Neither rain, nor heat, nor...

In contrast to last week's blazing heat, today dawned dreary and drizzly. Our intrepid field school, however, persevered, braving the rain and the mud to continue excavating our privy and barn foundation. Some units needed to be bailed out, and some required water screening to separate artifacts from the globs of mud, but our brave archaeologists took these developments in stride.
They were also undaunted by the arrival of reporters from WMUR Chronicle to film and report on our excavation. The reporters seemed very interested in our field school, staying almost two hours in order to interview nearly everyone and to film every stage in the process, from excavating and screening dirt to washing and cataloging artifacts. We were very pleased with their visit, and are looking forward to seeing the field school appear on Chronicle in the near future.
When the rains became heavier in the afternoon, field school participants returned to the collections building to listen to a presentation by museum intern Ben Curran on the applications of remote sensing to archaeology. Infrared sensing and ground penetrating radar, along with other forms of remote sensing, are excellent ways to gain valuable information about the placement and formation of archaeological sites. And, unlike traditional excavation methods, remote sensing is non-destructive, since it does not involve removing artifacts from the ground. We are greatly looking forward to Ben's ground penetrating radar survey of the Strawbery Banke Grounds this coming weekend!