Now that things have really gotten underway at Coleman Farm, I guess it’s time to start updating our readers. Our first three weeks in the field involved lots of measurement, collection, and documentation. We scoured the site from top to bottom for artifacts that had found their way to the surface, and marked, then collected and documented them. We also went over the area with metal detectors, marking hits, then later coming back to dig them up and, surprise, collect and document them. We found both relevant and irrelevant artifacts, everything from prehistoric stone chips from tool making and arrowheads, to pieces of ceramics and nails (we found a truly ungodly number nails). The locations of all of our finds were marked with flags, which we then scanned into the total station. Along with recording the locations of our artifact finds, we used the total station to map out our site and plan out the locations of our shovel test pits. By scanning in both measured and arbitrary points around the area from a set position (marked by a piece of rebar that we drove into the ground), we set up an axis and marked out a grid on the site.
We also got the chance to work with USDA soil scientist Phil King, who taught us a little bit about how Ground Penetrating Radar works, and how it can be helpful in an archaeological setting. The technology, as long as the soil composition is favorable, can “see” anomalies beneath the surface. The readings are a bit hard to decipher without some help, (they look a bit like technicolor tv static), and it’s impossible to tell what exactly it is that the machine has found, but for our purposes, it, along with the distribution of our artifacts and our findings in the of STPs, it can help us narrow down possible locations where a structure used to be.
