Cabrillo College Archaeology Field School, Day 2 - Written By Jenna T.





Day two began with a babies cry at four am in the campsite right next to us. I was a little bummed because I thought I had a break from my nineteen month old daughter, but it seems I cannot escape the morning wake ups. As I scrambled to get ready for the day, I realized how excited I was to actually really begin field school, but that grew old really quick as my feet grew tired.

We began our survey at the coastal bluff just above Plaskett Creek. We were set up in a long line and were told to go across the site, kicking away the brush and plants in the way to see if we can come up with anything. The brush was full of thistles and poison oak, so I was very hesitant to really go through most of the site. As the line moved forward, a few of the girls and I fell behind. I felt like I really had to look hard and long so I didn’t miss anything. We soon found out that’s not how it goes. You need to keep up with the line and we had to halt the whole group so catch up, kind of ironic, considering we had to skip over the space we hadn’t covered yet. We then set up the directional boundaries and then began the mapping portion. Annamarie was our crew leader and she just threw us into everything. I love that she didn’t hold our hand and do things for us, she explained enough in order for us to understand, but let us actually do the work and figure things out for ourselves, but keeping a helpful eye out for us in need.

I was excited to start using my compass for the first time in the field. I have always learn how important they are in regards to my geography classes, but the professor never actually went into detail on how to use them. So, Annamarie sent us out to find our datum, one of the guys in the crew thought he had found the perfect spot down slope. As it turns out, it was very hard to see one of the directional boundaries. We then decided to move upward and it made a world of difference. We could suddenly see everything clearer without having to use our tippy toes. We then started to map. As soon as I got the hang of it, I didn’t want to stop. It was so interesting to map all these quadrants just by pacing. As the other crew members we out to find the artifacts to map, I decided to spruce up the map. I am glad I remember all the things I learned in all my geography classes, as it helped me a lot in labeling my map. Professor Hasty would be proud as I properly placed the correct symbols and all the correct information on the map.

The survey crew hopping fences & recording sites

Right when I started getting the hang of things, we decided to take a break, I was excited because I finally got to give my feet a rest, but bummed because I couldn’t finish up. After lunch we hiked maybe two-three miles up the coast. We hopped fences, walked by the biggest piles of cow pie I’ve ever seen. We finally arrived to the site after a few stops that we thought was the correct site. Annamarie gave us the original site information and found out it was last excavated in the seventies! I thought to myself, there is so much that can happen to this site since then, I can’t imagine that anything is here. I was almost right. We went through kicking around the dry grass and went through half of it and only found a piece of Monterey chert. We then went back down and found nothing. We went on the other side of the fence and again, half way through we found a piece of fire burned rock. Annamarie then decided that we would just do an update of the site and note the original artifacts were no longer there. That is until one of the crew members found a biface. We ended up finding a total of 3 artifacts and this changed everything.  We now had to record and map the area.  I just about died, I just wanted to go back to the campsite and kick off my shoes! I learned that’s not what archaeology is about though. It’s about staying until the job is done and getting all the information necessary. I’m excited to see what the rest of the week will teach me as we go on.