[Chelsea]
Weather: morning: cloudy, hot, temperature in lower 80's
afternoon: cloudy, rainy, temperature upper 60's

Teammates: walking transect lines-full crew
recording LT5 UTM's and recording isolated finds-Katie, Tucker, Becky, Seth

Working times: transect lines - 9:00 am - 1:00 pm
LT5 UTM's and isolated finds - 1:30 pm - 4:00 pm

[Trevor]
Today we continued walking the mesa top. It took us a total of 4 transects to complete it, some of which were very unsmooth and choppy. Nonetheless we located a good amount of rock pile features, which can no longer be called rubble mounds because often times they have nothing underneath them when excavated. While we do know they are fire burned we really don't know what exactly their purpose was.

The size of LT 6 also increased steadily today as we transected it a few times. This is by far our largest site so far and everything needed for the site report will be difficult and lengthy, especially the map. After lunch we split up and Kellam Ruth and I filled out an isolate form for IF 10 and took UTM's for it. While Kellam and I did that Ruth also decided it was better to absorb LT 7/8 into LT6 because there was no real artifact gap between them.

We then proceeded to try and define about ¾ of LT 6's site boundary by walking around what we had earlier marked as concentrations and features on our transects. The site was definitely large but was not quite as intimidating as before. In addition we pulled flags on some rock piles and located others…

Today we also saw Birthday Pueblo [5MT 17272], a fairly large site with a very good view of the whole area and an impressive midden with lots of B/W painted sherds from PIII.

It (the midden) made it clear that all of our sites so far were clearly not PIII and were much earlier because if they were we would have seen much different sherd types.

Another thing I was thinking about was PIII/later occupants' tendency to like higher spots with better views. BM sites don't seem to be on any particular type of topography but the mesa top sites (PIII), especially when they were inhabited and several floors high, have commanding views. Was this to communicate, see approaching friends/enemies or some spiritual/ritual reason I do not know. I am eager to see the sites in the canyon and what they look like (if there are many or any) and how/where they are oriented.

[Becky]
We had a late lunch (around 1) and then went out, finished up LT 5 (we still needed UTM coordinates) and recorded the rest of our isolates. In all we recorded Ifs 8-14, w/ me and Seth getting 13 and 14 (little rubble mounds [rock piles] w/ no artifacts; 13 probably because it was in the little road, and 14 maybe because it was near some serious chaining). We then got #11, which was another small rubble mound [rock pile]. This one, though, had about 6 sherds and two lithics and was situated across a wash. The last one we recorded was IF 8, which was a lithic scatter w/ about 70 pieces of debitage and 4/5 sherds, w/ in a 12 m2 area, most of it, though was in a 4 m2 area. Meanwhile Tucker, Chelsea, and Katie had finished up LT 5 (GPS and picking up the last of the flags).

[Tucker]
Began the day by Finishing the transect lines for the top of the mesa. Our lines were really off until the last line when I was on the end and actually used the compass to straighten out the line. Didn't find any more sites but we did get to see Birthday Pueblo [5MT 17272] which they found 2 years ago. Amazing view from the pueblo, Almost a 360º view. We could see Monument Valley, San Juans, Bears Ears, Combe Ridge in Utah and a lot more. Being overcast allowed us to see further through the smog today. It was pretty cool!

[Kellam]
Awesome sunrise. We cranked out to Lunasa on the way to the site. Surveyed the rest of the mesa top, which was tricky our lines were all askew. Tucker walked and flagged a really straight E/W line to get us back on track...Proceeded to mark boundaries on LT 6, which isn't so big as we thought, but still pretty big. Didn't quite finish ran out of flags and it started raining. We ran to the car, then drove the small road to get everyone else, who had been recording some other isolates. We all smelled pretty interesting on the drive back.

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