Winter Survey

Yesterday it snowed some more and this morning at the house it is 17 degrees.  So here on the rock it is still very much winter.  And yet on Sunday I jetted off in a helicopter to do an archaeological survey.  

I'll admit that when we left I was a little worried that the snow would cover up the house depressions etc.  But no - the snow actually made the archaeological features easier to see - especially from the helicopter.  The ground is frozen so no test pits or soil probes to help with assessing site deposits.  But here on Kodiak there is always some sort of erosion at a site to expose the deposits.  So, in a nutshell, winter conditions did not prove to be an impediment to our survey at all.  And I'd much rather do an archaeological survey in winter than in the summer when the vegetation does obscure the sites.

I have also never flown around the island when it is winter and the landscape is covered with snow.  It was very much surreal to jet along across broad white plains.  And there were deer everywhere.  It was like the Serengeti Plain - animals everywhere.  They had no where to hide in the barren landscape.

Patrick