First Day - Orientation

By May 31, all of the project students and staff had arrived in Greeneville, TN to begin our work. Dr. Sampeck, the staff, and the students ran through a general overview of the project's expectations and plans for the rest of the season. This included some organization and sorting of type collections and materials in the project laboratory

Organizing the ceramic type collection

After breaking for lunch, Dr. Howard Earnest led the students in plotting nearby sites on USGS topographic maps in preparation for the following day of regional site survey. We then took the season's first official visit to the Yellow House Site, scene of primary investigations, to place pins marking the backbone of the excavation grid

Pin flags in the excavation grid

Dr. Sampeck and field director Burton Smith instruct the students on label formatting

Before retiring for a Memorial Day cook out, we visited the nearby Ebeneezer Methodist Church, established in 1795.