Evie's Field Blog

Week One

September 8th, 2008

Today was our first day of class, and also our first day in the field. I wasn't quite sure what to expect when we got the email about wearing metal-free clothing, but I definitely didn't expect that we would actually get to dig today. So, it was with some trepidation that I walked down to the John Brown House, envisioning two and a half hours of walking back and forth with delicate, touchy, beeping and probably extremely expensive equipment, one two centimeter strip at a time. But the survey work was actually quite interesting, and with twelve of us, it really wasn't tedious at all. Still, the most exciting part of the day was beginning our test pits. We came up with a handful of nails and the corner of a tile floor of some sort. We were told that some Brown undergrad in the 1970s decided to excavate at the JBH for his thesis, and though he never actually finished his project, he did find evidence of a structure on the site. We do have historical documents that attest to this as well, but I found that upon walking the lawn and really considering the size of the trenches or pits that we will be digging, the documents aren't incredibly helpful in pinpointing any particular location. So, I'm curious to see the data from our survey, and I'm also really looking forward to see exactly how we are going to go about excavating. I guess in my mind, I have the tendency to picture digs as being Schliemann type extravaganzas where huge stretches of ground are just peeled away But we clearly aren't going to dig up the whole yard, and as Roskams points out, "complete excavation" is a fallible technique both on a logistical and theoretical level. So, how are we going to decide where exactly to dig? Obviously, the results of the survey will have some bearing on this also. I'm excited to see how we progress next Monday.
And, most interesting fact of the day: outhouses are the treasure troves of archaeology!

Week Two

September 15th, 2008

Well, the week has flown by and here we are again, reflecting on a glorious afternoon in the dirt. This week mirrored our first class in that we spent about half the time digging, and the other half in introductions. Today, "introductory business" was a brief tour of the John Brown House. We had a lovely, personal tour of the house, but I wish we hadn't been so short on time. Today we were only able to walk through the ground floor, but that was enough to give us an impression of the place. The John Brown House is an excellent and unusual resource for an archeological dig. Having a contemporary structure directly adjacent to the site is great; it is both a wonderful research tool (as the Historical Society) and it provides us with a more concrete way to connect what we might find in the ground to an actual historical time and place. Finding bits of a tile floor in the ground is one thing when there is no other material culture nearby to use as context; however, the John Brown House provides us with an understanding of the evolution of this space over the last 300 years. This is evident in the combination of eras represented in the exhibits. In passing through the house, it is clear that a variety of periods are present, evidenced by decorative elements and architectural innovations. Rather than acting simply as a snapshot of a specific moment in time, the house embodies change that is natural in a space that is interacted with on a very intimate level. It is important to remember that this place was a home for about two hundred and fifty years. Many people have passed through this space in that time and left their own mark, from the curators today, to the original builders and architect. So, in addition to exploring the John Brown House from the inside, we did also have the chance to dig. We continued working with our test pits, JBH N'O W'30, and JBH N'O W'35. More tiles were unearthed, and a few shards of blue glass. We discussed when one decides to stop digging in a certain pit (ten centimeters after the ground is sterile), and we did some intense trowel-ing. A quite successful day, all in all. Beautiful weather, and we got a good amount of work done.
Best piece of trivia for today: there is a length of tree root in the JBH that supposedly ate the buried body of Roger Williams. Charming!

