Day 9

[photo #1] The stockade revealed! Late yesterday evening we uncovered the entire stockade line. Heavy equipment, such as backhoes or large scrapers, are often used on archaeological sites to remove soils that have been previously mixed by agricultural plowing, or filling, and to look for discrete features that have stained the lower, more pristine soils.

At Arbuckle's Fort, after careful hand excavation of about 150 square feet of soil around the stockade line, a backhoe was used to remove the plowed soil around the fort. In the photographs you can see where the backhoe gently scraped away first the sod, then the underlying plowed soil.

The stockade appears to enclose a rectangle, and have two bastions in the northeast and southwest corners, and large gates along the northern and southern walls. Click below to see pictures.

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THE EXCAVATION 1997

September 22, 1997 | September 23, 1997 | September 24, 1997
September 25, 1997 | September 26, 1997 | September 27, 1997
September 29, 1997 | September 30, 1997 | October 1, 1997
October 2, 1997 | October 3, 1997 | October 4, 1997