Final Days of 2014 Fieldwork: Excavation, Site Mapping, and Wrapping It All Up

The past week has been very busy as we extended our project a few days (thank you sponsors) to take advantage of the weather. We’ve had the opportunity to continue excavations on site EBT6 in an effort to expand the test pits and determine how complex the site is. We were successful in digging back to the depth that we were last year and expanding the survey area for mapping purposes. What we found was good news. In addition to the dozens of concretions that we encountered, we found some remains of timbers, charcoal, ceramic, and rope, as well as intrusive objects such as bottle caps. A few samples were recovered for analysis and dating purposes. This is noteworthy because we were unsure if the environment would be conducive to the long-term preservation of organic materials–and it appears that indeed it is. We still do not have a clear sense of the full extent of the site, but have determined from the data recovered this season that it warrants a close-order gradiometer survey to delineate its boundaries and further excavation on a larger scale to better understand what type of wreck this represents. The cannon and other selected diagnostic artifacts may be recovered for analysis and exhibit purposes next year, which will give us more clues to the origins of this wreck. The images below provide a glimpse of what has transpired during the final days of the 2014 project. In the coming months we’ll be finishing the site plans and artifact drawings, generating the field report, presenting our finds at international conferences, and planning for next year’s field campaign. Thank you for following our blog and thank you again to all the sponsors and volunteers who made this project a success this year. Seasons greetings