My dogs love water

 

I think my dogs can smell water.  We get anywhere near water and they take off and run right to it and jump in.  They love water.  They are water dogs.  Red likes to swim whereas Rey likes to keep his feet on the bottom.  Bode likes to swim but not as much as Red. They all like to wrestle for sticks in the water.

Patrick

This year's Karluk crew

Trevor, Sarah, Albert, Me, Molly and Danielle - that's the crew for the just completed dig at Karluk Lake.  On the dig we often go by our initials - it's what we write on our artifact and sample bags as provenience information when we find something.  Our initials on the bag indicate who collected that particular artifact or sample.  As far as initials go Trevor becomes TWL, Sarah SMS, Albert AWS, I'm PGS, Molly MEO and Danielle DJR. Funnily enough but I may forget someone's name but I'll generally remember their initials even if it might have been years since they dug with us. Here's to you CFW, EPE, AFS, MAP, JMH, DWC, LJW, JHHL, MVD, KWB, BLD, MP, RAK, and MAR!

Anyway, this year's crew was excellent.  We worked hard and had a good time. No one got down when the bugs were bad or in the rain. And we were all sad when it was time to go home.

Patrick

 

Fall Flowers

 

Arnica

Summer is ending and the wildflowers of early summer have moved on.  Most of the lupine is gone and there are no more pixie-eyed primroses or violets to be seen.  These days it is mostly yellow arnica and purple asters. Many of the flowers are going to seed and I noticed that the lingonberries are starting to turn red.  The bunchberry leaves have already died back and their berries turned red.  It's definitely fall, but summer still lingers and there are still a few ripe salmonberries for the picking.

Patrick

Douglas Aster

Alpine Bistort

Bog Orchid

Cottongrass

Lousewort

Russet Cottongrass

fireweed turning red

bog orchid

bunchberries

Dog walks with Nora

 

Today Nora is off to the East Coast for college.  It is a bittersweet moment - I'm proud and happy that she is excited to be on her way and yet sad that she is leaving Kodiak.

Since I got back from Karluk we have gone on a few dog walks together.  It is clear that Fall is in the air.  The hillsides are turning yellow as the grass dries up and pushki dies back.  The fireweed and bunchberries turning red.  It is Fall and Nora is off to college.

Patrick

Faunal Midden

 

articulated salmon bones

For the 2024 Karluk Lake excavation our plan had been to excavate parts of 2 structures in a small village.  As part of the plan we wanted to excavate into the midden down on the bank of the river below the structures.  We knew from a test pit back in 2009 that the inhabitants had thrown their trash out the front doors of their houses and that it had accumulated on the bank below.  In 2009 we had found preserved bones from the meals they ate in the midden.

Excavating in the midden would tell us what the inhabitants had been eating.  And what we found could also indicate what season of the year people were at the site.  There is a lot we could learn from the midden.  In 2019 just across the river from where we dug this year we had also recovered fauna from a midden in front of a house (click here and here for posts). We even found herring bones in that midden which hints that people were there in the spring when herring are available on the coast.

This year our midden excavation ended up over a meter deep.  It also looks like it accumulated over a very long time period.  At the very bottom we found artifacts typically found only in sites over 6000 years old.  Near the top we found 2 layers associated with fauna (bones).  The top layer was mostly clams, blue mussel shell and clams while the lower layer had more cod bones.  But we also noticed the bones of other species like sea mammals and birds.  It is amazing how much of the midden was imported from the distant coast. The bones will be analyzed and it will be interesting to see what we learn from them and how they compare with the fauna from the midden just across the river.

Patrick

cod vertebrae

blue mussels

marine mammal bone

clam shell

midden down by the river

nearing the bottom of the midden