Morgan Albertson

October 1, 2012. Mapping and Survey.

This past Monday was our first day in the field where we completed preliminary mapping and survey exercises for our archaeological project on the Quiet Green. I was part of the mapping and planning group that worked with the total station. I have little experience using a total station but quickly learned it’s a complicated electronic instrument used in various survey activities to locate points in space, create a grid, and measure distances and other landscape features. While a temperamental and complex machine, it plays a major role in bringing accuracy and organization to our project.

Our first task was to set up the total station on the corner of Prospect St. and College St. at a predetermined spot, the coordinates of which are recorded by the city of Providence and marked by a pink circle. The set-up requires various steps of leveling the machine and the tripod it sits on, turning on the machine, and selecting the ‘job’ on the data collector. Once this was done, I walked up the street a couple of blocks to the back sight point on the sidewalk, marked by another pink circle, and held a prism rod so that the total station could shoot the point. This step is necessary to locate the total station in space and give it a grid to work on. We were then able to check the datum point that Alex has previously marked on the sidewalk between Manning Hall and University Hall. We then set-up the station at this spot, walked over to Hope College and marked off a 1m by 1m trench with nails and flags, where we will potentially excavate. Joey then stood at each corner with the prism while we used the data collector to collect the coordinates of each corner. We now will be able to know the exact location of this trench and map it on the computer. Finally, we used the total station, in somewhat of the reverse way, to find the two potential corners of the President’s house where we hope to open trenches. Alex already had the coordinates of these corners from laying an old picture over a current map. At this point the total station was acting up (typical computer problems) but ultimately it tells us where the point is in terms of angle and distance from the instrument. With these corners marked, we should be able to manually mark off 1m by 1m trenches. Throughout the process we were taking notes about what we were doing and sketching the various points marked.

While frustrating at times, the total station is absolutely necessary for us to precisely locate the president's house as well as keep track and manage our activities at Hope College. Using the total station highlights how much actual reasoning, planning, and methodology goes into surveying and excavating, we are not just arbitrarily digging! I look forward to our work in the next couple of weeks and learning such specific skills. Being so close to the basement window and staircase, the trench next to Hope College should yield some interesting artifacts.

October 15, 2012. Excavation- QG #1 Hope College

Today I was part of the excavation crew and worked on opening up our first trench located next to Hope College. We began by marking off the outer edge with twine attached to the nails in the ground so that our 1 meter x 1 meter trench would be exact, however we only had to do this for the western edge because it has no building wall or step for a boundary. We then took a photograph of this ‘opening phase’ with a scale bar and information board placed in the shot. The next step was to remove any debris such as leaves and twigs from the surface. This upper most layer was a part of ‘context 1.’ We also took a ‘closing’ shot when we were done with each context. Then we used trowels, shovels, and dustpans to slowly clear away the topsoil; this layer was ‘context 2.’ While many people believe archaeology to be about just ‘digging,’ there are specific techniques to follow, which Linda pointed out. It is important to scrape towards yourself and be aware of other excavators nearby. The soil we collected was placed in buckets and then screened for artifacts. Finally, when we were done excavating for the day we recorded the levels of four of the corners and the center of the trench to see how far down we had dug, which ended up being approximately 4 or 5 centimeters, but the total station numbers will be exact.

Our other main task today was proper recording. We had excavation forms and a photo log to maintain. The photo log was pretty straightforward and used to keep track of the photos we were taking at the beginning and end of each new context layer. The excavation form kept recorded information regarding artifact bags, context sketch, and field notes. One thing I found interesting and useful to see in practice was the emphasis placed on recording who is involved with the excavating and recording for each context. While it may seem trivial it will be helpful when we have questions in the future about these layers and can ask the specific people who worked on them. It seems like we will have a lot of paperwork to go through at the end of our excavation and I’m curious and excited to see how we make interpretations or produce any conclusions from this very technical process.

