Last Week of Excavation by Brynda Z.

The last day of excavation at Camp San Luis started out just like any other day of field school. I woke up to the sounds of tent zippers and birds chirping around 6am. I rolled out of my sleeping bag and off my air mattress (yeah, I use an air mattress and I'm not ashamed of it), tried to avoid the gopher holes under my tent while grabbing my coffee mug and a packet of Starbucks Via, and stumbled over to the cooking area in search of hot water. I'm not a morning person, by any definition, but I choked down some oatmeal and downed my coffee and began to prepare myself for a day of wet screening and breaking camp.

Wet screening can be a lot of fun, especially on a warm, sunny day, like this day was. But this day was different. Everyone was tired from a late night and a long week of digging, and we had a lot of work left to do before we could break camp and return to Santa Cruz. We worked fast to get the last of our material processed, dumping buckets of clay mud that had been soaking overnight onto the "pigs" used to separate the soil clumps from the rocks, bone, and flakes hidden within. We sprayed everything down then set the material out to dry on screens in the sun, and as things dried we filled and organized bags and boxes with the materials so they could be sorted and analyzed eventually in a lab somewhere.

While the work we were doing wasn't much different than any other day of excavation, the mood was changed. Over the previous three weeks of field school, our group became very close. It's pretty amazing how such an eclectic group of people bonded so well over such a short period of time. I like to think, and I don't think I'm alone in this, that we all made lifelong friendships over the course of these three weeks. I know I was glad to be finishing up the last day of work and was really looking forward to some down time, but I was also really sad to be leaving my new "home" and so many great people. While learning how to do archaeology and uncovering artifacts that hadn't been touched by human hands in thousands of years was an amazing experience in itself, what I value most is the people I got to work with. Dusty and all the crew chiefs were always patient and willing to impart whatever knowledge they could, and my fellow students were consistently hard working and positive, pitching in wherever help was needed and hardly ever complaining, even though I'm pretty sure most of us were working in a state of constant exhaustion. I feel so fortunate to have been able to participate in such an esteemed program with such an amazing group of people, and it's an experience I will never forget.

I have one piece of advice for anyone reading this who thinks they might be interested in archaeology and is considering doing field school; do it. It will be hard, you will get dirty, you'll probably get poison oak and find more ticks on your body than you can count, you'll probably end up with multiple blisters on your feet and hands, you will work your ass off and go to bed exhausted every night and wake up sore every morning. But if you're lucky enough to get a spot in this program and fortunate enough to get to work with people even half as cool as the people I have gotten to work with, I promise you will not regret it for an instant. You'll learn how to use a compass to walk a straight line during survey, to map archaeological sites, and lay out a perfect 1x1 or 0.5x1 meter square on the ground. You'll learn how to dig a square hole 60, 80, or 100 centimeters down into the earth to uncover pestles, flakes, bifaces, or formal tools. You'll learn how these things were made, why they were made from certain materials, where those materials came from, what they were used for and all about the people who actually used them. Most of all, you'll learn that you are capable of working harder than you ever thought you could, and you may even surprise yourself by finding a new passion and life direction... you may just become an archaeologist.

Last Week of Excavation - by Brittney G.

Our last full day of work was on Thursday and Dusty had started the day off by telling everyone that we might not make it home until late in the evening. We had 4 CUs open and 1 chunky STU to reach depth or bedrock before we could do our column samples, soil profile, and back fill. The threat of going home late to our families, loved ones and beloved beds must have lit a fire under more butts than my own cause I saw everyone working harder and faster than they had before. Maybe it was our grown sense of confidence in digging in the dirt, with the tools and with each other that made the last stretch of our epic journey together so effortless(...minus the blasted last 10 cm of thick clay in our unit!)

During lunch I reflected on my experience during excavation. Today was one of the last times I would see this site and dig dirt from this soil. As I was looking around I saw that every face had dirt smidges, no one's hands could stay clean. I sat with two graduate students that came to check out the site. They had been working in Belize the past few months and their tough skin and ready-to-dig attitudes showed it.  "Yes," I thought, "There's nowhere else in the world I would rather be than with these people and this dirt." It feels good to know that life can feel so completely sublime in such simple moments as these.

