Kaitlin East

Week 1 (Sept. 12, 2011):

Monday September 12, 2011 was the first Meeting of the ARCH1900: Archaeology of College Hill Course for the Fall Semester 2011. After meeting both our professor Jessica andour TA Muge, and going over logistical concerns, we had a brief lecture. The lecture consisted mainly of backgroundinformation on the John Brown House and the individuals who had, throughout itshistory, owned it, lived there, and made renovations to it. Once we had an understanding of the differentpersonalities that had shaped the area in which we are to excavate, we wentover previous years’ excavations. Wediscussed the locations of previous years’ units as well as the artifacts foundin each area and the result of remote sensing in the area.

After finishing our lecture, we headed out in to thefield. After acquiring our tools fromthe Chariot House, we received a quick tour of the site, stopping at previousyears’ units and discussing the potential of other areas. The first units we discussed were units 2 and10 located along the fence parallel to Charlesfield St. These were chosen based on remote sensingthat discovered a large anomaly in the area along with historical maps thatshow the Hale-Ives House located in that area before it was destroyed. While neither unit has yielded a wall of theHale-Ives House, as was expected, there were some interesting finds. The unit we will be working on will be abouthalfway between the 2 past units, along a straight line between them andwas chosen in an effort to find some foundation walls of the Hale-Ives Houseand the fact that the historical maps, which differ in detail seem to overlapin that area. This is the unit I havedecided to work on. The second area we toured was unit 11 from last seasonwhich uncovered part of the wall. Wewill continue excavations in this area as well in an attempt to discover thedepth of the wall and hopefully the date of it construction. The last area we toured was in the center ofthe lawn and was chosen because of anomalies on the maps from the remotesensing. It has been suggested thatthere may be a fountain in this location or at the very least evidence of thedrainage system used by John Brown which was considered quite excellent. After the tour, my group along with Mugeheaded over to our unit where we proceeded to set up a 2m x 2m square, clearaway the branches, label the new unit as 13, label our first context, and photographthe topsoil. We also each gave a briefdescription of our reasons for choosing the placement of the unit which wererecorded b Muge. Next week we hopefullystart excavating and we will see what we can find.

Week 2 (Sept. 19, 2011):

This week we received a tour of the John Brown House, theresidence whose front lawn we are planning to excavate. We met at the house which is on a hill abovethe excavation area and were shown into the building and seated in a backroom. This room proved to be theoriginal area for holding firewood for the property and was currently beingused to store an elegant carriage that was used by John Brown and may have evenbeen ridden in by George Washington. It is also believed to be the oldest Americanmade vehicle still in existence. After abrief video outlining the career of John Brown and the history of occupation atthe house, we began our tour.

We were first informeda bit about John Brown and the slave trade about which he often argued with hisbrother Moses. We were also able to catch a glimpse of the extensive collectionof items from the Orient that John received as a result of his mercantileexcursions in China. We then made ourway into the butler’s pantry where we got our first look at the renovationsmade by Marsden Perry in modernizing the home. There was a copper sink, a refrigerator, and warming plates. Once in the dining room we were educated onthe re-creation of the rooms in the house. Many of the items did not actually belong to any of the former inhabitantsbut instead were from the same time period and style or like the wallpaper wereremade to look exactly like the wallpaper that had been there at the time theBrown’s owned the property.

After passing through the dining room and looking at a modelof the home, we were then shown the two parlors. These were remodeled in thefashion of their original decoration by John Brown and were suggested to be aformal and informal parlor, the informal parlor perhaps being used as a sittingroom in the mornings as one of the daughters mentioned in her diary that it washer favorite place to sit in the morning. On the second floor we were shown thebedrooms. One was recreated as a sickroom, one as a nursery, and one as the bedroom of John Brown and his wife. The top floor contained more bedrooms and acollection of ornamental artifacts.

In all the tour was quite wonderful, allowing us to see whatthe lifestyle of the people we are hoping to learn about may have been like andperhaps even allowing us to gain a bit of insight into theirpersonalities. By seeing the home it isalso easier to understand the changes that had been made to it overtime,including the addition to the back, and the bathrooms, and electricity. The tour really helped me get an idea of theman and his family that were responsible for building the home and will hopefullyhelp me contextualize whatever I find more successfully.

Week 3: (Sept 26, 2011)

Today was our first full day of excavation. At Unit 13, a 2m x 2m unit alongCharlesfield St, we took new pictures of context 74. We had to take new pictures because ofconfusion about the numbering of the units last week. This unit had been previously identified asunit 14 and so for the sake of minimizing confusion we took pictures with thenew unit number and recorded both the new unit number and photo numbers. Context74 consisted of the topsoil and sod and we filled out contexts sheets recordingsoil color and texture, as well as the location of the unit, and the weatherconditions of the day.

