Week 3 at the FBC
Our third week of digging at the First Baptist Church saw an initial taste of chilly weather to come as well as some fascinating and exciting discoveries. I worked in trench C2 with Maia and Scott, and our first task was to dig our trench down to a natural layer characterized by a slightly yellow, clay-like soil. This work was not easy; while the soil was visually distinct from the layers above it, it was quite difficult to know exactly when to stop digging at any given spot in the trench, especially because the natural layer appeared to be rather uneven. On our way down to this layer, we unearthed a large, rusty nail as well as a great deal of glass. The glass was mainly clear, but there were also some green sherds. The most notable feature of the glass was its abundance; we must have found at least 30 sherds in the course of less than two hours. Once we established our natural layer, we photographed it and continued to excavate. I stumbled upon a cool-looking pottery sherd that turned out to be painted on both sides! The design appears to be pastoral in nature; one can distinguish a farmhouse and some rolling fields. I am very excited to examine this piece in the lab and compare it to other china designs to discover its origins and compositon. As we neared the end of the day, we began to strike a huge amount of brick pieces in our trench. They weren't oriented in any obvious pattern, which leads me to believe that they may have simply fallen onto the lawn during the construction of the brick sidewalk that surrounds the yard. I'm not sure when this sidewalk was built, but it seems like that would be the most obvious means of introducing so many bricks into our trench. All in all, it was a productive day at the FBC.
Dan
I continued to work in trench D4 this week. Melissa (a student from last year's class who was helping out for the day) and I finished excavating the 'clay pedestal' (SU4), which turned out to be similar to the layer that had surrounded it (SU3) (the pedestal was composed primarily of compact dirt with pockets of grey clay). SU4 contained a very large quantity of nails, bolts, and tacks as well as a great deal of glass fragments and a few ceramic brick fragments. We continued to find large quantities of slag and coal, but the slag is generally confined to the northern edge of the trench. As we dug through SU4 we also noticed small pieces of charcoal and patches of blackened, and apparently burnt, soil. When the pedestal had been removed and the bottom of the trench had been levelled out to depth of about 30cm, a rectangular area of blackened soil that ran the length of the northern edge of the trench became apparent. The edge of the area of blackened soil was a nearly perfect line, which could mean that the area was cut through at a later date in time and subsequently refilled with different soil. Melissa mentioned that the church underwent fairly extensive renovation in the 1950's. It seems probable that most of the construction waste we're finding in D4 was deposited at that time (although the materials found may pre-date that time, as they may have been removed from the church). It looks as though constuction waste was dumped near D4 during a renovation project and then burned, leaving behind nails, glass, and brick.
Click on the above image to activate an interactive VR panorama of the site. Once activated, you can look around by clicking and dragging. Also, press Shift key to zoom in, Ctrl key to zoom out.
Or, click here for a more cinematic experience.
NB: This does not seem to work in Internet Explorer for me, only Firefox. I'm not so skilled with html and webpage writing, etc. so I don't know when/if that will get fixed. You can however view the VR panorama on Vimeo by clicking on the link that says "FBC Panorama - 10_1_07wide.mov" below.
FBC Panorama - 10_1_07wide.mov (or right click the following link to download file: FBC Panorama - 10_1_07wide.mov)
FBC Panorama - 10_1_07thm.mov (or right click the following link to download file: FBC Panorama - 10_1_07thm.mov)
Today, I worked in two different trenches from my last episode at the First Baptist Church. The first trench (C2) that I worked in, I worked with Chelsea and we found quite a bit of objects. We found a lot of coal and glass and also *GASP* discovered a small piece of a pipe stem. That was very exciting to find. We also discovered small pieces of what looks like a broken plate. We had hoped to find more, but we were scared away by the army of yellow jackets and had to be moved after on ly working in the trench for very small portion of time. *SIGH* oh well.....
The trench that I was moved to was right next to the road of the church: trench C1. I was placed with Whit and Stephanie and this trench was a bit interesting as well. We found so many small pieces of objects that we became experts in knowing what they were at first site after sifting the dirt through. THere was A LOT of brick, glass, coal, and metal fragments. We had found three nails and discovered an exciting piece of ceramic with floral design on it. In some of the sifting, we found what is believed by us to be some sort of volcanic rock because itis black and very light. It could very well be tar, but we won't really know until we get to the lab in a few weeks.....HORRAY!!!!
