Day 18 May 27th- A Farewell Gift

A light rain greeted the crew on the morning of the 18th day, but it was no time for dampened spirits. With but two days remaining prior to Friday’s conclusion, the day’s pace would be rigorous and demanding.

Surface exposure at Hiidenkangas

The victims of Colin’s ongoing dictatorship over at Hiidenkangas, Lisa, Elizabeth, Beth, Sarah, Hunter and Brendan, confronted the arduous task of rolling sod for further surface exposure of the upper dwelling depression after the usual scavenger hunt for quartz flakes. The morning’s ferreting about for quartz flakes did in fact turn up more quartz flakes in numerous localized scatters along the lower plateau of the contour. Sam and Colin trailed behind (whips lashing) and mapped the flakes using the GPS.

Despite ongoing negotiations and policy revisions at Hiidenkangas in the post-Andre term, a continued lapse in cookie provisioning has again disrupted worker-leader relations. Although the reinstatement of cookie break has been welcomed, it remains clear that more than one pack of cookies will be required to maintain crew morale during these stressful final days.

After lunch saw a shift in focus from sod-rolling to the down and dirty surface exposure of a second, slightly smaller, depression on the upper level. To no surprise, quartz flakes turned up en masse. Meanwhile, a short distance away, Brendan’s aimless wanderings on a commissioned search for a single stone in a field of stones turned up a very different kind of stone. Brendan’s discovery of the 2nd ground-stone adze was found no more than 50m from Colin’s first and proved to be a fine specimen that will nicely match Colin’s.

Brendan's ground-stone adze

The second team comprised of Loretta, Keegan, and Mike spurred on by Katie and Eva managed to nearly complete extracting soil samples from the 3x3 metre grid. Katie single handedly dealt the final blow to trench T409 by recording it’s stratigraphic profile with breathtaking fidelity.

Having not got the memo that the field-school is almost over, our over-achiever’s Greg and Dustin, went on to locate yet another prehistoric site along the 50m contour during a survey. Identified by quartz flake scatters, a scraper and a core, in association with possible depressions, the site was recorded with the GPS and tucked away for further examination next season.