That's A Wrap!

The end of a dig is always a bittersweet occasion.  Thoughts turn to missed creature comforts like good AC, favorite foods and restaurants, sleeping in, and seeing friends and family, but also to the things that we will miss - movie nights, free-wheeling conversations, making discoveries, and breaking up the tight community we formed.  The end this year was gradual, since many students departed a few days early - leaving a small core of the Most Intrepid Diggers and Volunteers to accomplish the hard work of filling in the site.

Smith's Island herself seemed troubled by our imminent departure, and summoned up storms to stop us.  After enduring one of the driest and hottest Julys on record, we received a massive four plus inch dump of rain on our last two days, including the first two hours of our Fill-In Saturday.  Libations were offered to settle the disturbed spirits, however, and the downpour stopped by noon.

By 4pm, Ewan, Hannah, Megan, Adrian, and Rachael and our entirely bamboozled guests Blair and Stella had filled in the enormous area we excavated this season - more than 75 square meters - as we redeposited the small hill under our sifting screens back onto tarps covering bedrock and excavated features to protect them.

We collectively moved an estimated six and a half tons of dirt, one shovel-full and wheelbarrow load at a time.  You can watch two hours of backfill reduced down to 30 seconds in our time-lapse video (including our half-hour lunch break). 

Backfilling, however, was not the end. The Bitter Enders (Hannah, Megan, and Ewan) helped move all the field equipment from Smith's Island back to the BNT Reeve Court Lab, processed the last bags of artifacts, and cleaned and emptied our Paget Island camp, earning them my undying gratitude (and some frozen yogurt). 

We also had to dismantle our floating dock and return the boats we borrowed to Harrington Sound (Thank you Michael and Ian!!!).

As things now stand, we still need to count, analyze, and database the considerable number of artifacts we recovered some time this fall or winter, prepare a preliminary report summarizing the 2022 season's work and accomplishments, and write grants to fund next year's excavation.