The third dig and the first day of October; the weather was showing signs of fall today. Still, the sun was shining and only in the shadows of the trees did I feel uncomfortably cold. I can only imagine what it will be like in a month...
Today I was digging at a new site, D1, which is located next to the staircase on the southern side of the church. This trench is on an incline, which makes for some interesting and sometimes uncomfortable digging angles! However, this sight is full of interesting artifacts. Doug and I found around 80 nails, 150 pieces of glass, various metal pieces, pottery chards, a bead!, and a piece of mirror. It seemed every dustpan full of dirt I was dumping into my bucket had at least one or two things in it that needed marking. By the end of SU3 our bag was brimming and the task of labeling loomed ahead, yet I was incredibly excited to reexamine all of the objects.
After taking a second look at the number and type of objects, it became apparent that some type of construction was done on this side of the building that involved removing several nails (and throwing them on the ground only to be covered with grass....too) and also possibly the removal or addition of red brick. As of now I have no idea what the construction history is of the church, but it would be interesting to look at records to see if we could determine when and what was done!
I can't wait to see what comes out of D1 next week, and also to work on some other trenches!
Well, this week we had the first dig of October! It was a nice day, slightly cooler than usual, which I definitely viewed as an advantage. I showed up at 1pm and got to work on trench D2 with Cindy. I did not know much about this trench, so I enjoyed working in some place new for a bit. I got so involved in finishing up a level in D2 that I was almost late for my 2 pm class! I must say, I am definitely getting a good workout heading up that hill twice in one day (not to mention my 2 pm class is on the 3rd floor of Sayles Hall!).
After class, I chose to work in C1 again since I knew it best, and joined Veronica and Whit. We enjoyed talking with one another, although three was definitely a crowd at some points during our dig. However, our sifting work was extra easy since we had three pairs of hands to help. We found lots of interesting artifacts, such as glass, coal, brick pieces, and metal nails. I found a small piece of blue-on-white pottery which I was very excited about. I wonder what it can tell us once we get back to the lab and analyze it. Veronica also recognized a possible kind of volcanic rock which was very light in density. Since our trenches are getting deeper, it is definitely getting more difficult and tiring to bend over and dig. However, this is also a good thing because the deeper we get, the farther back in history we go! And, I am hoping that the deeper we get, the more interesting artifacts we will find.
Also, soon after starting SU4, Whit and I realized we were hitting some kind of new natural level, much more clayey and reddish. Kate advised us to stop SU4 at this level, so we only got down a few centimeters more before the end of the day. I am quite interested by this new natural level, and I am eager to excavate in this trench again next week so I can see what happens next. It's interesting to think that we find single pieces of glass supposedly from several different vessels. Where did the rest of the pieces of these vessels go? Are they simply further down in the ground and we haven't uncovered them yet? Are they hidden somewhere in the ground outside of our trench? Or is there another explanation entirely? I think it would be quite fascinating to find more pieces of, say, blue-on-white pottery so that we would have more pieces of the puzzle to study. Hopefully our next dig will yield some great results!
On another interesting note, I was very excited to see an article on our class in the Brown Daily Herald! I think it's great to spread the knowledge of what our class is doing, and how easy it is to get involved. Archaeology isn't all about Indiana Jones and traveling to far off, mysterious places. Sometimes, some of the most fascinating and significant archaeology can happen right in your own backyard! Sometimes I feel as if other people have a hard time taking archaeology seriously, so I thoroughly enjoyed reading the newspaper article; I hope it shows more people how relevant archaeology can be in today's studies of histories and past cultures.
Well, I can't wait to get back to the site next week! Until next time.....
They all ask... Passing members of the congregation dressed in reverent garb, the taxi driver - music blaring - waiting for the light to turn green, the humbly curious woman trailed by her less than enthusiastic husband, head down in modest embarassment: "What have you found?" Of course I do my best to enumerate the day's finds - the real interesting square inch of decaying, rotting fabric, the several tiny pieces of sooty charcoal, the scores of glass shards (we even found a slightly green one!), and a rusty nail! But I couldn't help but notice a slight disappointment as they strolled or sped off.
Still, I can't help but be excited myself about what we are doing - we are essentially uncovering that which the past did not proclaim to posterity about itself. We are uncovering what the past thought too mundane to perserve and felt confident would be destroyed by the ages. But nature had the last word - perserving the fragments of an unrecorded past - and now we, the archaeologists have their secrets! The interest lies not in what the artifacts are, but what they were and how they got to us. These artifacts slipped around the filter imposed by the past society on iself, thinking they could control in their writing and record keeping - what the future saw of them . But no!
