Understanding the past to build the future

This week was more of an exciting week for here at the lab and out at the site. A lot of artifacts were found and some very interesting ones at that. We were very busy getting all the artifacts catalogued before we headed out to the site. Once we went out to the site Chelsea, Kellie and I were set to dig up units right next to each other near the enterance passage of the house. Many pieces of bone, ceramic, iron, and even beads were found down near this area. By finding all of the different artifacts kept the day very interesting and kept our mind set on digging even though there were a lot of flies buzzing around. The house is almost fully dug up now and then the removal of the floor stones along with back filling is left to do. That is all for this week.

This week we made some headway in finding the edges of the house. We have most of the corners found, but we’re still looking for some more. I found a key part of the wall this week. Phoebe found a nice niche and some floor, Lisa put me next to her and I found more of the sleeping platform and what looks to be one of the corners. We also had to take out more trees and add units, these are deep, the soil is denser and also they are filled with huge roots! Everytimg we take the sod off our unit, we do a survey of the roots and try to decide the best way to get them out. Pheobe had one of the biggest! I think the root was bigger than the tree trunk itself! For the most part of this week we were all in the west side of the house, trying to find the end – the walls, with Laura concentrating largely on the entrance passage, which is the at the north east side of the house. The crew and I came in this weekend, they left yesterday. They will be finishing the units, there are about 10 left to do, and maybe put a few more in. They’ll soon begin taking the collapsed rocks out of the house and Robyn will begin mapping the floor. It looked open when I left Friday, but I have a feeling it’s going to look even cooler when I get back (I forgot to mention that this is my fisrt dig!).

Some of the interesting and imfortant finds of the week were:

• minature soapstone pot – Me
• Gaffe, ulu, hook (same unit) – Pheobe
• Endblade – Andrew

and more but they are escaping me right now. So we’ve got about ten days left, they’ll be hetic and stressful but they’ll pay off in the end! This week is supposed to be better for digging also, last week was extremely hot! We got off early one day so we could go into the ocean! So this week in the lab should be interesting, I knew Chelsea and Brandon before, they’re sure to keep me on my toes!

On friday we went had another day out to the dig site. It was a very hot day, and the stouts were wild which made it very uncomfortable for working in, or which is what I thought. I had my own square to dig in this time around, and I found a few pieces of bone, iron nails, ceramic and normandy stoneware.  We are back to logging artifacts this week in the lab, and we head back out to the dig site on friday to dig for another day. Hopefully it’s not to hot this time around, which will make for another uncomfortable day working but I do enjoy the digging all the same, getting the hang of things on my own pretty well. Hope friday is a more exciting day and the crew finds a few exciting things during the week.

Well Friday was sure a hot one! It was ridiculously hot actually.. 28.7 degrees celcius in town that day, but it sure seemed hotter than that at the dig site when you’re crouched over digging all day. There wasn’t a draft of wind, and the stouts were out swarming around us. But besides the horrible heat, it was a good day digging. When we went out this week we could really see a lot of the house opened up. The crew are moving swiftly to get the house done, and this week we got to dig in the entrance passage. We didn’t find a lot but it’s exciting to see how the house is coming along, knowing we are almost done. When we go out this week, they should be into the mapping stages; taking out rocks that may have fallen in over the years. Thats when the house really shapes up. It’ll be exciting to see on Friday

The past week at the site we finally uncovered the southeast corner of the house! At the bottom of level 1 Vicky exposed a large stone bench there, which was pretty cool. Saturday was community day and we had a great turn out from morning til afternoon. Phoebe fortuitously found an iron harpoon head just as Lisa was giving a group tour. Lots of other great artifacts were collected as well- a whalebone runner, some big pieces of ceramic, and engraved pipe stems. On Monday I came into town for my week working in the lab. I got some photos of a selection of our coolest artifacts which will be up on the CURA website soon. Mario Blaser and Derek Norman arrived in town on Tuesday and got some footage of the lab and then went out to the site where the crew dressed up in costume and they filmed around the excavation- the idea for the final scene sounds like it will be really interesting.

Friday morning us lab crew came back to dig for the day, as usual, but this time the whole group came back into town with Doris and Lew. We had a relaxing weekend in Cartwright and now are back out for our final week of digging! Most of the site is opened, although we had to put in a few new units to find all the edges of the house.