With the preparation finished, Ground Penetrating Radar was employed in thearea to attempt to discover any anomalies beneath the ground surface and sodirect the excavation in the most promising direction. From our historical mapsand past magnetometry we know that the Hale-Ives is supposed to be in this areaand that there is an anomaly but the radar is being used to gain a more nuancedand detailed picture of the anomalies present in the area. The instrumentconsisted of an element that slid across the ground, a wheel, and a screen andwas dragged across the ground in 40 meter lengths at 25 cm intervals thattraversed that entire end of the site. The instrument made large swings around trees because trees reflect amagnetic signature from both their branches and their roots resulting inseverely distorted images.

After the GPR survey was completed excavationbegan. Soil was removed in about 5 cmdepths and sifted over a tarp. Because this first layer consists of topsoil, itis full of roots that are incredibly difficult to remove and there are also alot of small rocks, one of which was deemed interesting enough to be placed ina plastic artifact bag. The digging wasslow going because of the roots and so only a small part of the underlying soilalong the edges of the unit was revealed. Next week, once the initial layer hasbeen cleared it should be easier going and excavation may continue morequickly.

Week 4: (Oct 3, 2011)

Today we continued our excavation of unit 13 in theNorth East Corner of the John Brown House Property in search of the foundationsof the Hale Ives House. We began the dayby removing the tarps, heavy with water, from the other units and then got a chanceto look over the Ground Penetrating Radar results. The images suggest that unit 13 is placedover a roughly rectangular feature. The anomaly,however, was only about 50 cm below ground and so is unlikely to be very old andis more likely to be of a more modern origin. The image also shows, deeper down and to the west, a series of anomaliesforming a roughly square feature. Wehave decided to open up a 3m x 1m rectangle in that area to determine the natureof the those features.

Back at Unit 13 we continued to shovel shave thearea and contend with the thick roots. In screening the removed dirt we came across a penny from 1940. After about 5 cm we began to notice an increase in the amount of gravel in the South-East corner of the unit. This was coupled with a slightly darker andmore clayey soil in that area as well. There also seemed to be small patches of a more orange soil within thedarker soil that we determined were most likely the result of biologicalprocess such as decomposition in the soil. Once we recognized that there wassomething new in the unit we decided to start two new contexts, one for thesoil that is the same color and texture as the top soil and one for the soilwith a larger amount of gravel. We thenexposed as much of the gravel as we could and worked out from it in order tolocated the boundary of the gravel. Afterlocating the boundary (and a nail) we shot the point into the total station andrecorder them in our context sheets along with pictures and a flip video. Hopefully we can move quicker next week andmake some more progress towards determining the nature of the anomaly on the GPR results.

Week 5: (Oct 17, 2011)

Last week the unit was worked on by other individuals atcommunity archaeology day. They managedto take the unit down a few centimeters while looking for the border betweenunit 77 and 78. In unit 77 they began touncover some large rocks that may indicate a new context beneath 77 that mayalso continue under 78.

As a result of this possible new context we decided thisweek to begin by continuing to search out the borders of context 78 thatcontained gravel and leave 77 alone. After delineating the border for sure we decided to attempt to determinethe extent of the depth of the gravel. Because the layer seemed extensive weused shovels to take off a few centimeters at a time. As we went further down, the gravel becamemore concentrated and at times our shovels were full of only smallpebbles. However, after a few centimeters,we began to uncover slightly larger rocks.

At the same time as larger rocks began to appear we alsobegan uncovering artifacts. We were ableto uncover numerous nails, some bricks, a piece of what appears to be shell, asmall piece of slipped pottery, and a curved piece of metal. We decided to continue through some of themedium size rocks and came upon even larger stones in the middle of theunit. The first one that was uncovered wasright on the border of the two contexts and the ones that followed continuedalong the border, in what seems to be a linear arrangement. As of now it is unclear what this feature maybe, but it is possible that it corresponds to the anomaly seen on the GPRresults. The possibilities could be apath, a wall, or a construction pit full of refuse. Our next task is to continue exposing thisfeature and then to work down in unit 77 to see if it contains the samecharacteristics of unit 78 or if the two sides of the feature remains distinctcontexts.

Week 6 (Oct 24, 2011):

Today, we continued our excavations in unit 13. We startedout cleaning up context 78. This was thecontext with the large amount of gravel and possible large rocks in a linearformation. We decided to continue working on the unit to even it out anddetermine if there were any other large rocks in the area. During this process we discovered a few morenails, and one very large nail which we shot in using the total station. This long nail was found in relatively thesame area as the piece of metal we recovered last week. We also found some interesting soil stainsbut determined that they were not worth sampling as another team at theexcavation had sampled similar stain and because it was associated with a largeamount of roots and is so unlikely to be of human origin.

