No time to really type a proper message, but I thought it might be fun to list the stuff I find while digging each day.  Today my crew found:
 
17th century glass fragment
Quartz flakes of as yet unknown provenance
Distal fragment of quartz point
 
The quadrant in which I found a small quartz flake later yielded a nearly complete projectile point of quartz, though I was on a different section of the dig by that time.  It was beautiful though.
 
When I have more time, I'll talk about the excitement of being behind the scenes in a museum looking at x-rays of artifacts fresh from a colonial-native american battlefield site, and I'll probably be able to talk more about what it's like to work with metal detectors as I start training on those on Friday and Saturday.  A week from Monday I'm going to start working on an incredibly exciting retreat trail of a 17th century English army that was burning villages and pulling back from a battle while being hotly pursued by enraged natives.  I can't express how cool it is to be an academic ditch-digger.

Hey Mauro -
 
I don't know how to make my own metal detector.  We have to use them for battlefield archaeology because the distances are so vast.  We are able to excavate hundreds of acres this way and plot the development of an actual battle as it unfolded 300+ years in the past.
 
Our finds are bagged and sent to the lab for analysis but we look at what we find before we bag it, so we have some idea of what it could be.  My professor was there for the glass find my group made, so he was able to positively identify it for us.
 
Anyway, hi-ho, hi-ho, it's off to work I go.

Quote from Atlatlista on Jun 1^st, 2012, 12:26am:

 
So you're mainly researching, French and Indain war stuff. That's awesome! That's probably one of my favorite eras to study, let us know what you find!

I doubt she can   but I hope I'm wrong  
Greetings,
Mauro.

We got Saturday off!  I got to take a long shower!  I'm so happy.  I don't have dirt on me for the first time in days.
 
Yesterday, we learned the fine art of metal detecting - and boy it really is an art.  There is a lot of stuff to learn.  I was put under the leadership of a guy named George who lives here in Connecticut and I gather is a prominent member of the local metal-detecting club.  This guy knows everything there is to know about metal detectors.  He knows all the programming and the way the devices behave and all the rest of it.  He knows when you're getting a hit whether it's minerals or a good hit, and he knows how to discern that across a wide range of machines.
 
I was working on a White's DSX 500, I think.  It was pretty fun.  I really want to work on the TDI machine, because it sounds like a sidewinder missile looking for a lock, and that reminds me of the bajillion wasted hours I've spent on flight sims, so it's comfortingly familiar.  Anyway, we all worked on the machines, and then there was an optional lecture that almost everyone went to, so I instead stayed and got extra metal detector work, as I think it'll be absolutely crucial if I really do want to specialize in conflict archaeology.
 
We found a beautiful perforated brass fragment, which might well be 17th century Pequot, but the lab needs to analyze it.  We found a lump of unidentifiable iron, but possibly a wedge used to quarry granite, which would be about  100-200 years later, but was nearly the same stratum as we're working in a plow layer.  We found an iron nail, which may or may not be hand-wrought, the lab will let us know.  I'm guessing it's probably 18th century, so a bit late for our Pequot period.  The coolest find of all was something I dug up (though somebody else detected).  It was a weird button-like object that nobody could identify and is being sent to the lab for x-ray examination.  I'm hoping it's 17th century.  One of the guys speculated that it might be horse tack, but it's hard to know.
 
Anyway, from now on, I'll try to get more pictures of things.  The professor takes pictures all the time anyway, so I don't think it's harming anything to take pictures.  Today's work has been canceled due to rather intense rain, but I'm hoping the rain lets off tomorrow long enough for me to compete in an archery tournament.  Then, it'll be back on the metal detectors on Monday.

I believe she's up by the Conn./ Rhode Island border if she's doing Pequot War stuff.

Remind me to send you some photos of my trade silver collection.

Quote from Dan on Jun 2^nd, 2012, 8:28am:

 
Paperwork.  Lots and lots and lots of paperwork.  Artifact handling and curation at a very basic level so we don't trash it before the lab gets to see it.  How to do grids and proper test pits and digging techniques and a bunch of other things.  It's kind of a whirlwind of learning by doing out here.  Definitely not as easy as taking a metal detector to a battlefield site and going treasure hunting.