Steffi's Field Blog

Field Blog, Week 1-9/18/08

Monday marked the first day of our archaeological dig of the backyard of the John Brown House. After receiving a brief history of the house from our instructor, Krysta, we got right into the archaeological process. Krysta showed us how our site would be laid out—based on a grid system originating from a central rock at the end closest to the Brown house. Krysta made sure to clarify which direction would denote north, and by association, all other coordinates.

We then proceeded to begin digging a shovel pit test, a kind of sample of the grounds which we will later be excavating. My group, involving a small portion of the class, began to setup for the digging of a 50cm X 50 cm box which was carefully measured and gridded at N0-W30 (while another group took part in a similar task at N0-W35). After the removal of the grass and topsoil, there were already several nails visible in the soil. Thereafter, careful removal of the soil layer by layer began to take place. By the end of class, more nails had been found in our pit, while tile flooring was found in the other pit.

However, midway through this process, we were sent to learn some geophysical surveying techniques from Tommy. Here we tested 16 lengths of the ground where we will most likely dig in the future. The tests were performed using both a magnetometer and an electromagnetic conductor to test for subsurface features and other metal content.

The first day was both exciting and eventful. Not only did we learn some archaeological and geophysical techniques, but we also found several exciting finds. For an initial survey of the grounds, this was extremely exhilarating.

Field Blog, Week 2- 9/15/08

Today was the second day of our fieldwork and it proved to be just as exciting. We dug even further into the shovel test pits from last week. The first pit, N0-W35, proved to be much less exciting than the second pit, N0-W30. After the nails were uncovered last week, only some small bits of glass were found. Soil continued to be removed, and a new context was eventually revealed. The second test pit has been surrounded by a perpetual buzz and excitement as a result of all of the finds that have been discovered after such a short time period. More tiles, small brick chips, huge mortar blocks, and maybe even some porcelain pieces were all unearthed.

Halfway through class, we joined Dan, a tour guide who showed us around the first floor of the John Brown House. We learned many interesting things about the family and their ventures—about how John Brown was involved in the slave trade, Mr. Brown’s close friendship and respect for President George Washington, the uses and artwork of each room, and the wealthy Perry family who owned and renovated the house after the Brown’s residence there. We then watched a short, eight minute video which provided even more information about the Brown’s and their ventures and status in Rhode Island society at that time society. I found it very beneficial and educational to learn so much history about the Brown family. I feel like I have a better understanding of the context, history, and potential implications of our future excavation. After the tour, we returned to the field to continue troweling in our sample pits. Before class ended, a portion of the class began to clear some space for the future excavation of the site.

Field Blog-Week 3-9/22/08

With week 3, the beginning of fall began—and so did the wonderful Providence, fall weather. With a chill in the air, a group finished up the work on our STP’s. Meanwhile, two groups commenced the excavation with two test pits. My group was assigned to unit 2. While the unit was already plotted and measured, we had to determine the elevation of each corner of the unit in order to maintain an even leveled surface when digging. For our first dig, Krysta told us to dig 10 cm down into the earth. Thus, if we imagine our unit as being divided into four smaller units, each smaller unit would be dug a different depth depending on its surface elevation. The tallest, southeast corner was pegged at 0 cm and the elevations of the other, lower corners were determined in relation to this corner. In order to determine the heights of those corners, a measuring tape and min-leveler were used. Once these logistics were taken care of, digging could finally begin!

By the end of the dig, 2 different contexts were determined and several sub-surface features emerged. The two contexts of soils included one patch, taking up the majority of the unit, which looked similar to the topsoil. The other, small patch of the unit had soil which appeared much drier, and almost a grayish color. In the middle of the unit, some sort of hollowed out faucet feature was unearthed, while on the north side of the unit, several blocks of mortar and brick were discovered. In addition, small pieces were found which included such materials as glass, charcoal, and brick. On the whole, the first day of digging proved to be very exciting!

Field Blog-Week 4-9/29/08

Because of the rain during the previous weekend, the ground was much wetter than usual and their was an enormous mass of mosquitoes who decided to make their home on our excavation site. While the mosquitoes made the work a little more difficult, the rain actually made the soil easier to dig. Today, instead of continuing work on the unit 2 excavation, I was switched to unit 4 which is a grid more centrally located and closer the fence than the other units in the backyard of the John Brown House. Similar to last week, the unit was squared off with string and the elevation of each corner was measured with a level and a tape measure. Again, we were told to dig 10 cm down based on the differing elevations of the corners. With these logistics taken care of, the digging again commenced. No immediate artifacts were discovered. However, after the top layer of grass and soil was removed, we soon began to notice a new context. Instead of the dark and fine topsoil, the soil began to get lighter and rockier. Once this new context was reached, we began to clear the superfluous dirt and hedge the unit walls to take a picture. Soon thereafter class came to an end.

Field Blog-Week 5-10/6/08

Whitney, Peter, and I continued digging down on unit 4 this week. The beginning of the class was very similar to the week before. There were very few finds and a lot of the same pebbly, rocky soil. However, after further digging, a new feature was found on the south end of the unit. Towards the middle of the south end, this feature was what appeared to be a rather big, grey, rectangular rock structure. In addition to the discovery of this feature, three new contexts were found along its lines. To the left of the rock feature (facing north), the soil was finer and darker, while to the right of the feature, the soil was more pebbly and gravel-like. Directly to the north of the feature, in between the two previously described contexts, was a different context which was an even darker band of soil. After the Columbus Day holiday, we hope to continue the excavation of the unit and gain further insight into the newly found contexts.