I had a great time staying with Brenda and her kiddies but I am definitely looking forward to sleeping back on the ground in my cozy tent!

Last week we finished off the cataloguing the artifacts that were found out at the dig site in the lab. When Friday came we headed back out to the site so we can dig ourselves. I had a hard unit to dig in because there was a tree that was in the middle of it so there were many roots that took me a while to get out. There wasn’t much exciting in my unit, just a bit of bone and a couple of pieces of iron. On Saturday we went back out to the site again for community day. I was put on bbq duty and there was a nice few people that came out to see the site. Many were interested in what was going on at the site and seemed surprised in what was found at the site. That is all for this week and we’ll post again soon.

Completed week two of working in the lab. On friday we went to the dig site again for the day. Myself and Chelsea worked on our own quad and we found pieces of iron, bone, quartz, mica and ramah chert. The wind picked up before we were on our way home and we ended up getting soaked but it wasn’t overly rough in the boat. On saturday community day was held out to the island. I attended community day in the past when I would travel out with my dad. I always thought it was pretty interesting to see the work they did out to the sites. This year we did have quite a few people but we were prepared for more people to come, but we did have an overall good turnout. This week again we are logging artifacts  that they found last week. We go out to the island again friday morning to dig, I really like fridays because I think digging it really fun, but i’m yet to find something more interesting then a pipe stem, they are finding a nice few interesting artifacts out there so far

So on Friday we headed back out to the site after having a busy week in the lab. We finished catalogueing all of the artifacts that had been brought in and we gathered up some groceries for the BBQ on Saturday for COMMUNITY DAY! Friday digging weather was a bit windy, and a lot fo the crew found it very chilly. Myself and Kellie shared a unit this week and it went well. We found a huge piece of bone, some mica, and an iron hook. Overall there was no flies, so it turned out to be a good digging day.

On Saturday we headed out to the site for Community Day! It was a good day, with quite a few visitors. We opened the site to the public and had hamburgers, hot dogs and pop for all who showed up. There was constantly someone at the site. Lisa took groups around the house and explained a little bit what we were doing there. In the end, the wind died out and the flies started come out. Other than that, it was a great turnout and we hope everyone enjoyed it as much as our crew did!

Completed my first week of work with the group at the lab. The week went pretty good and I really enjoy this as a summer job. We went out to the dig site on Thursday for a little visit, and went out to dig with them on friday. My first time digging with them and I thought it was really fun, I really enjoyed it. I found a few pieces of bone, quartz and a pipe stem. During this week, we are logging the artifacts they found. Some of the things are pretty cool, but hopefully they find more cool stuff in the weeks to come. We head out again friday morning to dig again, maybe this time I will get my own square and will find stuff that might be more interesting.

There hadn’t been much work in the lab the first week so on Thursday Brandon, Laura, Kellie and I decided we’d head out to the site to see how everyone was doing. I baked brownies for the crew the night before, and brought out a watermelon as well. When we got there, locals from Cartwright had been stuck on the shore because of the falling tide; leaving their boat “high and dry”. But it gave Junior Sainsbury a chance to try for a fish while he waited for the tide to rise! We only spent a couple of hours at the site. We arrived just before dinner and chatted with the crew while digging. Then we ate and sat around outside discussing different things. After dinner we headed  back to Cartwright with a box of artifacts to unpack and put out to dry over the weekend.

On Friday, we all headed out to the site early in the morning. Once we got out there, we got staright to it. Both myself and Brandon got our own units because we had dug before, and Kellie partnered up with Vicky Allen from Rigolet. After a while of digging in what was a terribl rooty unit I discovered a Ulu! It was the first one of the season! It was pretty exciting. I didn’t find much after that because my unit was full of roots, but in the end it was a good day.

In the afternoon we took a break and let Andrew test out a cardboard boat we had built earlier in the week for the cardboard boat race that’s suppose to take place later on this summer. We took part in it last year and terribly failed, but we wern’t going to let that happen this year! So we made a prototype and let Andrew test it out in the pond. Thankfully, there were minimum leaks, and Andrew made it to the otherside without sinking! Digging sure is fun, but taking little breaks like that are all part of it too.