day 5. the rodent came back.it wasn't as bad this time. i had a lot less clean up this morning. we finished level 2 dirt. found more oxidized (burnt) soil and ashes and charred wood. we found a piece uf half burnt lumber (about 6 cm long) with three nails in place. that was very exciting. we also found a metal button and a bead with the little metal loop in it (part of an earing?) those were also exciting. my line of rocks were not foundation :( we began excavation on level 3 dirt today. our hole is less than 50 cm deep (level with NW corner. we are on a slope) so no worries with having to reach down too far. the issue my partner and i have been having is with surface dirt getting into our site. Nevada is very dry and the dirt is very finely granulated and as we dig out dirt we get the loose dirt from the surface around our site falling in. in our screenings we have found boatloads of rusted metal. it far outweighs anything else we have found (except maybe plaster but we don't collect that except to show some was there)
we had tourists today. a family. they came in and looked at the sites and we explained what we were doing and looking for. they had seen us on the news and had been looking all over Virginia City for us. the news finally put us on last night and this morning (channel 4 in Reno).
we went up to the Barbary Coast site today. they have 2 holes up there. one found the foundation of the grocery store and the other founf the foundation of the butcher shop. the butcher shop was interesting. there was a lot of wood and there were brick stacks (2 or 3 high) 20 cm apart then some brick laid out below. with some brick rows that looked as though they had tumbled over. and around the brick layout was a leather band with nail holes in it. they think it was nailed into the foundation. another strip of leather was also attached and continued on. no one knows why the leather is there. we lack architects. any ideas?
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