Deturfing…

Continuing good weather is really helping the fieldwork. While James and I went off to clean and record another soil profile along the beach bank, the rest of the team set out to deturf as much area as possible. We are planning to open 17 new squares, which will add 68 square meters to our total excavation area. So far, we’ve been making excellent progress: after only two days, Rick, Jack, Ziggy, Edouard and Keith have already deturfed half of these squares. The northwest area of the excavation was affected by looters, who made holes through the archaeological deposits. Nonetheless, most of the site is very well preserved, and we have found a few artefacts and fauna remains just below the sod.

 

Meantime, Roy and Kisngalria worked all day on creating these sophisticated sieves for screening the bulk soil samples for recovering animal bones, especially fish and small bird bones, Contrary to what happens with larger fauna remains, which are easy to recognise and collect during excavation, these bones are difficult to spot. They are, however, important for a better understanding of the subsistence strategies of the Nunalleq inhabitants and the environment in which they lived, something that Edouard is particularly interested in.

Ana