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Archaeology of College Hill 2012 - Home
Weekly Research and Fieldwork Summaries
Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology & the Ancient World
Brown University
Box 1837 / 60 George Street
Providence, RI 02912
Telephone: (401) 863-3188
Fax: (401) 863-9423
[email protected]
October 1, 2012
Today was the first day of our official excavation work. We began by dividing into two groups: fieldwalking and land survey. I was part of the fieldwalking group and our first task was to determine our pace length. In order to easily standardize distance between transects, each of us counted our paces to reach 5 meters; I walk an even 7 steps per 5 meters. After going over the various aspects of the Survey Unit Form, we formed a line, spaced 5 meters apart, and walked along our due east transects. My first transect was the most exciting of the day: I found a bottle cap and 74 pieces of glass (I postulate they all came from the same Nantucket Nectars bottle). We then gathered in the corner of our first Survey Area to record the data and line up for the next section. We continued until we had covered the entire Green. I did not operate a compass today, but I appreciated the chance to learn how they are used on survey operations.
The most difficult part of fieldwalking was navigating the orientation of the Quiet Green. Though we were walking due east and west, the Green is not oriented square to the cardinal directions. This was also difficult when I took my turn as Team Leader to record the data. I struggled to draw the map on the Survey Unit Form because the rectangle we were examining was at an angle to the Green as a whole. Other than some difficulty in drawing the map, I feel I completed my Survey Unit Form effectively. Each form requires an astonishing level of detail, but it is important to have all of the information for later analysis of data.
After completing a landscape survey for the entirety of the Quiet Green, we completed two complete/gridded surveys of the immediate surroundings of our first trench, near Hope College. In my Survey Area, we found some interesting material: a thermometer, a penny, broken glass, and some ceramics (I felt that finding ceramic material legitimized our excavation). We bagged the interesting material for later examination.
I look forward to opening our trench next week, and I’m extremely excited for the geophysical examinations for the President’s House. We also discussed taking cores of the soil earlier in the course and I am very interested in what we could learn from that experiment.
Quiet Green 1 Excavation
October 15th
Today we worked with Tommy Urban on the geophysical analysis of the Quiet Green. Specifically, we examined the area that we think contains the remnants of the President’s House.
To create the grid we would examine, we used the Pythagorean Theorem and the 3-4-5 triangle assumption to set up parallel lines which we would go between on our transects. Having a mixture of feet and meter measuring tapes made it a bit confusing but we were able to create the grid without much confusion.
After laying out the grid, we set up the equipment. Mr. Urban completed the first couple of transects to show us how it was done, and then I took over. The equipment consisted of a battery pack (worn around the waist), a computer screen (worn on a harness in front of the chest) and the antenna (dragged across the ground on a plastic protective sleigh). The antenna is about the size of a standard pillow with a wheel (and odometer) on the back. The antenna is dragged slowly by a handle in .5 meter wide transects and an image of the received data is displayed on the computer screen. The image is black and white, with squiggled lines and some hill-like shapes. The ‘hills’ are refractions from the signal, representing something in the ground that is of a different electro-magnetic composition, not an actual shape.
Each of us took a turn pulling the antenna, and we covered a substantial area. Mr. Urban will take the data we collected and analyze it with the associated software.
I also learned about how to operate a total station when we marked the final points of the area excavated.
I really enjoyed working on the geophysical survey of the president’s house! Working with such advanced technology was exciting, and I’m glad we will be able to use this data to more precisely excavate the President’s House.
Quiet Green 1 Excavation***
October 22
This week was my first week of digging-in-the-ground archaeology and I really enjoyed it! I was working with Caitlin and Peter of trench QG1. After cleaning off leaves that had blown in, we got to work.
We divided the trench into approximate thirds and started excavating context 4, scraping with trowels and then sifting the contents for non-dirt debris. I’m naturally very impatient, but archaeology is a great chance for me to try to be otherwise. In order to excavate well, we have to be methodical perfectionists, brushing away and picking up all of the dirt in each context.
In context 4, we found another bullet casing, glass, charcoal, nails, and some ceramics (sifting the material was probably my favorite part of the excavation process).
We then moved on to context 5, a collection of rocks on the south side of the trench. Most of material was larger rocks, but in the dirt we found some of the same objects as we found in context 4.
The process was slow moving and methodical, as I had expected. The protocol of photography, note-taking, sifting, bagging, total-station-measurement, etc. required our team to multi-task, double-check, and most importantly, to not rush.
I’m excited to continue excavating this area next week!
November 5th
Today I continued my work on trench QG1, working with Peter, Caitlin, and Chris K. We opened Context 6 (after clearing off leaves and other debris) and I was assigned the responsibility of filling out the excavation forms.
The soil was significantly influenced by the hurricane. It was much more moist than two weeks ago, and some topsoil had flowed in on top of what we had previously excavated. This soil had many more pebbles than in previous contexts, and we also found much more charcoal than before. We then closed Context 6 and opened Context 7, a slightly sandier soil composition. We closed in the middle of Context 7 once it grew too dark (and cold!).