One last note about what we were finding today. For the most part, we found a lot of glass but also small pieces of ceramic and brick pieces. We collected the glass and ceramic and placed them in labeled bags for each context. We also had a few special finds such as a possible bullet casing, a nail, and a penny. What we found seemed pretty predictable for a college campus however the volume of material was a bit unexpected. There seems to be quite a bit of activity on the quiet green and hopefully this is true of lower/older layers! It was great to finally get my hands dirty today and I look forward to the coming weeks. I'd say already, although tentatively, that this is going to be a productive spot.

October 22, 2012. Excavation Continued and Survey Points.

It was our third day of excavation today and the project has really started to take shape. One team continued with troweling through the contexts of QG1 while another team opened a new trench a few feet away from the building, almost directly in line with the stairway. This is an interesting place to excavate because it lies in front of what was once the main entrance, therefore a spot like this would have been subject to heavy foot traffic leaving and entering the building via an old path. This place of higher use will potentially yield some interesting artifacts and hopefully we will expose part of the old pathway. While these two groups were excavating, Eddie and I were in charge of taking survey points.

We began by setting up the Total Station, which requires leveling the legs, platform, and machine itself. We then located the station in space by back sighting to a point, recorded by the city of Providence, on the corner of College Street and Prospect Street. Eddie held the stadia rod while I focused the machine and shot the point. For some reason today, the total station was having a hard time shooting this point and kept coming up with a large margin of error. I’m not sure if it’s because of the gate that was somewhat in the line of sight or if the machine was just not leveled properly, but we had to try a couple of times to get our desired accuracy. However, once this was done, we were all set to start taking survey points of both the trenches. We began by taking the opening levels of QG2 context #1. In total, we shot four different sets of points for the excavation pits. Working with the total station was a bit frustrating today because the machine, more than once, could not measure the point and read “measure failed.” Alex was able to help us work through the issues so that the survey points could be taken. I now have an understanding of how sensitive the total station is and some trouble-shooting tools to help us in the future. While the total station some times seems like a detached process, where you’re not seeing immediate results, I know these survey points will be crucial in our final report. I’m curious to see how everything will come together and the role the survey points will play.

Throughout class I was able to participate a bit in the excavations. A lot of progress has been made in QG1, which ended with the exposure of some large rocks on the south edge of the trench. Excavating QG2 focused on mostly removing the topsoil. We found a few pieces of glass in this first context. While certainly a slow process, excavation has been really exciting and I’m curious what the next couple of weeks will reveal.

On a side note, I find it interesting how much publicity this class is getting. It goes to show that people become interested in projects if they have some kind of connection to it. Digging at on Brown's campus certainly reaches out to a wider audience.

November 5, 2012. Excavation and Total Station Continued.

After a slight delay because of Hurricane Sandy we were back on the Quiet Green this afternoon to continue with our excavation. Although the sun was out for most of the class today it is now November and the days are definitely getting colder and the sun is beginning to set earlier. While seemingly small things, these circumstances do have an effect on our fieldwork. Cold fingers make it difficult for recording and troweling! Regardless, it was great to be back in the field and we made some exciting progress today in QG #1 and QG #2.

Today Christina and I were in charge of the total station. We began by setting up the tripod and instrument, making sure that everything was level. Since it has been two weeks since we’ve been in the field, I was a little rusty with the specifics. There are so many small steps to getting the total station set up that it is easy to forget the sequence or exact maneuver of dial. Once the station was level and located in space we were ready to take points. Within the first hour, the excavators of QG2 started revealing an irrigation pipe, which is part of the sprinkler system on the green. We gently continued removing dirt from the trench until the majority of the pipe was exposed. Christina and I then followed the general angle of the pipe to locate the actual sprinkler or irrigation valve that this pipe was connected to. We found two plastic caps about 20 feet from the trench labeled irrigation. We then split up and Christina held the stadia rod while I recorded points into our notebook and ‘topsurv’ program of either end of the pipe in the trench as well as the perimeter of the two control valves. Finally, we ended the day by taking closing points for QG #1 context 6 and QG #2 context 2.

