May 30th 2019 - Working in the Lab.

With wildfire smoke from northern Alberta leaving a light haze over the Vancouver sky this morning, students met in the classroom to work on their projects and talk about proper excavation procedures. The first thing Bob brought up when we sat down, is that as the Simon Fraser University group was hiking back to the parking lot yesterday, they encountered the bear that attacked our camp on Monday. At the 2 kilometre mark on the trail, they ran into the bear and had trouble scaring it away, which is surprising as there were over 20 adults in the group. We now know for sure that the bear is not scared of large groups of people, which could be dangerous in the future.

Afterwards we moved onto a round table talk about everyone's projects, and the progress they've made on them. Karoline talked about how the waste audit is going. She reviewed the audit from 2013, and discovered that they used much more trash, such as aluminum cans and ziplock bags than we have this season. Karoline and most other students agreed it is most likely due to our changing society. She has also compared the data she collected from the begging of this field school season to this week, which showed students are bringing less waste in their lunches. Karoline mentioned how this is most likely due to peer pressure from others to bring less trash, because everyone can see when someone places something into the collection bag. Hopefully other field studies will start to do waste audits in the future, and reduce their overall contribution to landfills and climate change.

Over the next couple of weeks, I will be talking to people as they make more progress on their projects, and today I got the chance to talk with Rohan and Mitch about what they are working on. Mitch, as some of you already know if you have read previous posts, is working on the rock feature in the northwest corner of the McKenzie Creek site. He said for the past two weeks he has been clearing out foliage and moss from the area, and excavating the outside walls of the feature to determine its depth. He also mentioned that he has been focusing a lot of his time excavating the western wall, because it was completely buried in a diagonal wall of dirt. At first, Mitch didn't know if the wall had an end to it, or if it just continued into the creek close by, but he finally found a distinct end to the wall. The rough sketch below shows the east wall of the rock feature that was uncovered, with the dimensions and general shape of each rock.

Mitch's sketch of the east wall on the rock feature.

Rohan is studying buttons and clasps found at the McKenzie Creek site. The first thing he did was some research on how to classify buttons. He found various resources and organizations that describe different types of buttons from the 1900s, and also says that a lot of the buttons we have were used on headlight overalls which were popular in the 1920s. Rohan has also identified a lot of carhartt buttons. For his project, he is focusing on the size, material and number of button holes on each button. His report will include a detailed description of a few of the buttons from the McKenzie Creek collection.

Buttons in the McKenzie Creek collection.

Next, Bob briefly talked about the difference between our cedar plank road and a corduroy road. Many people use the words interchangeably, but a corduroy road is a row of logs that create a path which is easier to travel on than the dirt or marsh below it. 

Example of corduroy road. Source: Toronto Public Library

The cedar plank road on our site is a row of thin planks that have been made specifically for a smooth path to travel on for an entire logging season. A corduroy road would have been easier to complete, but would be a bumpier ride.

After that quick conversation, Bob began his lecture on excavation procedures. We talked about what to do if we find an artifact in our unit or on the surface of the site, and the proper way to fill out artifact and level sheets. He also reviewed how to label a level bag when you find something in an excavation unit that is not classified as an artifact. Bob also mentioned that when the Seymour Valley Archaeology project is complete, there will be boxes of level bags to sort through, but he doesn't know what to do with all of the materials in the bags. If you have any suggestions on what to do with those materials, feel free to comment on the blog or message Bob on twitter here. Would it be smart to return the items back to the site? Please leave your suggestions below!

Bob also gave us a glimpse of what he is expecting to see on our final exam. Towards the end of the field season, we will be instructed to go to a site and draw a complete map of the area. He provided us with a key of some important symbols that he is expecting us to use on our maps, and said we will have time to practice with a group of people in the next two weeks. The final exam will be done individually, and by the time we reach the exam day, students should understand how to do everything themselves.

Standard archaeological map symbols.

Today we also celebrated two birthdays. Angus and Shaunti have both had birthdays in this field school season, so many people brought snacks, and someone even baked a cake! We all celebrated during our snack and lunch breaks by sharing the food.

Layout of snacks that students organized to celebrate birthdays. 

Next week we will have visitors everyday at the McKenzie Creek site, and students will rotate working in the lab. I hope everyone has a great weekend, see you on Monday!