After evening out 78, we decided to move onto 77 todetermine if the large rocks we saw on the surface and the more reddish soil continueddown or if the gravel from 78 continued under 77. We would also like to determine a clearerboundary between the two units sow e will not be leaving a balk betweenthem. We began with a quick scraping ofthe trowel to determine there were no immediately recognizable differences insoil or inclusions and then we sketched the unit. Afterwards we took shovels to the unit totake it down until we could determine there was a new context. We began to comeacross some medium sized rocks and more different color soil. We were havingtrouble with the shovels because of a large amount of roots and some of thebigger rocks so at times we decided to use trowels. We have yet to find any artifacts in thiscontext. It seems clear that we do havetwo different contexts here and hopefully in the next few days we may determinewhat the relationship is between them and what they can tell us about thehistory of occupation at the site.

Week 7 (Oct 31, 2011):

This week we continued working onunit 13. We focused on context 82 andare trying to get down to a new feature as quickly as possible considering thatwe only have one more day of digging remaining. Unfortunately because of a large amount of roots and some large rocksusing shovels has proved to be ineffective. As a result we are mainly using trowels in an attempt to dig around amajority of the larger stones so that we may leave them in situ and determineif there is a similar arrangement as in unit 78. As we went down we discovered anincreasing number of large rocks and as we began to move towards unit 78 todetermine where exactly the border was between the two units. We are still in the process of taking unit 82down as far as 78 and removing the wall between them but there seems to be similarshaped rocks in both units though in 78 they are in the SW corner and in 82they are in the NW corner while there are no big rocks between the twoconcentrations.

We have recovered a number of smallfinds from unit 82, including a few small pieces of brick and some nails alongwith a small piece of metal, although they are in far smaller quantities thanin unit 78. We have also recovered an interesting neon orange substance thatwas not present in the other context. We took a soil sample of it and arewaiting to determine what it is. We havealso come across a large piece of iron that is roughly a half-moon shape and isabout 8 inches long. We shot it in usingthe total station so that we know where it was and how it related to both theconcentrations of rocks we are uncovering and the possible linear feature inthe middle of the unit. Next week wewill continue to take this level down until it is the same as context 78 to determinewhat the relationship is between the two units and if they are two separate unitsat all, as well as to discover the nature of the linear rock feature in themiddle of the unit.

Week 8 (Nov. 7,2011):

We have continued in unit 13 context 82 this week. Our focus was again on context 82 as we aretrying to determine where the next context begins, and we are continuing toeven out the context. We have decided tocontinue beneath the rocks as they do not show any relationship to each otherand so probably do not indicate a feature. With the light fading earlier, wewere unable to get as much done as usual and the large rocks made excavationeven more difficult.

Regardless of the obstacles we are continuing to come acrossa large number of artifacts. Mostly weare encountering nails as we did in context 78 though they seem to be ingreater concentration in context 82. We are also finding some small pieces ofglass and ceramics. In addition to thesesmall finds we are coming across a huge amount of iron pieces. It is often to difficult to discern theirshape or function because the pieces are often small and thoroughly degraded.However, we have often come across a few larger pieces including a large nailand a piece that is roughly rectangular with one flat edge and one edge with awave like or ripple pattern. We alsocame across a small metal cross with some pattern on it. Brick fragments were also incredibly numerousand so we did not collect many.

Next week will be our last week of digging and since we havefinally come across some major artifacts hopefully our luck will continue andwe can find more before we have to backfill the unit.

Week 9 (Nov. 14,2011):

This week we worked in both context 82 and the neglectedunit 78. Because it was our last day ourgoal was to get down as far, as fast as we could to determine the concentrationof artefacts and the nature of the possible linear feature in the middle of theunit.

We began with shovels again in context 82. Because of the water that got into the unitthe top layer of soil shifted a bit and some stains from iron pieces werevisible on the surface. As a result, wecame across an iron ring right away, before we even began excavating. The iron pieces kept coming in context 82after that. Most of the pieces wereunrecognizable lumps but Valerie found a liner piece that had a z shape exceptwith right angles. We also came acrosswhat might be a fish hook while attempting to wage war against the roots andpiece of glass was also found

I moved to 78 after a little while to see if we could getbeneath the gravel layer and determine what the linear feature actuallywas. I found a great many nails in theNE corner of the unit and some large rocks that may be in a line in the SEcorner though they are obstructed by the wall of our trench so it is difficultto say what they may be. Along with afew other small chunks of metal we found a lot of pieces of brick of twodifferent types. Both the nails and thebricks were also found interspersed within the linear unit, but upon furtherexpectation the linear feature may have been a product of our excavationmethods instead of being a feature. Although there are a few large stones inthe area it remains to be seen if there are any beneath them and many of thesmaller rocks that made up the rest of the feature were arbitrarily left insitu leading to the belief that there may be a feature there. As the light was fading we also removed the 2big brick fragments in the context and they both contained a part of a maker’smark. They are the same color and may be fragments of the same brick which I amsure will be investigate in the lab next week .