And maybe that is why archaeology is so different - it is the science to understand the past through what was not prepackaged for the future. One's greatest secrets lie in what one does not say about themselves. Historians read what societies wrote and made an effort to preserve. Archaeologist uncover their secrets in what was by chance and nature perserved and then "dish the dirt"...
And it is this candor that makes archaeology so personal. As I plucked a single glass bead out of the sieve with Whit in trench C1 and continued to work around and even uncover more of the odd features in trench D3 with Chelsea today, I more connected to these people than I ever would reading the Declaration of Independence or reading of the political musings of these people's times. No - it is the glass bead, that which the people did not prepackage for interpretation of their posterity. It is in the glass bead that what these people where, and not what they hoped they would be to the future, comes to me across the ages.
To me, I must admit, there is a guiltly pleasure in unearthing the vestiages of people's lives that were most intimately connected to them, that they kept only for themselves while they willingly offered in writing what they considered worthy cultural accomplishments like business transactions, literary musings, and orations to the future.
As a history enthusiast, this experience with archaeology is making me second guess what we interprete as history. Is trying to recreate our ancestor's lives through their writings, through their bold proclamations engraved into stately stone facades in a imperial style reminiscent of Rome legitimate? Or is it only by examining the detached daisy petals left behind by a giddy love-bird's personal game of "she-loves-me, she-loves-me not", and his lazy scribblings of love in the sand. Is it only in the candor of latter two that we can truely understand the past, apart from the seemingly timeless urge to package one's glory, all that one is proud of, for the future?
Should we trust the past's interpretation of itself that it leaves written in stone, or is it the secret scrallings in the sand, the artifacts fragments of a reality that were never ment for us to see, where the true spirit of these people lives?
Eager to continue "dishing the dirt" of the past,
This was my second day digging at the FBC. It was a bit cooler than last week and slightly overcast (though no rain). Fortunately, the ground was still fairly soft and easy to dig with the trowel. Earlier in the day, two other people had been working on C2, but there was an attack of yellow jackets. By the time I had arrived, the yellow jackets didn’t seem to mind us working there, and left us alone. This time round we (Scott, Mark and I) found a lot more artifacts. For the most part we uncovered some rusted nails, lots of red brick pieces and tons of glass fragments. Two of the most interesting finds were a piece of decorated porcelain and some kind of iron object, which we are still in the midst of unearthing.
The porcelain fragment, which Mark dug up in the south west corner of the trench, has white ground with a dark brown depiction of some outdoor scene (there appeared to be a representation of a house and some trees). Now I am really curious to know more about this fragment and keep asking myself “When is this from?” “Can we tell what it was used for?” and “Will we find more pieces?” I can’t wait to start working in the lab to examine this artifact more closely. Though we’ve read a little about some of the different pottery in Adkins and Adkins, I would like to learn more about how to identify a piece by its decoration style. One thing that I really enjoy about excavating is the detective work!
The rusted iron object, which we found in the northwest corner of the trench, is flat and curved. At first glance, I thought it might be a horseshoe, but upon closer examination I thought that it seemed a little too big to be one. I guess I will have to wait and see until next time what it is…
Of the other objects we uncovered in C2, I was also surprised at the amount of glass and brick present. Sometimes we would come across large chunks of glass – the colors ranged from a clear white, light blue, dark velvet green to a dark brown (almost black looking). Though it was difficult to tell what kind of bottle these fragments came from, perhaps when we look at them more closely in the lab we’ll be able to identify from the curvature and shape what century they are from. The bricks as well will hopefully reveal some clues too about the people who once passed through this site. Although the bricks themselves do not appear to be in any kind of formation, which would provide useful hints for dating them, it is possible that they may have been piled or thrown away when the roads were made of brick (Mark noticed that there are red bricks by the pavement near road to the west of the site (?). But these are just hypotheses…who knows what the story is here? I can’t wait to find out though!