The major finds from today’s excavation were a ceramic pipe (for water, not tobacco) and glass. Small pieces of ceramic were also found, but nothing was diagnostic.
This was the hardest day of excavation so far because it was so much colder than other days on the dig. It was a little disheartening to not find many objects in the soil, but I have high hopes for next week’s finds!
November 12
Today we continued our work on QG1. This work was very similar to previous digs, with the ‘finds’ occurring with less frequency, but many more pebbles and rocks. The pit is getting quite deep!
We worked on Context 7 for the entirety of the day. The soil is rather moist due to recent rain, and its consistency is a dense grayish brown. This context is full of pebbles and small rocks with occasional occurrences of charcoal. More and more of the white 'landscape rock' (as Caitlin has termed it) is appearing, and we continue to find small pieces of brick. Today, I think my favorite moment was when I sat in the trench to help remove some of the dirt; it was an entirely different view, and the trench is quite cozy!
I love the 'accomplished' feeling of sifting a large bucket of dirt. It's the moment that we are rewarded for our hard work of digging and sweeping, and I rejoice at fining each object! Though slate tricks me every time, I can tell I've gotten much better at picking out non-dirt-or-rock objects. This class, among many other benefits, has made us experts at the game "which of these doesn't belong?" by training our eyes to notice slight aesthetic differences.
I’m very appreciative of the warmer weather today—I’m glad our last official day was in the sunshine!
November 17th
Today was our bonus excavation day! I could only attend for an hour, but I’m glad I was able to have one more day in the trench (QG1). The pit is so deep that it was difficult to reach from the edge, but luckily Peter’s long arms were able to reach the bottom. While I was at the trench, we continued on Context 7, with the conditions much the same as last Monday (many pebbles, gray-brown soil, not many finds). We did find some glass to bag, as well as more pieces of the mysterious ‘pipe.’ I’m very interested in seeing what we are able to make of the pipe—is it in fact a pipe? Or a roof tile, as Caitlin has suggested? Perhaps in the lab we can reconstruct it or learn more about the material to identify its purpose.
I brought my friend Grace to the excavation, and she said that her favorite part was trowelling and looking for objects of note.
I’m sad to finish up the digging part of our archaeological experience, but I’m very much looking forward to fully examining all of our finds!
November 19th
Today was our first long session in the archaeology lab. I am on the team that processes the QG2 finds, and today we finished cleaning all of the objects. Some trends I noticed were: 1) The bulk of the material was found near the surface and 2) Most of the finds were made of glass. Then we organized the finds: cataloguing them, sorting the glass and ceramic into groups that we think might be related and making notes of the number of items in each category. Additionally, we labeled the drying racks to prevent any unfortunate mix-ups if bags were to be moved. I believe Chris also began photographing some of the items.
I also worked with Morgan on the Total Station data. I will be writing on the Landscape Survey and current uses of the Quiet Green for our final project, so our work today was to clean up the data and make sure the points are correctly placed on the map. Because of building interference, many of the total station points for the surface survey were quite far off. This makes me wonder how we know which points are accurate; what should we trust? Will all of the points we took of our levels be skewed? Are total stations inherently less accurate, and therefore less useful, for excavations near buildings?
To work on the total station data, we consulted the Survey data sheets. I only realized how important the accuracy of the maps was when I had to extract data from it—I think the maps I drew were some of the worst of the lot! One issue was the shape of our survey units. The hill and just-off-of-North orientation of the Quiet Green made our units non-square polygons. This made the maps difficult to draw, and therefore the points on the total station data difficult to place properly. Morgan and I did our best to make the data as accurate as possible, and I think we came up with fairly good results. Next week, we will plot the transects within each survey unit.
November 26
Today we continued our work in the Carriage House lab. I began by working with Morgan on the GIS files. We input the rest of the information from the pedestrian surveys, adding the transects and calculating the total distance walked. I will take that information to map out the distribution of finds by survey unit as a part of my final project. Morgan and I then determined which pictures to include in the final report.
After working on the GIS information, I photographed all of the items picked up from the intensive, gridded survey individually and as a group for possible inclusion in my final report. I then compared each item to the objects recovered from both trenches to see if the objects recovered above ground were possibly related to those found in excavations. I found no definitive connections.
Next, I assisted Caitlin and Caity in identifying some objects from QG1. My favorite moment of the day was in the process of identifying a mineral, when we did tests to determine the mineral’s Moh hardness rating. That information allowed us to positively identify it as Hornblende!
December 3rd
Today was our final long day in the Carriage House. Others were examining more objects and researching them, but I spent my time on the computer. After finalizing my outline and bibliography, I met with Linda and Alex to discuss it. Then I spent some time analyzing the survey data. I broke down some of the calculations and worked with Morgan on a map showing density of objects found. One of the first things I noticed was a higher concentration of objects near the edges of the Quiet Green. This leads me to believe that the facilities maintenance team concentrates their efforts on cleaning the areas that most students interact with: the center of the Quiet Green.
I’m looking forward to our presentations, but I’m also sad to see this project come to a close!