excavation2

...	A substantial center post (approximately 16cm in diameter) almost a meter below the present surface held up a framework of posts, branches and twigs daubed with clay.

After exposing more of the cultural levels in a large excavation block we found that some of the wood had been carbonized. Some of the branches and twigs left only impressions in the orange fire-hardened clay that also clung to an occasional bead, bone or shell. The dark, compact and greasy floor stands out in profile and ends abruptly at the berm whose construction and composition is not as easily well defined. Nearly 200 glass trade beads were recovered on and above the floor, representing the dominant historical artifact at this site.

Test Units of the Site
The three small depressions tested were all very different. The smallest depression farthest east from the large depression had been excavated in 1994. Extensive testing of this four meter feature reached depths of almost 70 cm below datum. Until we began subsurface testing we were not positive these small depressions were cultural. However, a burnt shell lens surrounded by fire cracked rock in the center at around 60 cm below datum assured us that they were. Moving slightly west, subsurface testing in the next depression revealed a larger concentration of burnt shell, as well as bone, associated with a relatively large amount of angular sandstone and cobbles. This faunal and charcoal lens was collected for flotation analysis. We divided excavation blocks into 50X50 cm units to facilitate the future replication of detailed spatial distributions. These provenienced "events" could then be used to give detail to regional and eventually global scenarios.

This is an ethnographic photo of a conical slab house made of redwood bark planks. This photo was used in comparison with the small depressions at Tomato Patch

Finally, the hearth (or oven?) in the small depression nearest the large depression was underlain by a pavement of close fitting rocks and appears to have been dug out of a previous living surface. Another possible post in this depression has been compromised by rodent disturbance. The association of schist fragments with this feature and the apparent cultural contexts of schist in other areas of the site raise many questions about the use of this material in Native American traditions.
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