YAMA PROJECT
Research Program.
The Yama Project is scheduled to run for three field seasons, with on-going lab work to follow. Fieldwork commenced in summer of 2015, and continues from June through August each year. The field school will run from the first week of July to the last week of August. We will be working on-site Monday through Wednesday each week, and spending Thursdays and Fridays in the archaeology lab on the Bremerton campus of Olympic College, processing and cataloging materials. The lab work will continue through Fall, Winter, and Spring, after excavation stops.
Season 1: June-August 2015
The initial field season started by establishing baselines and a site grid, followed by initial surface survey and collection. Locating surface scatters of artifact fragments and evident features will allow development of a 3-Dimensional map of the site, using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software. The multi-layered map will include provenience of artifacts and features, which will assist in determining the original layout of Yama village.
Once the surface survey is underway, excavation will begin. Although the site itself is relatively recent (the earliest settlement was in the 1880s), it is very interesting. We do not yet know how much sediment has accumulated since the site was abandoned in the 1920s, so excavation will be necessary.
(Photo: Partial wall of Sentō (銭湯) baths associated with the Washington Hotel.)
Season 2: June-August 2016
Excavation commenced in the second field season. The 2016 field season, from July 5th through August 25th, expanded the range of data recovered in the 2015 fieldwork. Lab analysis of the materials recovered in the first field season may allow us to generate more precise hypotheses about daily life in Yama, which can then be tested in the second field season.
(Photo: Discarded bricks from a residential structure, and cast iron stove door.)
Season 3. June-August 2017
The third field season should allow for the completion of survey and substantial excavation of selected areas of the site. By that time, our understanding of the events that occurred at Yama will be quite detailed. As the final phase of excavation concludes, the complete map of the site will be available, and the team will begin to work on publication of our findings.
(Photo: Partial cooking surface and chimney of a cast iron stove.)