Crew members also delineated the outlying settlements in greater detail. The unusually high temperatures continued, but that did not deter the crew. 
We did, however, enjoy being in the cool recesses of the lab. Each student worked on establishing the topic for their Archaeology Day poster exhibit at the end of June at the Fairgrounds in Cherokee, North Carolina. Students also continued to classify the unanalyzed ceramics from previous fieldwork in the region.
Cailin Meyer plots the site grid
Another day of searing heat. Another day of crawling. Another day of notable finds. Students finished the crawling survey for much of the site. Having so many people working in a relatively small area gave us checks and double-checks. Neil Cech is especially good at finding small bits of stone and shell, which made us re-evaluate and helped us confirm some of the boundaries between artifact zones.
The activities today were done with an eye toward next week and the beginning of excavation. Students continued to refine our understanding of the site patterning. Groups working in separate areas worked towards each other, eventually meeting and joining together zones of intensive survey. Even though it was hot, enthusiasm was high as we began to see clear paths or lanes and 
continued to make exciting finds.
Once we completed the systematic survey of the field, we had a good idea of the areas where people once lived and worked. Within those zones of artifacts, we started what is known as a crawling survey—a highly detailed review of the kinds of artifacts and changes in amounts and kinds of artifacts. Students criss-crossed small areas, and in some cases literally crawled! A fairly common part of early historic southeastern Native American towns appears to have been a plaza. The plaza was a large open space where many people could gather to meet and perform important activities such as dances. How would a plaza be visible archaeologically? A lower density of artifacts might occur in the plaza because they were usually kept clean of debris. The plaza was usually surrounded by different kinds of structures, including houses, so we would expect to see more artifacts at the edge of the plaza where structures were. By searching intensively for every visible artifact, students began to define areas of higher and lower concentrations that give us an initial idea of the town plan. This is very careful work, and students made some great finds of artifacts that were not observed during the systematic survey.
In the lab, students started looking at different ways to alter the surface of a vessel. The ceramics of this region often have smoothed surfaces and are smudged. Smudging is the use of a smoky fire to darken the surface of a pot. Early English accounts of traders and visitors to this region recount how the ceramics were a dark color. Other kinds of decoration include incising and paddle stamping. Different kinds of incising were done to the pottery—sometimes sharp, deep slashes, other times wider grooves that were partially smoothed over. A large area of the so
utheast US has a long tradition of using paddles to shape, decorate, and seal the exterior of vessels. Many times, these paddles were carved with designs, which then left an impression on the vessel surface. The beautiful, complex designs are, in a word, “impressive”!
On the second day, we were greeted with blazing heat again. Nevertheless, we began a systematic survey of the field in which the site is located. Previous work in the area had recovered Spanish artifacts from excavations, but the exact size and nature of the site had not been recorded in detail. One of the best ways to get the “big picture” of the site is to do a pedestrian survey. Students spaced themselves about 12’ (4m) apart and walked along an east-west orientation from one end of the field to the other. We covered every inch of the field in several transects (traverses from one end of the field to the other). Some areas had excellent visibility because a crop of winter wheat had been harvested recently. Other areas had a thicker growth of fescue grass and weeds. In these areas, students brushed plants to the side to look for bare ground.
Valerie Hall points out a reed punctate sherd
The goal for each surveyor was to note the presence and kind of artifacts visible on the surface. One of the most common indicators of human activities in the area was fire-cracked rock. These rocks were reddish and were irregularly fractured, possibly from heating in a hearth or for cooking. Students also observed ceramics, lithics, bone, and shell. Students marked the presence of artifacts with surveyor’s flags or flagging tape.
The theme of the first day of the field school was "getting acquainted." The first meeting of field school students took place in the gazebo at Nolichucky Bluffs, where we went over the history project investigations, reviewed important procedures, and introduced ourselves. Many of the students are Anthropology majors or graduate students in ISU’s Master’s Program in Archaeology, but undergraduate majors also include History and Renewable Energy and Native American Studies minors. A few had attended field schools before, but East Tennessee was new to all of them.
This year, the field school dates are May 30 to July 1. Please join us! You can email inquiries to ksampec@ilstu.edu
