Week 4-- 8/4/03 to 8/8/03

Figure 1- Billy, Alex, and Tess are grogily waiting for Monday to start.

There’s a re-occurring trope in field school lore that says that the last week is both the hardest and the most fun and once again, history has proven itself to flow in circles. This was an amazingly busy week, filled with speakers and profiling and cleanup and rain and everything else, but through it all we stayed in great spirits and managed to get it all done with a smile.

The lab had its last two days on Monday and Tuesday. Because of the busy schedule of speakers on Wednesday, we spent the morning getting everything organized and cleaned up at the A.M.E. Zion Church. There are still plenty of artifacts to be processed, but Emily will be continuing the lab work as an independent study class during August.

Figure 2- Heather and Brittany trying to make some sense of the chaos in the lab.

Figure 3- The small display which we set up in the basement for Dr. David Du Bois’ talk.

Wednesday over lunch, we were paid a visit by Steve Comer. Steve is Stockbridge-Mohican person and an anthropology student at SUNY-Albany and he spoke to us about the history of the Mohican people and their connection to the Berkshires. As historical archaeologists, we sometimes get caught up in the importance of 1492, without remembering that Native Americans have been here since time immemorial.

Figure 4- Bob showing Steve the pre-form point we found.

Figure 5- Definitely not the last of the Mohicans.

After lunch, we packed up and went to the church to hear Dr. David Du Bois talk about the significance of W.E.B. Du Bois and why it’s important to study him. He discussed the situation in Iraq and the similarity between how Blacks were portrayed in the 19^th and 20 centuries, and with how Muslims and people of Middle Eastern descent are portrayed today. It was a fascinating and moving talk, and we all came away with a sense of the importance of the work we were doing on the lives of African-Americans in Western Massachusetts.

Figure 6- After a bit of a delay, Dr. Du Bois finally arrives. Rachel and Bob greet him in front of Fran's house.

Figure 7- Standing room only in the Church. Bob moderates the questions after Dr. Du Bois's talk.

After all this, it’s hard to believe that we actually did archaeology this week—in fact, we did quite a bit of archaeology. The first part of the week, we moved quickly to finish the units we had started.

Figure 8- Bob and Kerry examine PI 9 by the house.

Figure 9- Tess and Rachel excavate PI 10 in the side yard. Just what is that anomaly, anyway?

The last day was mainly spent profiling our units. The students drew every wall in very fine detail, marking the appropriate Harris numbers and any interesting inclusions in the stratigraphy. There were also a few other large projects. Quentin, Rachel, and Alex spent a great deal of time trying to find the well, with no success. Liz and a crew of students attempted to make a comprehensive map of the site with the total station. Finally, we had to back-fill all of the units and pull up the stakes we had put in.

Figure 10- Rachel, Emily, Brad, and Alex set up the shelters on the last day.

Figure 11- Bob was always insightful and ecstatic. Here he seems to be preaching something!

Figure 12- Emily and Matt try and explain what's going on in PI5 on the final session of pit tours.

We even went back and explored some of the old units that we had closed up in previous weeks. It amazing how much we remembered and how it all seemed to fit together in the total picture of the site.

Figure 13- Sarah shows Emily the outer edge of the midden soil in PI3, which was closed two weeks ago. Brittany, Colin, Alex, Tess, Billy and Matt look on.

Figure 14- Through trees and poles... Liz begins to pack the Bio van on the last day.

Figure 15- Sittin’ on the boulder. Bottom Row: Ruth, Wendy, Billy, Quentin, Matt. Middle Row: Tess, Sarah, Brittany, Kerry, Emily, Alex, Rachel. Top Row: Andy, Heather, Colin, Brad, Andy the Brewer, Liz.