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Archaeology of College Hill 2008 - Home
John Brown House Archaeology Report - 2008
Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology & the Ancient World
Brown University
Box 1837 / 60 George Street
Providence, RI 02912
Telephone: (401) 863-3188
Fax: (401) 863-9423
[email protected]
Monday was our first day of true excavation on the yard of John Brown House. Although a team of graduate students and volunteers had made a geophysical survey of the area last spring, there was still much to be done on site. After a brief group introduction to the site in the classroom, we headed right over to begin the excavation process. We divided out time between Krysta, and Tommy. Tommy first showed us how to do further geophysical surveys of the plot, using half-meter markers and measuring tapes and two pieces of equipment: a magnetometer and an electromagnetic conductor. These two devices test for subterranean features based on metal content. Krysta’s group set up to dig sample test pits (STPs) at N0-W30 and N0-W35 (5 meters away.) These notations describe the position of the plots on the grid, which was set up like a coordinate system from an origin marker near the base of a wall that comprised a part of the currently standing house. North, South East and West denoted by N,S,E,W describe the distance of plots in relation to that 0,0 coordinate point in meters. The first group (I began in the geophysical survey group) uncovered the topsoil and almost immediately uncovered several long (approximately 9 cm) nails. When the groups switched, our team carefully skimmed off layers of soil, making sure to note the color and condition of the soil as we were using natural levels to denote excavation layers within the pit and being careful to preserve the integrity of the pit walls. We uncovered several brick pieces and mortar clusters, as well as more nails in our pit at N0-W30, while the group working on the pit at N0-W35 found some tile pieces, and several more pieces of brick and mortar. Digging was fascinating, and it was exciting to find several objects in the test pits our first day! Hopefully the rapid discoveries have not skewed my view of how often archaeologists make finds in an average days work!
This week’s digging time focused mainly on becoming better acquainted with the John Brown house itself, its history, and its occupants. Knowing a bit more about the actual history of the area we’re digging up was extremely helpful, and provided me a better sense of what we might actually hope to find. The scale of the home, as well as the ostentatious structures the occupants favored leave me hopeful that some sort of outbuildings’ ruins are in the yard. Within the yard, we continued to excavate STP 1 and 2. I was responsible with a small group for setting up and leveling Unit 1, the first larger excavation pit along the North wall. We also captured a detailed photo of STP 2 where there were several features including tile flooring, and some mortar, and some bricks. The class was mainly devoted to the museum tour, but I look forward to starting to excavate Unit 1 that we so carefully leveled last Monday!
Today was devoted almost entirely to work on two of the first one meter square pits, Unit 1 and Unit 2. I was assigned Unit 1 which was a unique challenge as the ground had a large depression in it which made it difficult to level off the pit 10 cm down. The context of the soil also changed rapidly, before we had even excavated down 10 cm in some places. Interesting finds consisted of some easter grass, a dirty old rag, and several bits of brick. Unit 2 however had a fascinating find: the top of some sort of pipe with a spigot. They spent most of the day cleaning up the area around the pipe. By the end of the day, STP 1 and STP 2 were quite deep, the tile floor was all but removed and large bricks were found in STP 2, while STP 1 contained a multitude of oyster shells, purpose unknown (mortar? a meal?). We look forward to continuing to excavate Unit 1 and Unit 2.
I was assigned to work on the brand new Unit 3 (also opened today was Unit 4). Located in the NW area of the lawn along the fence, this unit was much more level than the others and produced several interesting finds in the first 10 cm of digging. We located two pieces of ceramic, one a dual sided "transfer" pattern, estimated by Krysta to be from the 1830s or so, and probably part of a teacup or other two-sided earthenware piece. A second, larger piece was also found, but the glaze pattern was obscured. Also, yet another nail was found. In Unit 4, two pennies, one dating from 1967 (the earliest affirmed date for that soil deposit--coins are a convenient marker!) were found. I look forward to seeing how all the Units develop, and how the soil context changes as we go deeper into the lawn at John Brown House.
