away from the archaeology for a moment, I must take this opportunity to give a shout-out to all the hard-working students. It was an amazing experience for me, as a Crew Chief, to watch these students blossom in a mere two weeks. The first few days of the first week was spent learning how to use a compass, reading a topographic map, and mapping a site. Many of the students might have only had a vague knowledge of how to figure out where north is, but now they know what all those lines and arrows and do-dads on their compasses mean!

Field school can be an incredibly intimidating experience. Even as someone who has been doing archaeology in one form or another for a few years, even the most seasoned professional has their days of self-doubt, but the students plowed through and have grown exponentially in only a matter of ten days. I look forward to hearing about how much more they develop in the next three weeks. I can see each and every one of them continuing in the profession and making Dusty, Annamarie, Kaely and me so very proud! Their enthusiasm for getting dirty and working hard was infectious and they maintained a sense of humor and respect for one another even when we were faced with 50-degree slopes covered in poison oak and heat exhaustion. Archaeology is a profession that cannot happen without team work and every single one of the students worked together and did so with great admiration for one another. For any family members out there reading about their loved ones who are participating in the 2010 Cabrillo College Field School, you should be so proud of them! We certainly are!

2010 Cabrillo College Archaeology Field School, Day 9 June 24, 2010. Written by Ryan Phillip

Photo: Ryan Phillip taking a break from excavating a STU.

After a late night, consisting of a group reading of “The Golden Marshalltown” around the campfire, I woke up late. I woke up to see that Frank, our Native American monitor, had brought us all donuts for breakfast. We drove out to our site and started work pretty quickly. Our group had a new unit today since we backfilled our previous one on Wednesday. Our unit was closer to the prehistoric site so our soil was much more workable and our artifact finds were more substantial. We enjoyed the lack of large river cobbles in our site, and our sidewalls were easier to maintain. We found multiple flakes per level, some possible grindstones, and plenty of that material we love to call “Questionable Quartz”, since there is so much quartz in the area, and it’s very hard to determine if the material is culturally modified. The group 20 meters to the north of us found the first obsidian flakes found in the STUs, which they were very excited about. The weather today was unseasonably cool, which was a great break for us from the hotter days. We finished up in the afternoon, said goodbye to Frank, and headed back to camp. After dinner, we had a brief discussion on an article about the importance of survey, and how data can be interpreted in different ways based on research design. The second article we read was a large report on several coastal and inland counties in California and the archaeological record previously recorded in the area all the way back to the Paleo-Indian period. Tomorrow we will re-record a site as a large group and come back to our excavations on Monday.

2010 Cabrillo College Archaeology Field School, Day 8 June 23, 2010. Written by David Poole

Photos: David Poole excavating a shovel test pit unit (top) and students working together to learn how to lay out a unit (bottom).

Today I just witnessed a perfect sunset to end another great day in the field. I’m sitting here right now, the fire is blazing, the ukulele is playing, my stomach is full and the mood is just right. I have to admit, today was amazing; day two of getting grimy in the dirt. We worked hard all day. Pick axes swinging, shovels shoveling, and trowels scraping. We worked together in crews of four, once again excavating our shovel test units (STUs). Though not all of us were finding artifacts, the team environment and work ethic allowed us to push through with smiles on our faces. It’s easy to want to give up when pushing through layer after layer of rock, but knowing that each unit helps in creating an overall understanding of the bigger picture, one begins to realize that producing no artifacts yields an incredible amount of information about the peoples that lived here. It’s really all about telling a story for those who cannot speak for themselves and knowing about where they were, as well as where they weren’t, allows us a chance to do this. The skills that we are learning at this field school are more than just simply teaching us how to use a compass, walk transects, create 1 m x .5 m STU units, or 1 m x 1 m control units; it’s allowing us to use the skills acquired to respectfully and as accurately as possible speak for those who now cannot.

Archaeology is amazing and I’m truly glad that I chose this as my future profession. I honestly have to say that I love it out here! I love the work, I love the environment, but most of all I love the people. I know for a fact that the relationships that I’m creating out here are going to last for many years to come.

