May 22nd 2019 - Visitors Galore!

On this beautifully sunny day in North Vancouver, students once again met at the McKenzie Creek site in the morning. We all got our archaeology gear ready, and we were off to work! Everyone split into groups, and once again I got the opportunity to work with Alyssa and also Fazila on clearing moss off of the ofuro (Japanese bathhouse). Two other groups continued to dig test pits within the grid that was created yesterday, and Mitch continued working on clearing off the rock feature with Rohan and Harman. We also had four visitors join us in the morning from the North Vancouver Museum and Archive. Daien Ide, Karen Dearlove, Carol Ballard and Pamela Robertson took a tour around the site with Bob and got to look at artifacts from the McKenzie Creek collection. If you are interested in checking out the museum you can follow them on twitter here, or check out there website by clicking this link. 

Our morning visitors looking at artifacts found by previous field school students. Photo by Bob.  

Once everyone had spent a couple of hours working on their morning tasks, and the tour of our morning visitors was completed by Bob, we were called to lunch. Like most days at lunch we talked and joked around, but many students also began to fill in their field notebooks. Yesterday we were given tips from Bob on how we can individually improve our note taking skills, and many people were trying very hard to create the best notes they could.

In the afternoon, a few lucky students got to begin excavating 2 meter by 2 meter units. They began by removing the litter mat, which is all of the moss and twigs that cover the soil. While they were removing the upper layer, other students got to sift through it to make sure no artifacts were hidden within the moss. Once the litter mat was gone, students began excavating in the dirt slowly with their trowels, while the other students continued to sift through the dirt that was being taken out of the ground. 

One student excavating her 2m by 2m unit. Photo by Bob. 

While that was happening, Fazila, Alyssa and I were clearing the ofuro of moss and dirt. We used our trowels and brushes to gain better visibility of the rocks so that Alyssa can complete a more detailed sketch for her project.

The uncovered ofuro.

We also had another visitor join us in the afternoon who used to do archaeology with Bob many years ago, and is now a lawyer. Jane Luke was also given a tour around the site and helped do some tidying around the ofuro. Jane and Bob did a field project together many years ago and I hope that she enjoyed being an archaeologist again for the afternoon!

Jane helping out around the ofuro with her Marshalltown trowel.

Mitch also continued working on clearing the stone feature in the upper north side of the site. He also began some preliminary sketches of it to get a better idea of how the final drafts of his drawings will look. Ali, our site line drawer/sketcher also spent the afternoon sketching people working. Hopefully soon I can get some of those sketches to post on the blog. At the end of the day, we all packed up camp and made sure everything was secure for the weekend because we won't be back until Monday. Tomorrow students will be working on their projects in the lab and going over some excavation procedures. 

Don't forget to check out the different projects that students will be completing during the Lower Seymour Archaeology Project 2019! You can find that information on the right hand side of the blog or by clicking here!