We're getting deeper! I continued working on C1, again with Stephanie, but this time with Ronnie joining us. Tyler helped out at the beginning, but Kate moved him to another trench after the first half of digging. I really enjoyed working with new people. I have to admit, though, not only did I know Stephanie from working on C1 with her last week, but I also had already become friends with Ronnie (from my freshman unit as well as taking many archaeology classes with her during the past few years) and Tyler who is in a geology class I'm also taking and has played in the orchestra with me. So maybe the people weren't entirely new, but I do enjoy rotating and getting to know other people (and other trenches!) better.
But enough about all that! As far as digging goes, I was a bit tired and hot, but I still enjoyed being outside. The work went very smoothly -- it was the first time I had worked with three people! The digging went quickly, but sometimes we did get in each other's way. We found some interesting objects -- some ceramics and painted glass. We also came across a new sedimentary layer, so that cut SU4 short. I wonder what SU5 will be like!
I also had a good time chatting with Jason Urbanus. He's a cool guy (not that Kate and Michelle aren't :), well they aren't guys, but they are cool -- you know what I mean).
The third week was a bit of a different experience than the first two. I switched out of Trench D1 and into another trench up on the hill (I don't even remember the name off the top of my head - I've become that emotionally commited to d1 :-p). That trench was a little less full of artifacts but we did find a pipe stem (which, ironically, was what I had been hoping to find in D1). Artifacts seem to just follow me around I guess. It's like I'm a magnet and things migrate under the earth to go to whatever trench I'm in. Veronica and I also found some pieces of a plate or bowl in the trench on the hill but we gave that trench up pretty quickly anyways to avoid a lovely bunch of yellow jackets.
I then switched to another trench at the front of the church (which the name of also does not rise readily to mind) and worked with Tyler. This trench had some interesting features that we speculated may be old rotted wooden posts. However, they were positioned strangely for wooden posts and also present were little white rocks, so we aren't really sure what they are.
All of the trenchs are starting to look a little more impressive and less like dirty spots where someone scraped the grass off and that's nice. A lot of people from around the Church have come to talk to us. I guess they're church patrons mixed with just city walkers. Everyone is very friendly and seems generally interested in what we are doing and why. However, almost everyone inevitably ends up asking us "what are you looking for?" and I never quite know what to say to that. Somehow "artifacts" seems lacking as an answer, but we can't truthfully answer something glorious like buried ancient civilazations or pirate gold either.
This week, I was in D2, which started out as fairly uniform. There was a root across one of the corners (the Southwest, I think), but the dirt was the same shade all across. Stephanie and I worked on that for an hour until she went to class, finishing the SU from the previous week (only about 3 cm). We found some pottery, charcoal, and glass. Then Maddy arrived and we started working on a new SU. There started to be a different colored soil in the east side of the trench, so we made a new SU. Eventually we came down to a couple of largish rocks that were standing in the middle of the trench, which we started to work around. Jason Urbanus came during the day and helped out. We also found a layer of clay. It was a pretty nice day, not too hot. Apparently the last week, the workers in D2 needed dust masks, but this week the soil was not so dry, so we didn't need them.
This week was so exciting at Trench D2! I will almost be sad to have to rotate to another trench, because in the past two weeks digging there I have seen our excavation go from a sparse pile of grey dirt to a somewhat cohesive archaeological scene. This week we dug into two new SU's and found several distinct types of soil, and a consistent array of artifacts that suggest to me that the site could actually be interpreted as something. Whereas before we dug through several SU's to find only the occasional shard of glass, this week we found several oyster shells (a possible complement to the deer skeleton found nearby last year, who knows?) and large rocks in what might be some sort of deliberate formation. The soil was also clearly heterogeneous, with ochre, very dark brown and grey portions intermingling. Although I do not want to jump to conclusions greater than the evidence can actually support, my curiosity was ignited by this semblance of order in what was previously a jumbled and random-seeming dig. To paraphrase Samuel Coleridge, beauty is similitude within dissimilitude. So, it was a sight for bored eyes when we percieved two reasonably distinct types of soil, divided by a portion of rocks. Perhaps I never thought that I would find something like this so exciting.
My slightly tardy arrival on the first of October was greeted by Kate’s asking “are there too many yellow jackets here for you to dig in this trench? I think there’s a hive.” Fortunately, I was able to work in trench D1 instead. D1, being located next to the stairs into the church and very close to the building, contained a large number of artifacts, and a particularly large number of rusty nails. Once we had found 83 of these nails in the same SU, it was suggested that this abundance could likely have been caused by a reshingling of the church roof. In addition, we found a great deal of broken glass and brick, part of a pipe stem, and a bead.
