Warning: that dig week at a site in Ohio turned into a total disaster

I was part of a crew working at a Hopewell site near Chillicothe last June. Everything started fine on Monday, we were uncovering some cool pottery shards and a few pipe fragments. Then Tuesday afternoon it rained hard for about 4 hours straight, and the whole trench flooded out. We lost three days trying to pump water and dig new drainage ditches. The worst part was some kid from the college dropped a trowel into a feature pit and damaged a possible burial marker. By Friday everyone was tired and grumpy, and we only bagged like 20 real artifacts total. Has anyone else had a field season go totally sideways like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

mary_foster9212d ago

That flooded trench situation is brutal, we had something similar happen on a site in Missouri and it just kills the whole vibe for the rest of the week. The kid dropping a trowel into a burial feature is exactly the kind of mistake that makes you wonder if training is thorough enough for the delicate parts of a dig. After that kind of rain and the emotional hit of losing potential artifacts, it's amazing you even got 20 bagged finds out of it.

jordan90312d ago

Man that rain mess is the worst. We had a crew working a site up near the river last spring and a storm rolled in fast, flooded the whole low area before anyone could pull the tarps. Lost a bunch of small bone fragments that just turned to mush in the water. And yeah, the hire-a-student trap is real. Had one kid drop a whole screen into the mud then try to scoop it out with his boot. Coach 'em for a week and they still do stuff that makes you question everything. Twenty bagged finds after that mess is a solid day though.