5/12/2014

Dru Keyser                                                                                                                           May 12, 2014

36LY0345 Glunk

    Today called for isolated thunderstorms across Williamsport, so our initial plan for the day was to attempt flint-knapping and atlatl making.  We began by collecting the tools that we had available to us, including hammer stones, pieces of flint in bulk rock form, and a few hammers from our Archaeology tool kit.  After spending a great deal of time just trying to break down our flint rocks into flakes that could be worked into projectile points, we decided that this task was much too complicated for us, at which point Robin Van Auken received a phone call from Robin Knauth, who said that she was at the Glunk site (36LY0345), and that the weather there was dry but overcast.  So, we decided that it would be best to try and get some dig time in today, and therefore we cleaned up our materials and went to the site.

    We arrived on the site at noon, where the skies appeared to be mostly passing clouds.  The soil was very dry because it had not rained for some time, which made screening the sandy matrix for artifacts much easier.  My goal for the day was to complete the West wall breakdown, which separated excavation units sixteen and seventeen.  I had already dug from zero to thirteen inches on the wall, working in North and South sections; therefore, I only had to dig from thirteen to twenty four inches in order to bring the wall to the same depth as my excavation unit.  I began in the South section, where there were no real significant finds other than a few sherds of pottery and miscellaneous rocks.  But, in the North section of the wall, I found several different pottery sherds, including both fabric-impressed and chord-marked.  Also, I found a great deal of chert debutage, many of which I was able to identify as thinning flakes because of their size, shape, and obvious ware from being worked.  After bringing the West wall down to the same depth as the floor of my excavation unit (number sixteen), I spent the rest of the time watching over the other two excavation units (seventeen and eighteen).  About half an hour before we were to leave, a new member of North Central Chapter Eight, Rex, arrived to observe the work that we were doing, as well as the pits that he would be digging in during his time in the field.  He left at three o'clock pm, at which point we proceeded to clean up our tools, re-cover our pits, and call an end for the day.