Midseason Update, June 18, 2018
Hello from the field!
We just wanted to give you a quick update as we cross the midpoint of our excavation season. The first half of the 2018 PfBAP field season has come to a close and we’re happy to say that we've accomplished quite a lot. As you may recall from previous posts, 10 liters of soil were collected from each archaeological horizon to be processed for macrobotanical remains (plants you can see with the naked eye) using dry sieving and flotation techniques. With the help of research assistants Karli DeRego (Franklin and Marshall College) and Brie Getz (University of Texas at Austin), we were able to sieve all of samples that needed to be dry sieved from the 2017 excavations thereby completing the dry sieving step of our research. Last season we sieved 136.4 liters of sediment while this season we sieved 155 liters of sediment for a combined 291.4 liters or 76.9 gallons of soil! The seeds, wood, fruits, etc. that are contained in these soils are now ready to be identified and counted using our in-house reference collection and the low powered dissection microscopes in the lab at camp.
The second half of the season will be spent counting and identifying the recovered plants and processing the remaining samples that need to be floated using the flotation machine (weather permitting).
Wildlife menace update
The oscillated turkeys have kept a low profile this season. Pierre no longer guards the road to La Milpa and Charlemagne no longer keeps us company in camp. There does seem to be a small family of four turkeys who have kept a watchful eye from the edge of the forest. However, they do not seem very interested in camp activities.
Best,
Tom, Debora, and Fred
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