Some people are being paid to dig. Anyone can come and see, with some professional explanations.
Anyone can come and actually do free screening on the weekends only.

Best way to get details, Google

ZILKER PARK ARCHAEOLOGICAL DIG

I went down to the new paid dig Saturday. Very interesting, very well done.



See the free screening area on the right. They now have their own website to follow the progress.
ARCHEOLOGYATZILKER.COM
If your in Austin visiting the flesh pots on 6th street or buying more houses to flip a side trip to the dig is very worthwhile.

Here's a pic straight down. They are just starting the squares after back hoeing out the surface overburden.
We're looking at the 11 foot level. Two small fire pits are just peeping out !



Asside from the public screening area, overseen by professor Nick, there is a trench observation area in the care of professor Sharon. Lots of good info.
Next pic of sample general info table.
Note Dr Hesters STONE ARTIFACTS OF TEXAS book, The prof said was indispensable.
Only a worked edge artifact had been found at the time of my visit.





Well the table pic is not showing up on my previews, sorry .

The computor genies work in mysterious ways. . . Not only do we now have a pic of the table, but TWO of em !

Thats a very thick clam shell upper right, , , , Having just lived through a " holes in a gorget "
event, I questioned prof Sharon about the very obvious symetry of the holes. . . . .
She said it was from another site they had worked but thought to be out of context as it is more likely
an early colonial /settlers BUTTON project .

Never heard of a professional letting common folk do some sifting. I'm assuming he lets you keep what you find?

Hope the pay dig screeners didn't loose too much business ! NO FINDERS KEEPERS. They have a little find table where screeners turn in their finds.
Frankly it's mainly a kids involvement similar to hiding a plastic bone in a sand box for the kids at a
fossil show. !

The "find table" was overflowing with snails !

that's a cool report Hal. Pretty neat to get the public invovled. I'd be too tempted to keep what I find.

Yeah, it would be a little hard to put a corner tang on that table and walk away.

I am with you guys. It would be to hard not to slip a point or two in my pocket.

Maybe I was less than clear in reporting on the screening guys, , , I said. . .

" the table was overflowing with SNAILS" !

For those interested in following this dig, They are very concientious about updating their website, Lots of good general interest, like Aerial pics from a
model airplane ! Progressive soils analisis including very close attention to the nano diamond
strata [ hope some of you know what thats all about ]

Rained like crazy all aday & night Friday !
Here's some "grass roots " archaeological pics that might not be in their updates.

Dr. Rick trading trowel & tooth brush for a sump pump !



And pretty Dr. Stacy swaps her GPS autoplotter for a sewer pipe trencher !



Floor of the trench. No sharp edged squares today !



Washouts are part of digging life, they tell me they will be back to normal pretty quick once the WX stays good. Notice I have corrected names on this posting.

Oh the carefree life of an archaeologist !

No update pics from me are needed, they are doing a great job with their their daily updates on the website.
I saw the Atalatl demos this past wkend. Though powerfull, I bet there was a lot of the ancients
that were delighted when the bow was invented !

They got drowned out, again. The first flood really made a mess of their meticulous squares. Now it looks like they were only able to get half the square footage back on line. The site cheerily says they will be on schedule anyway.

IF we could only turn back the calendar, , , ,to Aprils fools day , , , , Mlle could lift the diggers spirts no end just by tossing that gorgeous double ended gorget into their
mud pit [ at midnight natch ]

Just that one "find" alone would rewrite Zilker prehistory !