This was a fantastic day for potsherds! Elise found several pieces , as did Ben, of transfer-ware from what Krysta guesses is the mid 1800s. In Unit 3 we were able to complete the leveling 10 cm and the subsequent 10 cm. We have become quite efficient at clearing the layers of soil back, and much better at spotting bits of brick and pottery shards. Ben found one remarkably large piece of pottery, approximately 4 cm, the largest sherd we have found to date. Over in Unit 1 a lot of detritus or modern trash has been found, including an iconic Mr. Donut styrofoam coffee cup, a chain now absorbed by Dunkin' Donuts. Fascinating history. The exposed pipe in Unit 2 was unearthed further, and I must congratulate Megan in particular on keeping the walls of the unit extremely straight while still exposing a great deal of the brick and mortar that protrudes into the unit. Overall today was a productive day, we are definitely falling into a rhythm with digging and developing a sense for when contexts change, as well as become more proficient at documenting our finds and strata and identifying interesting pieces uncovered during sifting the fill.
We haven't dug in two weeks and if feels like ages! The soil in Unit 3 had dried a great deal over the past weeks, and it seemed like new roots sprouted in the absence of Cindi Lauper (our root cutters). The soil remained loose, and we started in on our next arbitrary soil level, another 10 cm of digging in JBH 23. Elise was the first to spot the mortar spots showing through the medium brown soil as we grew closer to the end of JBH 23, approximately 7 cm down. As we were digging we started finding what felt like a treasure trove of pottery sherds. Approximately 5-6 pieces of the same pink-patterned sponge painted ceramic were within the north west quadrant of the Unit. Krysta sent a picture off for identification by a friend, and dated the pieces to around 1830. Also, I had a friend from home visiting who helped uncover two pieces of abnormally thick black glass, very different from the thinner pieces of clear, white, and green glass we have been finding (I attribute her success to beginners luck!) A final piece of note was a sherd of red earthenware with a strange green glaze. Krysta said this was much earlier than the 18th century pieces and that it was a very utilitarian type of pottery. We had several nails and pieces of nails uncovered, as per usual, and some larger bits of brick, as well as coal, a new find for this level. We finished the day leveling off the pit and cleaning up the walls. I can't wait to open up yet another unit about a meter next door to Unit 3---Unit 5 coming soon!
After a weekend of digging during parents weekend, Elise had really opened up Unit 3. We were down another 10 cm in the midst of JBH 27. Ben and I promptly took over where Elise left off, leveling off the context and starting a new one. Today had fewer finds than in the past, and it seems the deposits of pottery sherds are thinning. We did find several pieces of the thick black glass from last week, but overall it was a slow day. We spent a great deal of time leveling our Unit for photos, and sifting and finding crumbling pieces of brick and mortar. The walls are very straight now!
We started today quite early. I was at the site and ready to dig by 1:30, since daylight savings time cut out our last half hour of light for the day. This was our second to last day digging, and Ben and I were eager to get through as many contexts as possible, while still accurately documenting the contexts, of course! We started right into JBH 27, finishing and leveling off that context and taking several photographs. The finds were largely pieces of white pottery and creamware. These earthenware pieces were quite common throughout the contexts. The stratigraphy has been relatively constant though all the contexts, and we are still uncovering the same kind of loose brown soil that we are used to seeing in this trench. There were a few fragments of blue printed pottery, as well as some glass, and a few more pieces of coal, but largely this was an uneventful context. I did a lot of work with the loppers trying to clean of some of the larger, more obstructive roots. Yet another battle were the leaves that are now falling rapidly in the trench and ruining a lot of our photo set ups. Ben and I are definitely working more quickly now, eager to get thorough the layers and reach as many contexts as possible before our last week of digging, which is coming up quickly!