Chris J. was on site with us. The night before he had been our guest lecturer and he was nothing short of inspiring. Chris talked with us about his current work on the Channel Islands. He discussed some of his experiences in underwater archeology and also had lots of positive things to say about professors that many of us students are anxious to work with in the future. Besides being ridiculously smart, Chris is also very approachable and helpful.
That night most of us students went into down town San Luis Obispo to raid the farmers market for the best bbq, pizza, calzones, candy, and beverages that SLO had to offer. When we arrived back at camp the real party was about to begin!

Dusty, Annamarie, Chris and some of our fellow crew members were holding down the fort and the camp fire when we got back from town. Rachel took this opportunity to execute a long awaited plan of popping some kernels. The popcorn was perfect for our last fireside discussion that was about to ensue.  Every year Dusty has a tradition of conducting a shared reading experience of a parable by Kent V. Flannery. That night we sat around the camp fire learning what it means to be an archeologist. The article, "The Golden Marshaltown," put into words what I was experiencing the past three weeks. Being an archaeologist isn't about being famous... It's about digging in the dirt, and finding the smallest bits of a larger puzzle. Drinking whiskey with your friends and sleeping on the ground. Archaeology is about dedicating your time and energy to understanding more of the way people, climates, and culture change and effect each other; it's about the love and the respect you harbor for the land, it's history and what it can teach you.

This field school, Dusty, and Kent Flannery have all lead me to come to a single statement.
"Archeologists are the cowboys of science."

Last Week of Excavation - Day 3 - by Josh T.

Crew #4 (Daniel Pritchard, Lilly Jones and Joshua Taylor) continued our excavation of our control unit.  Our control unit had revealed over 100 colorful chert flakes on the surface alone and as we stopped at 10cm level yesterday, we noticed the tops of possible ground stone and even pestles.  That being said we were very excited to see the possible features as the excavation revealed them.

Our crew works well with each other; fortunately that has been the case during the entire field school.  As we sweated away, we used caution and care to reveal the features of the 10-20cm level.  By the end of the day the entire ground was covered in possible features.  We will have to wait and profile the feature in the morning.  Back at camp, our guest speaker was Chris.  He had some great information about his field work out on Santa Rosa Island where his team has found 9 caves, some with prehistoric significance.  He also had some great info on underwater archaeology.

Last Week of Excavation, Day 2 by Dan P.

Dan uncovering a find

My alarm repeatedly reminds me of the time. 7Am has come again. The sun has not yet breached the tops of the trees but I can already tell it's going to be a warm day. The previous day we had started a new CU, before we had to stop. The number of lithics that we had uncovered has been amazing in comparison to what we've seen thus far, and it keeps getting better. Just as we started to go down from 10 to 20cm we started to uncover rounded rock. Only a few of them turned out to be artifacts but at the time I felt like a kid on Christmas being forced to take the entire day, monotonously and surgically unwrapping each one. As we uncovered the artifacts all I wanted to do was pull them out and look at them. But no! That's not the right way. We have to wait. We leveled off the unit at 20cm and we had discussed the possibility of a feature being present in the sidewall. A feature would mean a chance to do some real archeology excavating. I'm not sure as to all that a feature would entail but I am excited to learn something new.

Later that night we all dined together and discussed the day’s events. Many of my class mates where enjoying the bountiful amount of lithics that their units where providing. This was a wonderful change in pace from the other two sights. My fellow dig bums all seemed jovial and in good spirits after another hard day of excavation. We finished off the night with a guest discussion with Ethan about the importance of the sights we have been working on. Ethan also talked about his past and passion for archaeology.

Last Week of Excavation - by Renee

Friday found us at the site on top of the hill.  We had started the unit in the waning hours of Thursday's work day. After the duff had been scraped off in a rough outline of our eventual hole I grabbed the breaker bar to be the first to penetrate the virgin soil. The resounding vibration of the bar was felt through our feet and a palpable “twang” sound was heard. Ethan chuckled to himself and commented on the hard ground “That's the bedrock.” We were in for some hard soil, yet still managed to get it to one end to level before the vans swept us up.

When we returned to the unit on Friday we found the soil just as unforgiving. Nevertheless we pounded away for several hours. The week’s worth of labor was taking a toll and we tired quickly. My crew started to fantasize about the things they'd do when they got home. I, however, wasn't going to join them.  I had decided to stay at Camp San Luis over the weekend and after we sufficiently banged at our deepening square hole we found ourselves back at camp. While everyone else packed up, I helped out where I could, moved my tent over a tarp in hopes of fending off another ant attack during the night and said my goodbyes.

