June 3rd 2019 - A Great Start to the Month!

Today 6 students worked in the lab while the rest continued their work at the McKenzie Creek site. Harman, Fazila, Angus, Allyah, Siobhan and I met in the lab and worked on term projects. Fazila took pictures and measurements of ceramics from the Suicide Creek site, Harman continued to catalogue all artifacts from McKenzie Creek, and Angus continued to work on his projects on lantern glass and barrel rings. Allyah and Siobhan were researching artifacts found by previous field school students such as a toothbrush and toothpaste, early 20th century battery cores, and the Japanese game Go. I spent the day going through all of the past level bag reports on the McKenzie Creek site, and compiled lists of what excavation units bottle glass, lantern glass, window glass and ceramics were found in.

Students working in the lab today.

While all of that hard work was being done in the lab, students in the field had the chance to continue excavating previously opened units, open new units, and work on their projects. With only a little over two weeks left in our field school, we are trying to finish up excavations by the end of this week so students have the chance to finish their projects on time. Aza is 2/3rds of the way through measuring and describing the cedar plank road. Today she found a plank underneath a tree that was so well preserved that it she could see the original saw marks in a straight line! So far she has found 28 planks, and she says there are less than 45 on the entire stretch of the McKenzie Creek site. Most of the planks are on the northern side of the site, near the rock feature that Mitch is doing his project on.

The cedar plank road, flags mark planks. Photo by Aza.

Alyssa is continuing to work on sketching and measuring the ofuro. Last week she excavated a small portion on the south side to see if she could find anything, and she found multiple pieces of metal and glass. Today she mostly worked on sketches of the east wall to prepare for her final report.

Alyssa working at the ofuro. Photo by Aza.

Many students also continued to excavate their units, Rohan and Shaunti found a Canadian quarter while screening the dirt 1-2cm below the surface which was super cool! It dates to 1974.

Quarter found by Rohan and Shaunti. Photo by Bob.

One man who ran into some students on the paved path was telling them that about 40 years ago he looted the site, and Bob thinks that the quarter may have fallen out of his pocket then. Bob says that others have told him about looting the site in the past, but it is suspected that it was all done on the surface.

Two new excavation units were created beside the ones that were opened last week. The four units in that area have released dozens of nails, one complete and one incomplete file, a fragment from a cosmetic jar and another fragment of ceramics. A lot of bottle and lantern glass was also found in the units. 

Karoline holding items found in the units behind her. Photo by Bob.

We also had a couple of visitors on site today, one being Naomi Yamamoto, a Canadian politician who was the first person of Japanese ancestry to be elected as a member of the British Columbia Legislative Assembly. She was in office from 2009 to 2017 for the North Vancouver-Lonsdale riding. You can read more about her accomplishments here and check out her twitter here. She tweeted about her experience at the McKenzie Creek site today. She got a site tour from Bob and also got to view some ceramic and glass artifacts from previous years.

Naomi Yamamoto next to ofuro. Photo by Bob.

Bob's wife Victoria, and youngest daughter Anna also had to chance to visit today, and all of the students loved meeting them. Anna got the chance to excavate at McKenzie Creek back in 2013 while she was still in high school. I'm sure it was fun to come back after all of that time and see what has changed since then.

Overall the day went really well and we will be back in the field tomorrow for some more excavating. Hopefully we will have another day without rain, and we will find more cool things to add to our artifact collection. See you tomorrow!