(June 3, 2022)—I am currently working on Unit 463 on the Gila River Farm. It started out last year as a trench to find the extent of a wall. The trench ended when another wall was found connected to the first wall at a 90-degree angle. Our crew lead instructed us to work in a 3 by 3-meter square following the two walls. As of right now, we have excavated 48 centimeters of about two-thirds of our unit. The first layer of around 10 centimeters is currently the hardest layer we took out because it was predominately cobblestones.
Our second and largest layer was very clay-like and contained a lot of ash. Instead of using shovels and the pickaxe to excavate, we changed to our trowels. We didn’t want to risk damaging any artifacts we may find—or at least minimize any damage we could do. Plus, we have found several circles of ashes, so we wanted to be more precise in case it ended up being something. There was also a layer of ash of about 4 centimeters between the cobble layer and the ash/clay layer. And we stopped today when we began to see a layer of gravel.
As for artifacts, we have found a lot of barbed wire, bits of rusted cans, and a small rusted saw blade. At this point, we could start a hardware store with what we found. We also found stone flakes, broken arrow points, and some ceramic pieces. Among the things we found, we also found what appears to be a gap in the second wall. Right now, we suspect this gap was made by a rodent that burrowed through it. We may find out more about it tomorrow as we bring out more dirt.
Our unit has also been proven to be a bit popular with the other crews. This is due to the variations in soil type and color that we have uncovered. The soil types, I have already mentioned. But with the colors, we have seen light tan, a darker tan, dark grey, black, red, and light-grey/white.
On a side note, we have found our Goddess of Wind today. At her mere mention of needing a breeze, one came up. We hope that it can happen more frequently as cool breezes are needed…