My two car-less and devoted cohorts who had decided to stay with me, watched as the campground emptied, finally leaving us to enjoy a beer under the shade of the newly vacated tree. We dawdled for a few hours commenting on how quiet it had become. My supplies had dwindled during the week so a stop at a grocery store was in order. We spent the afternoon at the laundry mat, wandering around the local big-box store like a couple of zombies, giggling at the strangeness of being thrust back into the world of technology and convenience after a week of simple labor and camping.

One of my cohorts got to see her daughter, while the other promptly passed out upon our return to camp. I however was hungry! Sitting by myself in the once bustling kitchen area I realized how much I missed everyone. I knew they would return before I knew it and that staved off the loneliness. After dinner I cleaned my own dishes, put away the campstove and crawled in bed at a relatively early hour.

Saturday and Sunday were spent in true hedonist fashion. Many cocktails were consumed at Avila Beach and downtown SLO. Stores were perused, doo-dads purchased. Oceans were swam in and beaches were combed for shells. We even hallucinated about shell middens (“Won't know unless we dig a STU!”) and square holes were jokingly longed for. We also vocally and often voiced our longing for our fellow cohorts.

Come Monday, our fantasies took shape. A new crew was assigned and we returned to the STU atop the hill. We fell into our respective roles. The self-proclaimed “Breaker Beast” manned the breaker bar with ease. I could do the same for a few minutes then felt the utmost need to pass out, so I stuck with excavation of the unit, cleaning the side walls and subbing whilst the Breaker Beast had his rest. Andy valiantly stepped in to help us eat through the tough soil when both of us tired. By the end of the day we had reached a point where we were no longer finding cultural constituents so the STU was closed and we would be moved downhill to a new STU in the morning.

Back at camp, the loud, boisterous bunch that had been missing from our weekend huddled around the campfire and I was pleased to be counted in their number.  

A Survey Reflection - by Tyvek Thomas

Thomas working hard on survey

After a late night of camp fire lectures and grandiose dreams of attaining archaeological glory, I crawled out of my sleeping bag ready to seize the day! Breakfast was uneventful and consisted of a green banana and a protein bar. After a brief pep talk from Dusty we hit the pavement and after a mile long walk along the coastal highway, we reached a site and instantly got busy mapping. We found ourselves on an amazing and fairly poison oak free coastal terrace overlooking some of the best California coastline I’ve seen. There were four bedrock mortars at this site, including one which hadn’t been recorded.  This gave us a great opportunity to learn how to record a bedrock mortar and practice our mapping skills.

After we finished up mapping the site it, was time to get down to the real work, transecting! This required our seven person crew to line up in ten meter increments and walk in straight lines for what seemed like miles and miles .The area we transected was characterized by coastal terrace and was quite beautiful, yet infested with ticks. After four hours of walking transects, we found nothing, except for the small Monterey chert flake found while breaking for lunch. Oh, and the dead grey whale carcass that was wafting up foul smelling odors from the beach.

Overall, today was brutal, the poison oak and ticks were terrible, yet and at the same time we couldn’t ask for a more amazing survey site. Our crew chiefs have been more then patient, and are at the ready to answer even our most ridiculous questions. I’ve learned to do mapping and survey work that at the beginning of the week terrified me, and I feel comfortable indentifying artifact. Despite the sweat and dirt, there’s nothing else I rather be doing this summer. Dig On!

Excavation Day 5 - by Crew Chief Kaely

Today was the last day of the first week of excavation. The dirty clothed, blistered hands and sun-burnt faces of this crew is a world away from the people I met on Monday. They have moved from students to dig bums and are now starting to become addicted to the dirt.  Like most last/travel days, we only worked half the time which always makes for an interesting rush. I took my crew back to the site to finish up one last unit. This unit was being taken to 70cmbs in dense clay, roots and rock. While the remainder of the class had moved on to the bigger, “sexier” sites, my crew was learning the lesson about finishing a job you started and that even the small sites need your full attention. We had two hours to finish a level, profile, take a column sample and backfill. The crew I met on Monday wouldn't have even sunk a pick in the ground, but these dig bums were throwing dirt like pro-archaeologists. I found that I didn't need to micromanage anymore; they knew this unit, this dirt and their team members. To say the least, we finally finished CU 9 after 5 days! We cleaned up as a team, ate as we worked and were finally ready to go home. However, it didn't seem like people were itching to leave. They wanted to stay with their new friends.