2010 Cabrillo College Archaeology Field School, Day 7 June 22, 2010. Written by John Schlagheck

Photos: John Schlagheck (top and bottom)

Dateline-Diablo Mountains, CA. John Schlagheck reporting — It is not usual work for me and my fellow team members (Emily, Mark, Matt, and Christina) — the measurements are different, the tools can be inappropriate for the tasks at hand, and the heat can be surprisingly oppressive. It’s true, cooking for 26 people in camp is quite an undertaking — but we loved it. Curry night. Dusty set us up for it and got everyone pumped and excited for the dinner. Despite the potential difficulty and dane-ja of cooking curry in the field, the five of us were up for the challenge and wanted to show these people what eating was all about. Only two of us had been in military service so it was a bit risky, but ultimately the night was a complete success. Most all were satisfied, though it was a bit spicy for one or two folks and even for one of the chefs, but no causalities.

During the day we started our first shovel test units (STUs). While some were occupied with that task, others finished the survey portion of the project on the ridge just north of the excavation area. Reviews of the day included reports of rattlesnakes near the STUs and a modest overlap of the survey transect from the previous day — but all was well in the end. The survey terrain is brutal in spots and rather strenuous on foot. Frequently, folks had to abandon their precise lines to avoid poison oak, large fallen trees and dense prickers.

Spirits are high in our camp. Having been to field school in 2009 with SJSU (that also went well), I can say that our Cabrillo group is working well together and has the kind of attitude that will foster great memories for everyone. Privately, people speak of enjoying the break from the hustle and bustle, the daily grind of our everyday lives, and normalcy.

Dustin has real world expectation of us and we appreciate his mentorship and attention to detail — this is not a vacation by any means. None of us wants to be surprised by what it really means to do archaeology for a living. That said, the atmosphere is loose and friendly, which is good, because we have another three weeks of communal living and working in close quarters. I am always surprised by the compromises and concessions required by these situations, but always feel rewarded by having made them. It seems to me that people are always better to each other when tested by their surrounding and have to overcome themselves in a way — which is a good thing.

2010 Cabrillo College Archaeology Field School, Day 6, Monday, June 21. Written by Jenna Tidd

Photos: Surveyors at work (top) and Jenna and Brittany recording a site (bottom)

Today was our day two of our survey of project areas one and two. We continued our ten meter transects from east to west using the road and creek as boundaries. I had to mentally prepare myself for today’s survey after our first day of survey last week, during which my group was surveying pretty rough terrain with dense vegetation and steep inclines. I immediately noticed during today’s survey that the location we were at was less difficult. The gently rolling hills actually helped me do a more thorough job surveying because I was less focused on keeping my footing and avoiding poison oak and more focused on clearing groundcover and looking for materials. One highlight early on was our sighting of what looked like a barn owl flying right ahead of our line. Another highlight was actually coming across some chert flakes and potential lithic materials in several locations, one of which was very close by the site we’re going to be excavating.

These lithic materials brought up several interesting questions though, including the issue of how far from a previously identified site the cultural materials have to be in order to be considered a separate site. The only potential cultural materials we found in this case were on the top of a slope that led down to the creek and its previously identified sites. Another point some of these materials emphasized is that, particularly when looking for flakes, one of the factors you have to take into account is the quality of the material. There were some definite chert flakes found at the site next to the creek, which influenced our analysis of the potential lithic scatter we observed at the top of the slope. There were multiple potential flakes made of the same type of chert, but that were rougher on the flaked surfaces and lacked the obvious attributes that signify a flake, like a bulb of force and obviously smooth ventral surface. We had looked at this material earlier on though, and even enacted some experimental flintknapping, which resulted in a lot of shatter and some rough looking flakes similar to the ones we observed today. This led us to one possible theory that maybe individuals at the top of the ridge were testing the material, resulting in lower quality shatter which was abandoned, and taking the better quality materials and flakes down to the creek for use. Though none of this is by any means conclusive, the materials we found brought up several interesting issues that were fun to try to work through in the field.

