5/6/2014

Dru Keyser                                                                                                                             May 6, 2014

36LY0345 Glunk

    Today we returned to the Glunk site (36LY0345).  We arrived on site at approximately 9:30am, and the weather was partly cloudy with a slight breeze.  The ground around our pits was slightly moist, but our pits were dry for the most part.  My goal for today was to bring the entirety of my pit to level three, which measures from eighteen inches to twenty-four inches.  I decided to create an arbitrary level at twenty-four inches because I felt that it would be an acceptable place to end level three because it was six inches below the end of level two, which ended at eighteen inches.

    I began by working in the Southwest quad, using my trowel to scrape away the sandy matrix that made up the soil.  I found several small pieces of pottery, as well as many thinning flakes of chert.  After bringing the Southwest quad down to twenty-four inches, which ends the depth for level three, I moved on to the Northwest quad.  I began working on the Northwest quad, which contained many similar artifacts as the Southwest quad.  Then I began working on the Southeast quad, which did not contain any significant artifacts, which was somewhat depressing because with all the the chert debutage that I had found specifically in this quad, I was hoping to find a projectile point that a prehistoric individual may have dropped or broken during the manufacture process.  Then, just as I was about to move on to the Northeast quad, my trowel scrapped against something on the floor of the Southeast quad.  Upon hearing the sound of my trowel on something hard and not a rock, I used a dental pick and paintbrush to scrape away the dirt around what turned out to be an incredible find.

    Seen above are pictures of a projectile point that I found in the Southeast quad at twenty-four inches.  This point appears to be made out of agatized coral, and has a fossil impression of a shell on one side.  This find was incredible because this point would not have been functional, but ceremonial because the coral would be too soft and therefore break to easily for this point to be used for hunting or fighting.
    After spending a few extra minutes looking at and discussing the projectile point from my excavation unit, I began working on the Northeast quad.  Unfortunately, I was not able to bring the entire quad down to the end of level three, but I did manage to get to twenty inches, which means that tomorrow I will be able to finish it.  We left the site today, and all I could think about was the projectile point, seen above.