Week Three

September 22nd, 2008

So, today was an adventure. We've all finally struck out (well mostly) of our shovel test pit mentality, and now we're working on the impressively roomy 1x1 m trenches. There are certainly benefits to having a little more space; it is far easier to work with four people, and everyone is much less likely to lose a finger to a trowel. However, because this isn't just a test pit, both the note taking and digging are far more particular. Today I began working as part of unit two on a plot just next to the depression by the NE edge of the lawn. We set up our trench lines, and then we had to figure out how to get our trench level. Because the ground is far from level, this can be tricky. Eyeballing is neither accurate nor precise enough in this case, so how can we be sure that we're digging on an even plane? Well, the process is actually far simpler than I had suspected. We picked the SE corner as our highest mark in our trench, and determined that the first context would be ten centimeters below that first mark. Then, we stretched a line from that point to the other four corners with a level to figure out how far below our primary mark they fell. Then, we just subtracted that number from ten to figure out how far we needed to dig for an even plane. Of course, we have to keep measuring after this context, but if we did this one precisely, the others will be simpler. That all had to be determined before we even began digging. Also, we had an exposed feature included in our trench, which had to be documented before we began. Once we finished with all of that, we dug! And spent two hours digging a grand total of ten centimeters. Not much, but things like this do take time. I feel that at this point, we shouldn't be overly meticulous since we don't have an abundance of time. But still, it is better to err on the side of caution and go slowly, since the goal of this course is to learn proper excavating procedures. Anyways, we did find some exciting things, despite only digging our ten centimeters. We have a strange circular metal feature with something like a tap handle inside it, and the whole thing appears to be hollow. I'm excited to continue digging and possibly learn more about it, because the whole thing is just so bizarre looking that it has piqued my curiosity.
Something to remember if you're ever considering going on a dig: inter-trench warfare is inevitable when working in close quarters. Always watch your back. Worms make particularly shocking projectiles, and are a surefire way to wake someone up.

Week Four

September 29th, 2008

Another productive day, all in all. I feel more solid and confident after today than I had previously, especially in regards to assigning contexts and filling out the paperwork. It was overcast and gray for the whole afternoon, but it was relatively warm, and the rain held off!! Actually, today was the first time in five days that it hasn't down-poured fifteen minutes out of every hour. People were out and about walking (taking advantage of the momentary dry), and we had more enquiring visitors than we've ever had before. Maybe six or seven people poked their noses through the fence to ask us what we were up to. It seemed like they were either having meetings at the JBH, or lived in the vicinity and had noticed us before and stopped to find out what we were doing. Everyone was very friendly and curious about what we were finding. In terms of digging, today went about as expected. The first order of business was to empty the tarps of water that had pooled on top of our units. I was pleasantly surprised to find that our unit was pretty dry underneath. In unit two, we finished up that sandy context and really got digging. We spent the day unearthing more of our previously exposed features, but they continued to come out of the ground much as we had predicted they would. Megan found an interesting metal strip that appears to be attached to our brick and mortar feature. In terms of smaller artifacts, we found bits of glass and plastic, a few screws, some pieces of white glazed ceramic and two interesting metal pieces. We moved more dirt than we had before, but 20cm is deeper than I suspected! So, chugging along. I'm looking forward to continuing to investigate that pipe bit and the ever-growing brick and mortar feature.
Innovative discovery of the day: in a pinch, a shoe makes a good shovel.

Week Five

October 6th, 2008

Well the weather is certainly starting to turn! We were reminiscing today about our first class, and exclaiming over the fact that we wore shorts that day. Krysta said that digging in the snow can be quite fun though, so we'll see if we get there in the four or five digging sessions we have left. But the cold weather is rather a sharp reminder that we've been at this for a couple of weeks now, and we're already about halfway through. Next week we don't have class because of Columbus day weekend, so we had to batten down the hatches for the long haul this time when it came to cleaning up at the end of the day. In unit 2, we progressed onto our second general context (which covered the entirety of our trench with the exception of the innards of that pipe and our feature in the NE corner). We've taken everything down to a solid 20cm. We found a few nails today, a piece of brick with the maker's name stamped into it, a very strange little metal American flag (a lapel pin, perhaps?), and various bits and pieces of corroded metal. We aren't really any closer to figuring out what our feature is exactly, but we do now know that all of the features in our trench appear to be connected to one another, either by cement or metal. It seems like we're still digging up pretty recent stuff, probably 20th century. Spigots and such. We're almost the point where we switch up trenches, with will be an exciting change. Well, see you all in two weeks.
Irritating fact of the day: all those roots you so carefully trimmed last week for your final photo will continue to grow and make a mockery of your nice neat work, so that the whole thing looks spaghetti the next week. Just imagine the veritable jungle we will find after two weeks!

