Today I learned just how nice we had it in Field School - morning and afternoon breaks, freezy-pops, cold water always on site . . . It seemed mighty empty today with just 4 or 5 of us, and trying to open the site while the wind blew the tarps every which way was interesting! I realized also how nice the staff had been to let us dig features all last week when several portions of the site are still undefined because they are not down to subsoil yet. Thanks, guys!
We spent the early morning finishing up the waterscreening that had not been completed Friday afternoon. With so many of us digging features, the folks waterscreening were overwhelmed, and at least a dozen buckets were left to finish. Waterscreening is muddy and splashy and dirty, but it was hard to mind when I was already filthy from opening the sites - the minute the tarp was lifted it started to billow in the strong wind, throwing mud and muddy water all over us. A few splashes as we waterscreened seemed pretty tame by comparison. :)
When we finished up, we returned to the site. Dave postponed any work on my feature from last week until Dr. Kelso and Danny had returned. Instead, he sent me to the northwest corner of the open excavation to work on the tests into the snake-fence ditch that zigs and zags through the whole western end of the site. You can clearly see how it bends in this photograph. I mostly worked on cleaning up the sidewalls of the test pit on the bottom in the photo.
After lunch we came out to find dark, angry clouds barreling down the river towards Jamestown Island. We scrambled to close the site - luckily the wind had died down a bit - and ran for the cover of Yeardley house before the rains came. The storm was short-lived, and we were able to come back to the site by about 2:30. After reopening, we dug until the end of the day. My most remarkable find of the afternoon was a piece of small lead shot, about the size of a pomegranate seed, in the screen.
As we began to clean up and close the site, the sky suddenly went from sunny to dark. There was a huge, menacing cloud right above us, and just as we started to pull the tarp there was a gigantic flash of lightning and crash of thunder. We started to really scramble then, getting the tarp and sandbags in place just as the large drops began to fall! We dashed back to the shed just in time to get all our equiptment inside, and then the rain really started.
All 5 of us - Dan Smith, Mary Anna, Michael Ligman, Dave and I - jumped on the Gator and Dave floored it for Yeardley house. Even in the short time it took us to go from the tool shed to the house, we got completely soaked while all around us there was lightning and thunder constantly (a few strikes seemed pretty close, too!) Of course we were fine (although I don't think Dave likes to be wet. He was walking around with his shoulders hunched like a cat that's fallen in a pond!) It certainly made for an exciting end to the day!
Driving the Colonial Parkway back to Williamsburg was an otherworldly experience - there was mist coming off the parkway itself and drifting into the surrounding trees. I felt like if I stopped and got out, I might find myself in Brigadoon!
* ". . . the clouds gathering thick upon us, and the winds singing and whistling most unusually . . . a dreadful storm and hideous began to blow . .
It could not be said to rain. The waters like whole rivers did flood the air . . . "
- William Strachey, "A True Reportory, Pt. 1"
Jamestown Narratives, edited by Edward Wright Haile
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