Day 27: Tool Making & Fencing! Together at Last?

The students continued on their merry way today, in the lab. The crazy gang was very "hands on" this afternoon...

No one was in the field except for Suzannah and Max (dramatically pictured below), who trekked off to find, among other things, more parts to the vinyl record found on Tuesday. Success! But, they came back at the end of the day in a bit of an awkward state. They had forgotten to take their tools with them, so they made their own! Suzannah is holding her hand made trowel, and Max is holding another portion of the record he uncovered. These two also dealt with a cornucopia of boulders, that Suzannah says "we successfully moved with only the aid of our minds, the tools we made from rocks, and shear strength." Underneath these bountiful boulders, they had found:
- a twisted metal container, with orange paint on it
- a thin metal handle
- a glass jar bottom
- a section of a broken ceramic plate
- more cardboard (found near the record, making us think it was the case for it)
- and lots of bottle caps with diagnostics on them!


Former field schooler Christie Leung had joined us in the lab today, to help work on projects. Thanks Christie!

Speaking of former field schoolers... Spencer taught us a very valuable lesson today (during the lunch break), on how to solve an argument with an archaeologist... Sure, most archaeologists would agree that you would just buy your colleague a beer, but Spencer declared that it is through fencing! Pictured below is one of the matches he had with Simon.

The groupies (pictured below), watching from inside the lab, were caught red-handed as they swooned over the undefeated champion.


An update on what Rikki (pictured below) was doing in the lab for her project is her soil samples.

Last week she was able to separate the moss and junk from the soil, and this week she continues to go through her checklist for materials found in her controls, in order to compare them to the Japanese rockery and garden. If there is a large difference between the controls and McKenzie Creek sites, then this might help us determine what the rockery was used for, and if a garden was previously in the area.

Her work station is set up in a very impressive way! Rikki brought her microscope from home, and the handy dandy machine of science actually has a camera that you can hook up to the microscope lens, and then into the computer. This way Rikki is able to provide Bob with detailed photos of soil, which proves if there were objects like shells or seeds present in it.


Our sweet Nadia (pictured below) spent the day researching the orange crush glass bottle we found. When she find out more information, I'll be sure to share it with you on the blog!

The saucy Verena (below) continued her magnificently thorough drawings.

Here is her sketch of a metal top to a Japanese beer or sake bottle, compared to the original. Impressive!

And naturally, the darling Andrea continued taking her photos of the artifacts.


Continuing yesterdays story, here is an update from Sean, Brittany, and Sonja's adventure. They had gone into the field yesterday to do some surveying, in an area that Bob had never checked out before. They think that a homeless person, or some campers, had been in the area within the last 10 years because they found a relatively new pot & pan near a recent cooking fire. They had also found some newer pieces of wood with nails embedded into them along a very steep slope off of the trail they were surveying along, as well as some wooden features that looked like they were used for stairs.

Today went by very quickly, but since tomorrow is another optional lab day students do have the option to work at home or in the lab on their projects.

On Monday there is no class scheduled, but the school will be running again on Tuesday the 22nd. Have a great weekend (don't forget that it is Fathers day on Sunday), and see you next week!