Carol's Field Blog

Week One:

Monday was our first meeting and while I have taken other courses in the Archaeology department in the past I was surprised to meet so many students concentrating in the field with experience in or, knowledge about excavation. I was assigned to Unit 7, the southernmost unit on the west side of the site. After photographing the plot we set about removing the backfill from a 50 centimeter square shovel pit test a previous group performed. It took the remainder of the class time to reach the tarp covering the bottom of the test pit. Underneath the tarp we were pleasantly surprised to find the architectural feature Krysta has described to us—stones arranged into what looks like was once the wall of an outbuilding. I look forward to finding out what the rest of Unit 7 holds for us this semester.

Week Two:

It was another beautiful fall day at the John Brown House. Class began with some shuffling of unit members and I was very grateful to remain in unit 7 as I’ve already formed an attachment to the visible features from the test pit. After catching up with the progress of the other units we returned to unit 7 to string up a border starting from the datum point at the southwest corner. Sarah and I began the dig by scraping away the top layer of soil with shallow strokes of the shovel or trowel. Among the findings Siham sifted were small jewelry trinkets and a sliver of a red Solo cup. Even though we only cleared about 3 centimeters of soil we were thrilled to discover a stone in the northwest corner resembling those of the architectural feature. The most important finding of the day was a 2001 dime. Throughout the afternoon we kept remarking about how lucky we all feel to take such a unique class!

WEEK 3:

Our goal for the day was to start a new arbitrary context at 10 centimeters below the datum point. We shovel-shaved and used trowels to even out the plot, as well as many root cutters to cut through the tangle growing through unit 7. We were particularly interested in the gravelly dirt on the west side of unit 7. Perhaps it was part of a wall at one time? Starting next week we are dividing unit 7 into separate contexts because of the obvious discrepancies between the soil in the east and west sides. We discovered a few exciting artifacts—a pottery shard of earthenware with a green lead glaze Krysta dated to the 1700s, a curved piece of glass, and a two rusty nails. Professor Malone stopped by the site and relayed some interesting industrial archaeology facts on the JBH to Krysta. Next we have a lot of paperwork to look forward to as we set about documenting our new contexts!

Week Four:

Today we divided our lot into two separate contexts, 50 and 51. We used a drawing square to help document the split on the context form then set about digging. I used the trowel to dig away on the southeast corner of context 50 and came across a piece of coal lots of orange-ish dirt. I was particularly concerned about the clay-like dirt because I wasn’t sure if it’s crumbling terracotta or brick or, just decomposed roots. While sifting we also discovered a few shards of pottery. We finished up early so we could get a quick tour of the John Brown House. The tour really drove home for me the role John Brown played in colonial New England. I had no idea he played such a prominent role in politics and was so well connected to our founding fathers. I wish that our tour had not been cut short; I couldn’t help but feel the other group learned much more about the history of the house than us.

Due to Daylight Savings, we were advised to arrive on site an hour early yesterday. I was sick last week so it was nice to get some extra time to re-acquaint myself with Unit 7. Alex and I shovel-shaved the east side of the unit then cleared away dirt between the stones of the newly named Feature #2 to articulate the stacking of the stones. While both sifting and digging, we found many pottery shards, several white porcelain with the same blue flower pattern. I look forward to getting a closer look at these pottery shards when we begin our time in the lab in two weeks. The other big discovery of the day was a sprinkler pipe/hose running east to west through the north end of the unit. We were unable to reach a conclusion as to whether the pipe runs underneath, or through, the wall.

The last day of the dig was definitely the most exhausting. It began easy enough, we just had to brush dirt off the exposed surfaces of Feature #2 and document the closing of the unit. We put down the drawing grid so I could sketch the feature. I would have liked to spend more time on the details of the drawing but the sun sets so early these days and we were pressed for time. For the last hour or so we scrambled to backfill each unit in the increasing darkness. In one frantic hour we were able to cover up the last two months of hard work. I will certainly miss the hopeful excitement of digging in unit 7.