A description of coring with Dr. Monaghan by Corinne Schultz, Gary Macagaeg, and Hannah Bose.

On June 5, Dr. Monaghan, Gary, Hannah, and Corinne took three cores from Mound F. The first two cores were taken on the south side of Glenn A. Black's profile, which he supposedly left after his almost entire excavation of the mound. The third core was taken from the north side of the supposed profile.

Core 1 was taken some ways away from the profile so as to get a view of unexcavated mound, and it yielded useful results. After an entire afternoon of analysis and description of the core, we made an interpretation based on our data.  We interpreted the top division of core 1, which we called alostratigraphic unit 1, or ASU 1, as the reconstruction of the primary mound by Black in the 1970s. Underneath, in ASU 2, there is a gradational boundary in soil color and texture, which may represent the reconstruction on top of the remaining original primary mound which Black left untouched. Then there is a sharp boundary, a very distinct sand layer on top of a bioturbated layer, which we called ASU 3. This layer was filled with enough charcoal that, if we wanted to, we use for dating. This charcoal layer is evidence of cultural activity. Underneath this layer is the inner mound fill. There is yet another level of bioturbation under the inner mound, also indicating cultural activity, followed by B-horizon soil. B-horizon soil is sterile, void of any cultural remains and gives us an idea where the original ground was prior to the mound construction.

Below Dr. Monaghan discusses core description and analysis with Lela Grant, Blake Davenport, Quinn Kissane, and Jason Hines.