Week Six

October 20th, 2008

Well, today began as a massive effort to relocate every single enormous worm that has ever passed through the John Brown House lawn, as they all decided that it would be a lovely day for a reunion. And specifically, a reunion in and around our trenches. One gets quite jumpy after a while, expecting every flicker of grass to be another absurdly gigantic night crawler- and we're talking eight inch beasts here, at the very least. But aside from those persistent worms, it was an absolutely gorgeous day. We have been quite lucky thus far, and today was no exception. It wasn't too cold, and we got a beautiful amount of sunshine. Must enjoy it while it lasts! We got a good amount done too in Unit 2, excavating another context almost completely. We're coming down on yet another feature in addition to our found cinderblock last time. This time, it's a pile of bricks in the SW corner. Also, Kelly and I obliterated an absolutely enormous root today. Seriously, it was the size of a hefty child's arm. The digging is more challenging than it has been because of the incredibly gravelly/rooty nature of the context we are currently excavating, and also because the more features that turn up, the more carefully we must dig around them. It's not getting too hard to maneuver yet, but I can see that as becoming quite tricky soon. I'm glad we'll be digging on Saturday as well- we could really use the extra time, and we've gotten into the swing of things at this point so that there is more digging than explaining going on. One of the masons who is currently working on the JB House itself came over at the beginning of class and informed us that our curious metal bar feature is a supporting bar for over a window. So, perhaps we are dealing with a toppled cellar wall here. Exciting stuff! Parents weekend promises to be fun. It will be interesting to see how many people come to check out what we're up to.
A cautionary tale: putting three women in a trench together can lead to cabin fever after three or four weeks, and consequently, quite silly conversations. I think we made the poor men in our neighboring unit 1 blush a time or two today.

Week Seven

October 27th, 2008

Well we really have been lucking out with this weather. It was positively gorgeous today, and a good thing too. We haven't got many weeks left, and the sun will be setting an hour earlier as of next week as well. This will certainly make things challenging towards the end. But on to happier things: as I said, today was just beautiful. Warm, sunny, lots of work to be done. Elise and I formed Team E today, as we took over unit 5. This was quite exciting for us. Lots and lots of gravel, and possibly a wall or something, I don't know. It is complicated in terms of stratigraphy because it appeared that one context was bisected by a second- so we had three separate sections of digging, but it was only two contexts. The paperwork gets tricky. But lord, so much gravel! Lots of interesting fill material, mostly building wreckage. We've found a few bricks, cobbles, slate, glass, some small pieces of porcelain and ceramic, and lots of nails. And did I mention a ton of gravel? Luckily our intrepid T.A. Brad was willing to help us "lift and sift," (as Elise put it so succinctly). But this is exciting, as we are excavating just about over the feature that showed up on the geophysical survey. It is interesting to note that the composition of unit 5 currently is very similar to the composition of the other unit that falls in line N/S with the feature we are trying to investigate. Lots of rubble, but far more similar to one another than any of the other units. I'm sad that we're nearing the end of our time in the field, as I feel like we're really warming up to the digging process, and getting into our stride.
Quote of the day: student- "wait, which direction are we digging now?" Krysta- "um, down."

Week Eight

November 3rd, 2008

So here we are at our second to last day of digging. Quite sad really, but appropriately timed as daylight savings has robbed us of our class period. Today, Elise and I were joined by Katelyn as Krysta's stand in. The three of us pretty well attacked trench 5, although I wasn't there for the majority of the digging time. Last week everyone agreed to come in as early as possible since it was our last full day of digging. I'm having a lot of trouble envisioning us loading our enormous piles of dirt back into our units... But we don't have to think about that just yet. We did get a significant amount of work done today. Elise and I continued to excavate (Go Team E!!) and I seemed to be quite the metal magnet today. We've got lots of good chunks of rubble, brick, cobblestone, pieces of slate, and that ever-present layer of gravel over it all. Today as we dug down, we settled and finished up contexts 30 and 35, and have about leveled it out at context 41. I'm not sure how much time we'll have to excavate next week, but we are indeed coming down on top of a tantalizing context. Lots of mortar, brick, and stone, with holes where the rocks braced each other up when all of this rubble was first thrown down there. I hope we get to dig it out a little further, to just give us an idea of what is down there. I wish I'd had more opportunities to look around at other trenches today, but I felt like class was rushed as the clock ticked down to sunset. I'll be sure to get a good look at the beginning of next class, as by the end of the day, we'll be backfilling all of our neat handiwork...
The end of the day brought about an entertaining spectacle as everyone in the class weighed in on how to make our tarps actually cover our monstrous piles of backdirt. Well, when you don't have enough tarps to cover your backdirt piles or enough sunshine to see, maybe it's time to start thinking about packing up those trowels until next season...

