I never saw Indiana Jones shake a screen

Dawn sorts through a screen

This week we got a lot of work done on site. Most of us have shifted to the upper plateau, and we're nearly finished with two test pits up there. Everyone has also had a turn at doing section drawings and plans of the units as we finish excavating them. Jack has been working on a pit inside of the upper cave and there's another farther up, near some bedrock mortars. (BRMs are ground-out areas of rock used to process acorns, a staple of the Chumash diet. The proximity of BRMs to rock art in the area suggests that these kind of activities were taking place quite close to the shelters, which has a few implications for our understanding of the role of the rock art and the shelters themselves.)

Well, yesterday we had a bone bead plus a Cottonwood point and a good deal of lithic debitage come out of the pit near the BRMs. So far the upper plateau has given a lot more evidence of activities like knapping and food processing (animal bones and charcoal) than the lower plateau. On Friday, though, Dave found some promising artifacts farther back in the lower plateau's cave (ahem, rock shelter) which might provide an opportunity to date the rock art. There is a black-stained slab, potentially painted with charcoal. It was found painted side down with a very reflective piece of mica stone on top of it. Looks like there's a good story in that cave.

Our next step at the site might be to open up some areas on either side of a long, low piece of sandstone that probably continues under the dirt built up around it. Dave says we'll be doing things British-style then.



GREG'S TIP OF THE DAY
In kickball, always ask for the baby bouncies.