UNM 2013 Fall Field School - Day Four

By Pablo Flores 

           Today was Day Four and our last day at San Luis de Cabezon. It was a beautiful day for archaeology - the sun was bright and the wind was gentle. As usual we were greeted in the morning by the roaming cattle that graze the fields of the Rio Puerco Valley. The priority of the day was finishing up our test units, which were 1 x 1meter squares, in order to reach a closing point in our excavations at San Luis de Cabezon.  Using a trowel to excavate is not as straight forward as one would imagine – there is a specific angle (obtuse angle) in which to peel back the layers of dirt within a test unit and it takes practice to perfect this skill. This skill when mastered allows the archaeologist to reveal layers one at a time, which is very important in trying to identify surfaces that show human occupation. It requires patience and a keen eye to excavate so as not to overlook an artifact, feature or change in soil composition.

            My goal for the day was to reach the bottom of arbitrary Level 2, which meant removing soil until I had gone down a full 10 cm. I mostly encountered scattered charcoal within my unit and a small concentration of calcium carbonate, which is very important as it can suggest that a stable surface had been formed by human occupation. Calcium carbonate is found when water collects on a stable surface and evaporates. I did not recover any artifacts within Level 2, but I did reach an interesting feature within my unit that was a depression shaped like a basin. Dr. Wills instructed me in how best to remove the soil in order to reveal this feature. However there was no certainty that this feature was created by humans since further excavation of an adjacent unit was required. I was also given the chance to do some profile mapping of my unit on the North and West walls. This was a very enjoyable task because I worked with one of the Graduate Assistants and was able to get a second opinion about what I thought I was observing within the strata. The profile of the North and West walls were mapped because of the defined stratigraphy and the amount of charcoal within each wall.

At the end of the day we finished by laying a plastic lining within each of our excavated units and backfilling using the dirt we removed while excavating so that the OCA archaeologists would be able to reopen them for further excavation. It was while collecting this plastic lining that I found myself taking a mud bath.  Since the night before it had rained causing the surface to become very soft the plastic lining had become submerged and while trying to recover it I also became submerged. Luckily I only fell in once, but I sure was dirty! All in all it was a wonderful time and great place to learn excavation methods at San Luis de Cabezon. With the government now open we will be able to continue our field school as planned at Chaco Canyon and although I will miss the presence of Cabezon in the background I relish in the thought of going to Chaco Canyon next week.