Walking with an archaeologist is always a peculiar experience. Their heads are downturned, scanning the ground. Quartz, shifts in topography, even artifacts – all are catalogued by an inquisitive eye. While you watch the sunset, they point toward a lithic.[1] Its fired red surface is luminous against the soil. For as much time as archaeologists spend looking, however, they spend as much time listening.
When the shovel scrapes past plow zone in Unit 6, the sound of the soil changes: from the wet and full sound of topsoil, to the crunch of dry and artifact rich soil. The sound is not uniform – it only occurs in the western third. The shovel is quickly tossed aside. The student excavating crouches to the floor. She trowels with a skilled hand, exposing the source of the audible anomaly. It is revealed to have more lightly colored soil than the deep red subsoil in the rest of the unit. The student smiles toward her partner, pointing to small charcoal inclusions and lighter mottling.
The team is told to expand westward by one meter. They shovel, screen, and trowel. At the bottom of Stratum I, they are left with a 2x1m unit – the new western portion is filled with the same “busy” soil as found in the previous unit. This possible feature fill looks oddly structure-like: it is uniformly “busy” and has a neat line between itself and subsoil. After the unit is well documented, the students resume digging.
When the shovel scrapes past plow zone in Unit 6, the sound of the soil changes: from the wet and full sound of topsoil, to the crunch of dry and artifact rich soil. The sound is not uniform – it only occurs in the western third. The shovel is quickly tossed aside. The student excavating crouches to the floor. She trowels with a skilled hand, exposing the source of the audible anomaly. It is revealed to have more lightly colored soil than the deep red subsoil in the rest of the unit. The student smiles toward her partner, pointing to small charcoal inclusions and lighter mottling.
The team is told to expand westward by one meter. They shovel, screen, and trowel. At the bottom of Stratum I, they are left with a 2x1m unit – the new western portion is filled with the same “busy” soil as found in the previous unit. This possible feature fill looks oddly structure-like: it is uniformly “busy” and has a neat line between itself and subsoil. After the unit is well documented, the students resume digging.
Mere moments into the next strata, a large white point appears in the shovel pan. It is roughly identified as a projectile point made from agatized coral and dating from the Middle Archaic period approximately 4-5,000 years ago. The students ponder this for a moment – they are only centimeters past plow zone, yet they’ve just uncovered a point far more ancient than the context would imply. Perhaps this agatized coral point was found by someone within Capachequi, saved and treasured for its beauty; its alien qualities. Tantalizing as the artifact is, the students must dig on.
They do not dig for long, however. Large rocks protrude through the unit floor, their surface a deep red, as though fired at some point. The students wonder if they are digging into a hearth. Shovels are tossed aside for trowels, which themselves are quickly tossed aside for spoons, sharpened bamboo sticks, and brushes. Days go by. Students and volunteers crouch on their knees and slowly reveal the feature. Multiple kinds of pottery emerge, along with white clay, large lithics, charcoal, daub, and more rock.[2] The variety of artifacts leads the field school to conclude that this feature is no hearth. It is a trash pit.
They do not dig for long, however. Large rocks protrude through the unit floor, their surface a deep red, as though fired at some point. The students wonder if they are digging into a hearth. Shovels are tossed aside for trowels, which themselves are quickly tossed aside for spoons, sharpened bamboo sticks, and brushes. Days go by. Students and volunteers crouch on their knees and slowly reveal the feature. Multiple kinds of pottery emerge, along with white clay, large lithics, charcoal, daub, and more rock.[2] The variety of artifacts leads the field school to conclude that this feature is no hearth. It is a trash pit.
Just like your trashcan reflects your daily life, so too does this trash pit reflect the daily life of people at some point in time. The next questions are: who left this trash here? Why? And how does it connect to the broader story of Capachequi?
-Allen Luethke and Kelly Teboe
-Allen Luethke and Kelly Teboe