We had another early start for our last day of digging. Ben and I tore through the final 10 cm today, while still keeping the walls level and carefully sifting. We came across our usual pieces of pottery, but I was surprised to uncover several bricks rather rapidly. They were not whole bricks, but rather triangular corners that seemed to have been laid out together with some regularity. Also, the soil finally started to change, as some white mortar-like pieces of soft rock were being exposed. This white material crumbled easily and was very damp and unstable. In the southwest corner, just as Krysta and Brad were urging us to finish off the context and put down our trowels, Ben and I uncovered what seemed to be the beginning of some sort of foundation. The soil here is extremely damp, loose white and powdery. We were forced ot cover that section of the unit up for the final picture for the sake of continuity and took final photographs. I then sat inside the Unit and drew the profile of the contexts and stratigraphy of the North Wall of Unit Three. This was a freezing process, and Ben and I worked as quickly as possible to finish up the measurements and draw and accurate sketch of our unit's wall. We photographed each of the walls for a record of the stratigraphy and the level we dug down to for the next group of archaeologists to uncover.
We transitioned from the freezing final documentation process to the filling process. Krysta threw several pennies in Unit 3 to mark how far down we dug for the future Archaeologists of College Hill. Working as a group, we lined the trenches of Unit 3 and 5 with tarps, and backfilled them with shovels and buckets. We tucked the sides of the tarps in and finally filled the "dirt dumplings" in on top and patted them down. We worked well as a class and managed to get all the units filled in before the sunset and freezing temperatures chased us away from John Brown House for the final time.
This was our first long session in the material culture lab. We did a brief orientation on Thursday morning and learned how and what objects should be washed and brushed and dried. Today, Krysta and a guest lecturer from RISD discussed different common artifacts from North American historical archaeology. We learned about pipes, pottery and glass bottles and saw several reproduction examples. Megan, Ben and I tackled artifacts from JBH 23 in Unit 3. We sorted through the pottery sherds, nails and bricks (paying special attention to the relatively large pieces of pink-sponge-printed earthenware).
I found a great number of the smaller pieces of brick fell apart to dust when removed from the artifact bags. Also, we saved a lot of rocks along with artifacts! Although we don't yet know what the pink sponge-print pieces will assemble to (if anything) it will be fascinating to see if we can identify what type of vessel they belonged to. I can't wait for the next lab day to examine our clean, dry, pieces from Unit 3, JBH 23.
Ben, Megan and I finished up washing artifacts from Units 4 and 3. We then moved on to learning how to catalog artifacts, including several types of long nails with added top washers, some pieces of green glass (true green!) and a whole lot of clam and oyster shells. Overall, it was a productive day and useful to see some of the clean artifacts from other Units.
Today we continued to catalog artifacts today, grouping cleaned artifacts into contexts. We missed section on Thursday, but tried to make up for lost time. I also selected three objects to complete my object biographies on. I selected some rusted nails from JBH 35, and two pottery sherds from JBH 23. Evie has begun cataloging the artifacts online for her final projects, so we made sure all the objects stayed in the lab. I'm glad I was able to chose two artifacts from Unit 3 which I spent the majority of my time excavating---in fact I found both of the pieces I'm doing object biographies on! From now on the focus will be on completing our individual projects and adding information through our in-depth object biographies.
For our final class of the semester, we met to present final projects. Several guests from the Rhode Island Historical Society were present as well as a member of the John Brown House Museum team, and I was able to discuss my proposed display with the people who initially turned me down! I really enjoyed the video presentation, seeing how our dig progressed and the amazing ways technology could be applied to our dig. Remembering back to the first days of digging was really great and made me reflect on the progress we've made in such a short period of time. I am extremely excited to set up my display in Rhode Island Hall with the Joukowsky Institute in the new year. Overall, this was a fantastic introduction to working on an active archeological dig. I hope to participate in a future dig somewhere in the world, and no doubt the skills I have acquired will serve me well!