While subtle, there appears to be a few differences between QG #1 and QG #2 in terms of material we're finding and its density. While I have spent most of my time with the total station, I was able to excavate for a while in QG #2 and observe the excavations in QG #1 today. I was also able to screen the soils for both of these trenches as well. Thus far it seems like there is not as much material being recovered from QG #2 as there was when we first opened QG #1. There are only occasional glass or ceramic finds, whereas in QG #1 we were finding lots of small pieces of glass, brick, and ceramic. While it was brought up that posssibly the laying of the sprinkler line could have disturbed this area, Alex clarified that the process for putting in these lines simply requires a thin cut through the earth and so would not have much impact on the surrounding area. Another, possibiliy is that this trench is farther from the building and so not subject to material falling out of windows or dropping from someone exiting the building. Even though we started excavating QG #1 a week earlier, it seems appropriate to begin to start comparing and contrasting our finds and observations.

November 12, 2012. Excavation at QG1 and Total Station

Today was our fourth and possibly last day of fieldwork on the Quiet Green. There was quite a bit of progress made in both trenches. At the beginning of class, Christina and I set up the total station, however no points needed to be taken at this time so we joined our classmates to help excavate. I was excavating QG1 with Peter, Ariana, Caitlin, Chris Kim, and Linda. I had not helped directly or for an extended period of time in this trench for a few weeks now and was surprised at how deep this trench had become. I began by helping screen a few buckets of dirt from context 7. There was a large amount of small stones, pieces of charcoal and brick, and big chunks of slate. Scattered throughout this we found a few pieces of glass, two pieces of ceramic, and a piece of metal. The ceramic was thin with a shiny white glaze and blue glaze pattern. These are some of the most distinctive ceramic pieces we have found so far. The piece of metal had a lot of corrosion and we could not identify exactly what it was. These pieces were bagged with similar finds from context 7.

After these first few rounds of screening, I helped excavate the west side of the trench with trowel and dustpan. We cleaned up the edge so that it was as even and straight as possible. This was difficult because of all of the roots and larger pieces of rock jutting out from the wall. The dirt was quite moist today, most likely because of the snow and rain from last week, which made it sticky and hard to pick out material of interest in the trench as we were trowelling. These conditions make screening really valuable. While digging today, Peter found another piece of ceramic pipe. It was at least a half-inch thick and four inches by two inches with a dark red, purplish glaze. This is one of the bigger pieces I’ve seen from our excavation. We continued excavating context 7 until it got dark. We focused on leveling out the context and removing as much loose dirt as possible.

Christina and I ended the day by taking points for the closing of context 3/opening of context 4 for QG2. Then the closing points of context 7 for QG1.

Today was scheduled to be our last day of excavation however we might excavate this weekend to have a more intentional stopping point, not one dictated by the sun setting. Clearly we have time limits for our excavation however it will be nice to be really thorough and thoughtful about our stopping point. Next week we begin to analyze our finds from the field. We have found a lot of material and it will be interesting to start making connections between the material and incorporating the historical documentary evidence.

November 17, 2012. Final Day of Excavation.

Today was our last day of excavating QG#1 and QG#2. It was a beautiful sunny, warm day and we excavated from about 11am-3:30pm. I mostly worked in QG#2 where we were digging in context 4. The soil was very rocky, full of small pebbles, very moist, and a dark brown. We were making a lot of progress in terms of depth but were finding very little. Screening our buckets of soil revealed only a few pieces of glass. However, as we continued working we began to expose a number of large rocks. These rocks were mostly rectangular in shape and had smooth, flat surfaces. They were concentrated on the northern edge of the trench and mostly in the northwestern corner. They were all pretty much on the same level and were in line with eachother. The placement and looks of these rocks really does seem that we found an old path that came out from the western door of Hope College. After exposing and cleaning as many of these rocks as possible we took pictures and then closed context 4. We decided this was the best stopping point for QG#2.

At the end of the day we took survey points for the closing of QG#2 context 4 and the closing points for QG#! context 7. We also shot a bunch of points for the potential stone pathway.

Once all of the recording was complete and double checked. We filled in the trenches. First, we labeled two large plastic bags for each trench with the basic information of our excavation and then started piling in the dirt from our backfill piles. It was amazing how long of a process it was to excavate and get our trenches down to this level and then within a half hour they were completely filled in. Over the next couple of weeks we will clean and classify our finds as well as put together a final report of the work we have done this semester.