Archaeological field work, especially when you are working on a new trench site, is much like putting together a puzzle without the box featuring a picture of the completed puzzle for reference. I have been working in the new trench, and for the last several days we have been terrae-ing and pickaxing. As we do so, Brandon, the supervisor, makes note of the different features we find. A row of stones that could be a wall or a stack of stones that could also be a wall. As we dig, we dig around these features and stones to get a sense of what the trench holds. It becomes easier and easier to see what the structure of the trench is. Today, after pickaxing and hoeing the ground for four days, we finally discovered five distinct structures in the trench. Each structure must be treated with its own context, which means as we dig, each of the five structures have to be dug and sifted, and artifacts found within them must be sorted separately. It is still not entirely clear what the site is, but so far it seems to be two rooms on one side with a large center area, a wall like structure on the other side of the center area and another wall like structure on the base of the center area. Below you can see a diagram which maps out the different sections of the trench. Hopefully, this week we will have a much better understanding of what these structures are and their functions. This morning, we really had no idea what was in this trench. By 12pm, though, we had discovered that there were five contexts in this one five-by-five trench. Hence, a puzzle without a box.                 

Madi Barber