Friday, July 24, 2009
Two pits and a guy. So last night I took Forrest out to dinner because he has done my yard twice. We went to Guilin's and I had a green bean dish that was delicious. I also liked the fried yam and eggplant appetizer.
Forrest reads the menu.
Afterwards we did a tour of Tucson, visiting Summit Hut, the mega Food City on 6th Avenue (they have an awesome produce section), and Dairy Queen.
Forrest examines the produce.
We sat on my couch and watched The Island and I went to bed at 10:30, well past my normal bedtime (8:30-ish). As a result, I got to work at the sewer plant a half hour late.
I asked Alan what he wanted dug and he pointed to a bell-shaped pit in an old backhoe trench. So I dug the portion in the trench, and then he said, "Why don't you dig the rest of it?" So I did.
Bell-shaped pit.
As is typical, it had a narrow opening at the top and widened dramatically below ground. The base was slightly burnt, probably to make the pit more waterproof so they could store maize in it for their next year's crop or for next month's supper.
Sometimes you find interesting artifacts in these pits. I have a reputation for finding things. I pick the biggest pits to dig, because they contain more dirt and therefore have a greater chance of finding artifacts. This small pit contained something special- a fired clay pipe.
Fired clay pipe, circa 3,000-3,200 years old.
This is the first known fired clay pipe from this time period in Arizona. Archaeologists have found stone pipes with bone tube mouthpieces before, but never a fired clay one (the site was occupied before pottery was invented).
As I was showing the pipe to people, someone came up and pushed the dirt around in my screen and found a spear point.
Empire style spear point.
The second pit I dug, right next to the bell pit, contained lots of animal bones and bits of flaked stone, but nothing remarkable.
Tonight's remarkable event- making lemon cupcakes!
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Forrest reads the menu.
Afterwards we did a tour of Tucson, visiting Summit Hut, the mega Food City on 6th Avenue (they have an awesome produce section), and Dairy Queen.
Forrest examines the produce.
We sat on my couch and watched The Island and I went to bed at 10:30, well past my normal bedtime (8:30-ish). As a result, I got to work at the sewer plant a half hour late.
I asked Alan what he wanted dug and he pointed to a bell-shaped pit in an old backhoe trench. So I dug the portion in the trench, and then he said, "Why don't you dig the rest of it?" So I did.
Bell-shaped pit.
As is typical, it had a narrow opening at the top and widened dramatically below ground. The base was slightly burnt, probably to make the pit more waterproof so they could store maize in it for their next year's crop or for next month's supper.
Sometimes you find interesting artifacts in these pits. I have a reputation for finding things. I pick the biggest pits to dig, because they contain more dirt and therefore have a greater chance of finding artifacts. This small pit contained something special- a fired clay pipe.
Fired clay pipe, circa 3,000-3,200 years old.
This is the first known fired clay pipe from this time period in Arizona. Archaeologists have found stone pipes with bone tube mouthpieces before, but never a fired clay one (the site was occupied before pottery was invented).
As I was showing the pipe to people, someone came up and pushed the dirt around in my screen and found a spear point.
Empire style spear point.
The second pit I dug, right next to the bell pit, contained lots of animal bones and bits of flaked stone, but nothing remarkable.
Tonight's remarkable event- making lemon cupcakes!
