And so it begins...

Post-Classic obsidian blad core (Ceren PostClassic)

Excavation profile of tephra with a lava bomb from the eruption

First Hollow Cavitiy of the 2011 season
This is plugged with newspaper to protect it
while excavations continue!

Eureka!  Today we found the first of our hollow cavities for the 2011 field season.  Now I realize you are probably asking yourself what an archaeologist is doing so excited about finding a hole in the ground with nothing in it! No, it is not the heat stroke, but good guess.  One of the most amazing aspects of the Ceren archaeological site is that the impressions of the plants that once grew here are preserved in the volcanic ash. What that means is that the four holes we found in the volcanic tephra today are actually the tops of where plants once stood, close to 1400 years ago!  The plants have long since decomposed, but their impression have remained sealed in this ash (from the Loma Caldera eruption) until now.  So, we begin by investigating the holes and in one we found clear evidence for the plant strations of maize (corn) on the tephra forming the side of the hole.  We are currently using newspaper to plug the hole up and will continue excavating the rest of the pit.

Once we reach the Tierra Blanca Jove (TBJ) living surface (probably a meter or so below where we are now), we will then begin to cast these hollow spaces. This means we will mix up dental plaster and pour it in the holes we located today and whatever further holes we find.  Once the plaster has set we will excavated the pedastaled (the small amount of tephra we left around the hole to protect it) area around the casts and we will have a copy of the plant that was here 1400 years ago!

This is hugely important and exciting.  I will attempt to document each step of the process and post some pictures to help you conceptualize it. In summary, stay tuned because there is a whole lot more fun ahead (sorry no pun intended but the field does crazy things to one´s brain and sometimes bad humor just slips out!)

Time to head home, clean up, and prepare for the morning!