 A family they will have throughout their careers. Welcome to the Archaeology Family.

Excavation Day 5 - by Brooke J.

Brooke and Max Screening

I woke up on Friday, the last day of the second week of field school, and frankly, I was pumped. It might have seemed like I was still in a sleepy haze all throughout breakfast and while we were breaking camp, but in actuality my mind was back at the control unit my crew and I had been working on the whole week. That CU was like the white whale of field school, barring anything else that may come up later. We started off at a great pace, managing to back stake our unit pretty quickly, but as we all kept taking turns digging different levels, we realized that this was no ordinarily stubborn hole. In the end, it took a week worth of digging to get past the compacted clay, tree roots and other obstacles our inexperience presented. It was amazing though; 

 I never really anticipated just how much technique could go into digging a perfect 1x1m hole. The more times one of our esteemed crew chiefs would stop by and drop a casual remark about an easier tool to use for whatever we were doing, the faster each lever seemed to go, all the way up to Friday, when we only had the smallest bit of digging to finish. We quickly set to work after the van ride up to the site, and squared away the bottom of the hole, did a column test, and took lots of pictures. It was a beautiful moment, and then we had to fill the hole back up. It may sound simple, but it turned out that a lot of the buckets of screened dirt we had sent to the wet-screening crew took about 20cm worth of dirt away, so after we thought we were done, we had to fetch more dirt. All in all, I never thought it’d be so much fun to finish one hole, not that the digging wasn’t fun, but the completion of this hole was a big deal to me, and even now, I can’t wait to dig something else.

Sasha knocking out a level

Dusty helping with the unit

Excavation Day 4 - by Mat M.

Another week of field school begins, and the cerulean splendor of the Big Sur coastline is replaced with the rolling hills surrounding Cerra Romauldo and the closest of her eight sisters. Behind us now are the leisurely strolls through coastal scrub, every step hoping to bring us some glimpse of cultural remnants from the distant past. No more cautious, yet determined wading through coyote brush and poison oak to pace the boundaries of a site that our colleagues may record its location for posterity. No, today we set to the task of more deeply investigating those locales described by our recent forebears. Today, we dig!

Digging!

 Arriving at a site nestled well within Camp San Luis Obispo, amid the roving herds of motley hued cattle and never distant enough crack of firearms training, we are introduced to the curious blend of consternation and pride that is the excavation of a Control Unit (CU) and Shovel Test Unit (STU). Before a single shovel or pick touches the earth, however, the borders of the CU or STU must be marked by nail and string, so that the precise bounds of these delvings are not undone by our enthusiasm. With compasses set to a new declination of 15.5 degrees and tape measures at the ready, the mysteries of staking, and then back-staking are illuminated. Once armed with method and measure, our four person teams are set upon the site, mine own to a point several meters from the datum to begin our first STU.

While those at other units brave bedrock lurking mere centimeters below the surface, or clay that mimicks the former, I and my immediate colleagues plunge through soil that shames us with the ease of its removal. Ever onward and downward we delve, until our efforts are rewarded with the sight of stone untouched by human hands down these long centuries, and a resounding from the shake table of that word which humbles and bolsters us with its simple, sweet beauty. Flake!

Excavation Day 3 - by Brandon

My name is Brandon. I am a Junior at SJSU and a Cabrillo Alumni. I have wanted to take Dusty’s Field School for some time now and my interest in Archaeology has only grown from my experiences here. The work is hard, the hours are long, but finding artifacts and spending all day outdoors in areas most people don’t see is extremely rewarding.

I have always wanted to excavate. We use round shovels, square shovels, pick axes, small pick axes, trowels, and a heavy black driving rod (breaker bar) in the process. My favorite tools have been the pick axe and square shovel while moving pounds of dirt centimeter by centimeter. While digging the 1 x 1 meter control unit I have to drink water constantly and always keep count of how deep I am, while moving dirt. Otherwise I could easily dig too deep or miss swinging the pick axe and destroy the sidewall. Every excavated hole in Archaeology has to be the same so that they can be compared and contrasted with holes dug nearby in a sample or population. I also had to deal with being eaten by flesh eating gnats while screening the dirt through 1/8^th square mesh, when I wasn’t digging.