Today the students are going to explain a few of the terms they have learned during their stay at the archaeology camp. After they define these new words, they will describe what they did today:
Bering Land Bridge: Its a land that people walked through to get from Siberia to Alaska. Scientists think that mammoth and bison crossed the land to get to Alaska, too.
Beringia: The land under the Bering Sea which our ancestors used to cross to America.
Chert: A solid, sharp rock used for making knives, ulus and arrowheads by our ancestors, today people use steel to make knives and ulus.
Fluted Points: A Fluted Point is an arrowhead with a groove that archaeology people get really excited about.
The students are now going to write their blog entries about today, July 24, 2010.
Jackie: Today when I woke up I didn't feel like going to the hill because I was sore and tired but then I got up anyways because I knew we'd learn a lot more of archaeology. We ate breakfast first then went up to the hill to help the archaeologists with their digging and some screening. Today us students Tia and I found some artifacts about archaeology. Today was exciting. Talk to you soon.
Tia: Today when I woke up I ate breakfast. The first thing what we did was went up a hill to help dig and do some screening with the archaeology people. Then we came back to the camp to eat lunch then after lunch we went fishing. Jackie caught one, I had one but then it came off. When Jackie was fishing she got me in the back with the hook. While we were coming back we talked about some artifacts. We opened up a new hole, Jackie and I each found ancient artifacts that were under ground. The archaeology people said we were very good screeners. One guy named Ian is an expert in stratigraphy which means layers of dirt. Also they're two German archaeology people, they are so nice. It's interesting to study History but I don't think I want to become an archaeologist. We've decided to leave early because there are so many little bugs like, spiders, grasshoppers, and ladybugs. We couldn't go to sleep until way later last night because we were wondering how did they get in our tents. So Jackie and I decided to go play in the water before we leave. So I have to go, bye!:)
While the girls were writing we heard the motor of the helicopter in the distance. The pilot Stan came back earlier than expected. This is great because it's the clearest day we've had - great for survey work from the helicopter. Bill came down from the dig to plan a survey flight with Stan and Stephan.
The girls had been asking if they could leave early. Turns out they aren't used to having insects around. Apparently the wind blows too hard in their village of Kivalina. Also I don't think they are used to getting up early and going to bed early so when they were up at 9 a.m., sifting through dirt, maybe it wasn't the most fun. We had them try the metal detector and fishing, too, but none of these activities held their attention. So we asked Bill what he thought and it looks like they'll be going back tonight. It's been a great opportunity to have local native people out at the site. Hopefully they learned something here and can share back home as well. Stanley Hawley, the native elder who was here yesterday and shared his seal meat lunch, said he would like to come back and stay longer next year. He was a wealth of local knowledge and was great to have in camp. Thanks for coming, Stanley, Tia and Jackie!
Jackie Norton, right, and Tia Adams, center, show the ancient tool-making flakes they found in their screen to Bill Hedman, BLM archaeologist and expedition leader. It was great day for archaeology!
Jackie, left with the shovel, and Tia, at right with the screen, excavate a unit on the south end of Raven Bluff on July 24th, 2010.
The girls were very careful about screening through the soil in the screen. It was here that they found the tiny green flakes of chert left by ancient tool makers.
After digging, the girls decided to try some fishing. Luckily they were able to borrow a rod and reel from Courtney the camp cook and Roger loaned them a great lure. I provided protection from bears. Soon Jackie hooked a 24-inch Dolly Varden!
Here is the face of the fish Jackie caught. Soon after she pulled this fish ashore, she caught Tia in the back with the hook during a cast. Yikes! Tia was OK.