Field Blog-Week-6 10/20/08

Because of the recent holiday, we had not dug in quite some time; therefore, at the beginning of the class period, we reviewed the progress of each unit. Our unit, Unit 4, began the excavation by only digging within context JBH 19 to the west of the unit. Within this relatively small space to the left of the rock feature, we did not find too much--some pieces of glass, brick, charcoal. and pottery ware were the exciting finds. We also discovered that the rock feature was much more shallow than initially hypothesized. We eventually dug down 10 cm to a new arbitrary context level, JBH 26.

Field Blog-Week 7-10/27/08

Today our excavation team continued our work on unit 4. On the previous Saturday of parents weekend, kellie and I began to dig on the eastern part of the unit, to the right of the feature. We had initially divided the unit into 3 contexts, but after seeing the shallow nature of the feature, decided to eliminate the middle context which was directly in line with the feature. Instead, on Monday, we continued to dig the soil directly above and to the right of the feature as one, coherent context. This soil was extremely pebbly, thus making the dig rather difficult. However, after some hard digging, we began to encounter what appeared to be more foundational features. We found several large brick and mortar pieces which were in congruence with the initial rectangular feature which had previously been unearthed. In addition to these foundational features which we began to map out at the end of class, other finds included nails, pottery pieces, a shell, and some glass. We look forward to what we might discover in our unit next week!

Field blog-Week 8-11/3/08

Despite daylight savings time and the early arrival dusk, I was unable to arrive to class until the regularly scheduled time. Because of the early onset of dark, Krysta allowed the class to come at 1pm and dig until it got dark. However, I was unable to attend class until 3 pm. While I was gone, Whitney and Peter finished drawing and mapping the features that had been uncovered in Unit 4. By the time I got to the site, we decided together to excavate 20 more cm down in the context to the west of the feature. On this left side, we dug rather quickly. The soil was much more fine and soft than the pebbly soil on the right of the unit. Interesting finds included animal bone, a button, some pottery pieces, and brick.

Field Blog-Week 9-11/10/08

The last week of digging involved a lot of wrap-up work and very little actual digging. Peter and I attempted to dig down 20 centimeters more JBH 42, which was the context to the west side of the main feature (feature 4) within the unit. We quickly dug down and attempted to see how deeply feature 4 went down or whether it had a connection to other features. We did indeed find several large stones beneath this feature. Because the light faded quickly, we were forced to stop digging, clean up our unit, and take pictures of the four walls and main feature of our unit. We then proceeded to draw a statigraphy graph of the south wall of the unit. Afterwards, we backfilled the unit and cleaned up. As of next Monday, our work outside will cease, and our work in the lab will begin.

Field Blog- Week 10-11/17/08

Monday marked our first full day in the lab. After an initial orientation on Thursday, Monday was about continuing to clean and divide the artifacts from JBH1 in sequentially chronological order. But before orientation, the class received an overview of dating techniques and general ceramic information--how to tell the difference between coarse earthenware, refined earthenware (creamware, whiteware, pearlware), stoneware, and porcelain. Krysta passed around cups, plates, pipes, and bowls which gave us ample examples of the different types of ceramic to look for and therefore categorize as different. Even better, we had a guest lecturer, porcelain expert give us a history of porcelain's origins, the differences in plates based on regions of the globe, and general reasons for differences in design.

After this preliminary lecture, the class began to clean artifacts. Kellie and I first divided the artifacts by unit and context number. Then we joined Peter in cleaning the finds. Armed with wet and dry toothbrushes to remove dirt and a tub of water for dunking, we began the process of de-soiling. While most artifacts were allowed to get wet certain things like mortar, nails, and fragile objects were better kept dry and handled with precaution. For the next class we will continue the arduous task of cleaning all of the artifacts found from the excavation.

Field Blog- Week 11-11/24/08

Today was our second day in the lab and we continued to clean artifacts in chronological order by context number. After Peter and I finished cleaning the artifacts from the context we were working on, Krysta recruited us to begin classifying some of the already cleaned artifacts. We began to look through the artifacts from unit 4, our excavation unit. Forms were filled out about each object which denoted attributes like color, shape, context, type, material, size. Next week, we will continue to classify artifacts from unit 4 in the hope of gaining a better understanding of the parallels and intricacies of our artifacts and excavation unit.

Field Blog-Week 12-12/1/08

Today Peter and I continued cataloging artifacts from unit 4. We got through a significant amount of different contexts and filled out the respective forms for each artifact. It was much of the same as last week. The process if a monotonous but necessary step in the process; in this way we can begin to organize and analyze the finds in a logical and more informed manner. I have also begun work on my final project which entails finding out as much information as I can about the Robert Hale Ives homestead that was once built on the grounds where we excavated. Through my research, i have discovered that the brick homestead was built sometime between 1832 and 1857 and destroyed sometime between 1935-1926, passing through a few hands along the way.

Field Blog-Week 13-12/8/08

During class period today, members of our class each gave presentations about what they have uncovered so far in their final projects. Videos, PowerPoints, and posters were all made in an effort to best illustrate the finds. Summaries of the reports for each unit were given, as well as the stratigraphic lines of each unit, plans for ideas about how to best put our finds into an exhibition at the RIHS and the John Brown House, and ideas about the makings of a computerized virtual cataloger.