2010 Cabrillo College Archaeology Field School, Day 5, Friday, June 18, 2010. Written by: Kaely Romney, Crew Chief

Photos: Dusty teaching students how to use a Brunton compass (top) and crew chiefs Carrie and Kaely (bottom)

We made it through the first week, and in my opinion, the hardest week. The first moments of learning anything new can be frustrating, confusing, and never-ending. The students were challenged in so many different ways. First, they are thrown into a new environment with 23 other people who they must make relationships with. They memorized how to pace distances, and mastered the “Go-go gadget” compass that includes a compass, a protractor, and a clinometer, and learned how to use both to accurately map a site. After much trial and error, the crew then hiked up a butt-kicker of a trail to get back to camp. This was all in Day 1.

This week was really a great opportunity for anybody to ask as many questions as possible. Some examples include questions about flake characteristics, map symbols and environmental descriptions. I was blown away by the communication, preparation and energy that I saw on our first survey day. Even though we did not find any new sites, we used this opportunity to discuss the animals, plants and geology in the area. My survey crew was then drawn into a great conversation about how the environment can influence the archaeology you see on the ground and the theory you are defending. We saw spiders that balanced on top of the tall grasses, the birds that nested beneath, and skin evidence that the snakes left us behind. We explored the chert eroded drainages and quartz scattered flat. An important lesson for any archaeologist is that even if there are negative findings on the ground, many different observations can be brought home from a day of survey.

Friday morning, our fearless leader left the crew and crew chiefs to record a newly found site. The site was a simple lithic scatter including one obsidian flake, located by crewmember Dawn. The crew split up and surveyed the entire area, and mapped and recorded the entire site in two hours flat. This really demonstrated the skills built by every individual. Overall, this week really tested the student’s limits, and it seems that many if not all showed up Monday morning for some more.

Cabrillo Archaeology Field School, Day 4 June 17th 2010. Written by Tiffany

The crew started out this morning at seven thirty a.m. We saw many deer, turkey, and grouse. We headed north to Project Area Two, where we divided into three separate groups. Our goal was to survey the area that had not yet been recorded into the archaeological record. Our group consisted of the following: Dusty McKenzie, Tess, Kelsey, Jenna, Ed, Lauren, John, Candice, and I. The area that we were surveying was at the north end of Project Area Two bordered by Orestimba Creek and Panther Gulch. We surveyed across from East to West in ten meter transects and then conducted a second adjacent sweep from West to East. Anchors had G.P.S. units but we used compasses to keep our bearings.The altitude at its highest point was just over fourteen hundred feet and riddled with quartz and chalcedony chips, which made for a lot of fake-outs. There were many limitations including vegetation, surface visibility, poison oak, downed trees, bees, slope, lack of visibility of other group members and mangled burnt-out trees. Our pickaxes came to many of our rescues throughout the day for keeping ourselves from falling. Our findings in this area were negative of any archaeological sites but due to the many obstacles that disrupted our transits this survey can not conclusively say that none exist.

After we concluded transects of this area we moved on to a smaller clearing just to the northeast outside our project area. Here we found two small chert flakes, two small bone fragments, one most likely a larger mammal and the second bird bone. Lower on the landscape in a rock outcrop Dusty found a bed rock mortar.

We then continued on back to the vans to meet up with the other groups to head back to base camp where we ate dinner and had a group discussion about the day and the articles that we had read over the week.

