NO. lO SECOND REPORT ON FOLSOM COMPLEX ROBERTS 7 



bones and artifacts was noted the previous year, the initial pegs were 

 set a sliort distance from the old excavations. Loose dirt was cleared 

 from the pits and the walls were straightened to correspond to the 

 lines of the proposed trenches. The remaining earth was worked out 

 up to the number i pegs. This made possible the starting of each 

 trench with a clear-cut number i face. Objects found in the zero 

 sections were so recorded, but the careful drawing of section sides 

 and faces was started with peg i. At the lower end of trench A there 

 is no drawing of the detail of the fill between pegs 26 and 28. This 

 is due to the fact that the material in those sections was worked back 

 on a 48-foot (14.630 m) face from the deep pit in the ravine bank, 

 and the walls of the big pit did not correlate properly w^ith those of 

 the narrower trench in making a composite diagram. There was little 

 change, however, in the last 20 feet (6.096 m). The main difit'erence 

 was in the deepening of the dark earth stratum in which the archeologi- 

 cal objects are found. 



The method followed in digging was that of stripping off the de- 

 posits layer by layer, from top to bottom, in a single section. The 

 upper strata were removed by the use of pick and shovel. Careful 

 check at various places about the site had demonstrated that the higher 

 levels were so nearly sterile, from the standpoint of artifacts, that it 

 was not necessary to subject them to the same careful kind of ex- 

 cavation as that employed in the specimen-bearing stratum. The latter, 

 which rested upon the top of the hard Oliogocene clay, was dug with 

 small tools, bent awls, hand trowels, etc., and all the earth sifted 

 through screens (pi. 2, fig. i). The slow, meticulous method of digging 

 had several advantages. There was little danger of breakage, it made 

 possible a careful check of the provenience of each specimen (pi. 2. 

 fig. 2), and it facilitated following the top of the clay bed. A different 

 method was adopted for the last five sections in trench A. This was 

 necessitated both by the increase in the amount of overburden and by 

 the shortening of the time available for the work. In these sections the 

 upper layers were removed by the use of a team, plow, and scraper. 

 The lower levels, however, were subjected to the same careful hand 

 technique used throughout most of the work. The chief drawback to 

 the use of the plow and scraper was in the fact that it prevented the 

 drawing of diagrams of each section face. Some information was no 

 doubt lost because of this condition, but inasmuch as the side walls 

 were diagramed, most of the essential evidence on changing condi- 

 tions in the valley filling process was obtained from the sections. 



In drawing and recording the deposits in each section, all of the 

 animal burrows were noted. Even though many of them had long 