Week Nine

November 10th, 2008

Today was it! The long anticipated last day of digging. The sun was out and the sky was relatively clear, although it was pretty cold. I've been under the weather so I didn't stay through the most exciting part of any dig- backfilling! But I did help out cleaning up our trench for photographing and getting it ready to profile. Our trench has provided us with some pretty marvelous finds- in fact, I think we finally found (yes, on the last day) exactly what we were hoping to find from the geophysical analysis. After digging through what felt like thousands of centimeters of rubble that included cobblestones, hefty chunks of brick and slate, and lots of mortar, we came down upon what could very possibly be a foundation. Both Krysta and Brad claim you always come down on the most exciting features on the last day. However, we now have somewhat of an idea what was showing up on the geophysical survey, and we know where they should start digging next year. It's hard to believe that next Monday we'll be in the lab. I'm curious as to how much of the analyzation will involve typical lab practices, and how much will be devoted to more historical research.
And a special tip: if you ever want to find something really exciting on your last day, be sure to assign Elise to that trench.

Week Ten

November 17th, 2008

Today was our first full day in the lab. I wasn't at all sure what to expect, but we have begun very logically with cleaning and sorting and organizing our artifacts to ready them for cataloging. Cleaning is very satisfying, but Krysta was right when she warned us that we were going to regret every single rock we picked up that we thought just might be special. Some of the earlier context bags especially seem to be filled with more dirt than artifact. But, armed with toothbrushes, sieves, and tubs of water, we persevere! And in all honestly, I think it's fun. We are going through the contexts numerically, so, starting with JBH1 and continuing until we get to our final context. I think we ended somewhere around JBH42, so we have our work cut out for us for the next few days. We dry-brush anything that is organic or made of metal, but all of the brick/stone/ceramic/glass gets submerged and scrubbed well. I had not expected there to be quite so much mud involved, but there you have it. In addition to regular cleaning today, Krysta gave us a basic overview of pottery types. This was very interesting because it attached a logical solid chronology to the whole process, backed up by examples that we could examine ourselves. It made Krysta's identifications of pottery types in the field seem a little less mystical. I'm starting to realize how enormous the task of cataloging all of this is going to be, but I think it will be a satisfying thing to finish.

Some porcelain trivia: those silly Brits never did get it right, but they get bonus points for creativity. Honestly though, using crushed bone for a base for your tea set is a little macabre.

Week Eleven

October 24th, 2008

Team E strikes again! Today Elise and I began the monumental task of labeling. We got pretty good at it too, if I do say so myself. It is rather delicate work, involving nail polish, sharpies, and occasionally, acetone to erase errant sharpie lines. I think the rather toxic combination of fumes got to our heads, because we were pretty slap-happy by the end of the class. But the size of the labels were such that it really doesn't do to be more than three inches away from whatever you're writing on so, I suppose it's all just routine hazards of the job. Satisfying though, as we got to JBH23 by the end of the period. Just about halfway done in one class! yeehaw.

Week Twelve

December 1st, 2008

Today we settled into finishing labeling and beginning the enormous task of cataloging all of the artifacts. As part of my final project, I will be entering the cataloging information into the computer database Krysta has set up for us to dovetail with the database they use at the John Brown House for their artifacts. It is a bit of a daunting task, but in the end we will be able to organize our data and draw conclusions and look for trends much more efficiently. Also, it will be helpful in determining guidelines for a long-term treatment plan for the artifacts. For example, we could search the database to see how many pieces of organic material we have collected and will need to account for in the future care of these artifacts. I would have liked to see what they have up in the attic of the JBH from the first excavation in the 60s/70s, but I think I've already got enough on my plate here. In terms of object biographies, I am leaning towards a fragment from one of those thick green alcohol bottles, but I'm not sure what else yet. I know this isn't at all accurate, but I feel like we have tons of brick and mortar with a few pieces of glass and ceramic interspersed here and there for our data set. One of the upsides to entering all of this data is that I'm getting a better idea of what we really excavated, and realizing that I had my head buried in my own unit deeper than I thought. There were some pretty neat finds towards the end that I hadn't been aware of, and would never have known about if I hadn't been involved in the washing/labeling/cataloging process. I definitely have a more rounded view of what we've been finding now, and I'm glad that we have the luxury of that continuity.