Cabrillo Archaeology Field School, Day 3 June 16th 2010. Written by: Stephen Hennek

Field school can be a very rough place at times. Last night was no exception; gale force winds came and went through the night as we enjoyed a few burning embers around the fire. At one point the wind blew hard enough to take down the tent that we used to store our food. In our struggle to save it, nylon chairs were singed after being blown into the fire and cups of various liquids were hurled across the campsite. After a rough night of sleep for many of us, we were rewarded by waking up to a beautiful day. After a quick breakfast we had a meeting to share our thoughts on our first few days of field school as well as our focuses for future aspirations for research questions we will address this summer. Dusty talked about the prehistory of the area and how it has mostly been recorded as an area where the indigenous inhabitants exploited the benefits of the resident elk population. So far this has been a hard concept to swallow because most of the site we have surveyed contained subsistent materials, such as hopper stones imprinted with cupules and hand stones. Few lithic scatters have been found, which does not coincide with the recorded history of the area. Dusty concluded the meeting by gifting us our first Marshaltown trowels (a pivotal moment for any aspiring archaeologist).

Day three was spent once again at site CA-SCL-504 finishing up our site maps as well as learning to describe ground stone artifacts, and filling out primary record forms and archeological site records. We spent our lunch enjoying the warm sun, a cool creek, and a few PB&J sandwiches. After lunch we headed to the sites we will be excavating in the weeks to come. Although Annamarie’s driving abilities gave us a few scares we somehow made it to our destination in one piece. Kolin entertained us with his mountain goat finesse as he climbed rock outcroppings and pointed out rattlesnakes that we should probably avoid; whether or not he did is a different matter. After a long day of hiking and playing in the dirt a few of us enjoyed a dip in the local watering hole. The water snakes were not present this time around but Kolin was able to use his toe as bait for the resident fish. Tomorrow will complete out first week of field school, thanks to Dusty and the rest of the crew chiefs, our lives are well on their way to be left in ruins.

Cabrillo Archaeology Field School, Day 2 June 15th 2010. Written by: Christina Spellman

The tasks today included calculating our individual paces and recording/mapping of two sites in San Clemente. First we leisurely walked along a one hundred meter measuring tape. By dividing one hundred meters by the number of steps taken over that distance, we could calculate how to use our stride/pace to map features and sites. A second essential skill required in recording a site is knowing how to use a compass. I learned not only how to record a site today, but also the potential of what a compass can do. In comparison to yesterday, being our first day at the field school, today was gorgeously temperate. Drinking water seemed to be not necessary, yet everyone packed and drank probably 4 liters, obviously a result of learning from the treacherous first day intensive excursion/learning.

After returning to camp, we listened to a wonderful flintknapping demo by Tim Gross. His awesome engagement was challenged by the chilling wind gnawing at our sun drenched limbs, but Tim prevailed, leaving us with lithic info and the curiosity to ask what defines “debitage,” what signifies a chronology of tool use, etc. After two days, the field school is everything I expected and I’m sure much more. Half of the pleasure of the experience is discovering California on a different level than what I knew before and knowing new potential archaeologists.

Cabrillo Archaeology Field School Day 1 June 14th 2010, Written by Emily Zimmermann

Day one of field school was a lot of fun, and also a tough reality check on what dangers the wilderness has to offer. We took a long hiking tour of several sites including a historic site and several prehistoric sites. As we hiked we learned a lot about the native and non-native vegetation. The prehistoric sites would never have jumped out at you; there was a lot of ground cover so things were hard to find, but once we knew where the sites were we found many exciting artifacts and cultural remains. At one site we found some olivella shell beads, some burnt bone, and a lithic scatter. At other sites there were cupules, these small depressions in the rock that some archaeologists hypothesize had ritual or spiritual significance because of their somewhat artful placements. At one site there were at least 8 if not more mortars, all somewhat in a row, spaced about 5-15 feet apart. It was interesting too because many of them seemed intentionally faced down. One student suggested it was to keep them from collecting stagnant water. These were probably used to process plant foods such as acorns. They were likely from the late prehistoric period when acorn exploitation was intensified. The most fun was definitely the swimming hole. We’re looking forward to passing by that swimming hole every day after the dig. As fun as that was, the hike back was pretty rough, up a long steep hill to get back. A few people had to hang back and later we brought them some water. By the time I’d reached the last stretch, I was so fed up I ran up the last 50 feet or so of the hill. When I got to the top I threw up! But I felt so much better afterwards, and at no time was it ever not worth it. Day 1: amazing!