The eDig

Ashleigh holding a bayonet fragment

Jill digging a pit as the interns/field school students and Patrick take notes

Public outreach has always been a huge part of Community Archaeology (the name says it all) but this year we have moved to a whole new level - posting things online while we're digging! Patrick told me before we started this year that Amy (the Deputy Director of the Alutiiq Museum) wanted a photo from the dig every day to post on the museum's facebook page. I originally thought that in the evening Patrick or I would email her a photo. However, on the first morning of our excavation, as I watched Patrick describing the site to the students, it occurred to me that I could take a photo with my iPhone and email it to Amy!

We started just after 9 AM last Monday, and by 10:00 this photo was on the Alutiiq Museum's Facebook page. It's been fun to see our posts online so quickly and see the comments. It is also amazing how quickly technology changes. Last year I don't think this would even have been possible - the cell phone reception at the site wasn't as good and Kodiak did not yet have 3G. It would have been extremely slow, if not impossible, to email a photo from the site. This year it's so good that I've even been able to email some videos from my iPhone to Amy.

In other news, we continue to find bayonets and still think it looks like a seal hunting site. We are still removing Level 2A (~5000 years old) and uncovering whatever is underneath. This next level is confusing, and might even include a house, but I will refrain from writing more about the stratigraphy until I have some idea what's going on!