2 July, 2002

Day 3 One thing I do remember about Wales is the rain and wind. I MEAN THE RAIN AND THE WIND!!! It was pouring seals and walrus's today. But we still needed to begin. We finished clearing the fill and picked up the tarps from the 3 sites we will be excavating. Only one was still partially frozen from the permafrost. We will be working on tel. 079 extending our area this year. We went down five levels last year in excavating the house. We will now move over to try and find more of the house. We will also be on the other side of the mound, tel. 079, South trench. Our third and last site to excavate will be closer to the village houses; this site is named tel. 26 Northeast trench.

It cleared up in the afternoon but was also much colder. When we go out in the morning we need to bring lots of gear with us. The weather changes before our eyes from very rainy to cold to clear and back to rainy again and all of this with the strong winds.

This year's team consists of Dr. Roger Harritt, the leader of the excavation, Tammie West, Jim Gannaway, Teresa Brown, Amy Tomson, and myself. We also have two people from Wales working with us, Victoria Ongtowasruk (Victoria worked with us last field season) and Danitra Oxereok. I think it is important to do a brief bio of all of our crew members. I learned a tremendous amount last year, learning about Wales, the people of Wales and their culture, as well as the many facets of anthropology and archaeology. I would like to start this year talking about Jim Gannaway. Jim moved to Anchorage memorial Day of 2001 and goes to the university. He also works at ENRI with Roger Harritt. He is working as a research assistant analyzing the collection from Wales. Jim received his BA from Southwest Texas University in anthropology and had a minor in religious studies and almost a minor in Russian. At Southwest Texas University he studied under Dr. Norman Whalen.

Victoria and Danitra worked with us this field season. They both live in Wales. Victoria goes to the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. She is studying to be a teacher. Danitra is at a school in Sitka. She is a junior in high school. We learned a lot from these two!

Amy and Victoria are proveniencing. It is important to measure the elevation of each artifact, or other important finds.

Looking down on the excavation. We learned some yoga and many other positions while we worked.

Tammie was still able to work, despite the weather. It is important to dress in layers. We are out there every day, come rain or come shine Ray Charles would like this line). We could carry the mail after we get home. We certainly went by their motto.