2011 Day 2: Rain Day

As expected, we were rained out today.  It was the first time in many, many years that we lost a day due to rain.  So far this is our progress:

But, the rain turned out to be a blessing because it provided us with an opportunity to look at the artifacts that were conserved during the past year by DATA Investigations.  Several items from the 1939 and 1959 excavations were removed from the display case on the second floor of the Jabez Howland House to be treated after years of continuous display.  Some of these items include a fish hook, a key, a spur, and an ox shoe.  Here are some pictures of other items that went through the conservation process and are now back on display in the Howland House.

This is a toy plate with two fish.  It is about the size of a silver dollar.  The fish weren't visible until after conservation.

 

The famous Howland Spoon

Howland Spoon reproduction.  Copies of these are available for sale at the Howland House.

This interesting piece is a pocket sundial.  It was only identifiable after treatment. 

Additional items were removed from display this year to go through the treatment process.  They will be returned to the Howland House in 2012.

Tomorrow, we will be back out working at the site.  Hopefully, the weather will be more cooperative!

August 17: Dig Day 1

Today was the official beginning of the dig. We arrived bright eyed and bushy tailed at 8am to discover that some local kids had vandalized the site overnight. We had mistakenly left some of our equipment behind, namely saws and machetes, and they used them to chop down some of our precious shade trees and destroy the plastic sheeting we use to cover the units. Then they ran off with our machetes. Needless to say, this was extremely angering. However, the Kingston police were notified and they will be driving by frequently after hours. Hopefully, this is the last we will hear of the vandals.

Our poor shade!

We had a good sized crew today. Most of us were regulars, but we had a couple of new faces this year too. Welcome to Leslie and Melanie! Six units were opened today with the hope of tracking down those cellars. Two of the units seem promising at this point since there is a lack of cultural material and rocks in the soil. But, we will see. Ray and Marcia seem to have come across more of the midden from last year, so they found the bulk of the artifacts today including nails, wine bottle glass, a pewter button, ceramics, pipe bowls and stems as well as animal bone. Sarah found a piece of Westerwald ceramic in her unit. Jonathan claims the prize for best artifact of the day with his possible spoon knop (end of the handle).

Excavating the units

Ray and Marcia's Midden (its there, trust me)

Jonthan's Spoon Knop

Of course we ended up on the hottest week of the summer. For the sake of everyone's health, we decided to adjust our hours from 7:30 to 3:30. They are calling for temperatures past 90 tomorrow...sigh. Hopefully, we will find something cool to make up for our suffering.

Day 2

The group at work
Michael helps take unit elevations
Derek excavating in one of the units near the feature
Jonathan at the screen

Some artifacts from Richard's unit

Today we began the excavation. We opened up five units that surround the feature which was uncovered last year (Image 1) exposing an area of 225 sq. ft. By doing this, we hope to get a better understanding of what the feature is. At this point we have found that it extends in an irregular way, which is frustrating because we still can not yet tell what it is. It is possible that we have finally found where Deetz and his team excavated in the 1960's, or perhaps we have uncoverd an 18th century midden from a time after the Howland occupation, or maybe it is in fact something left behind from a building foundation. With regard to artifacts, we did not discover anything particularly noteworthy today. Richard displayed a typical selection of artifacts on his screen (Image 5 - wrought nails, window glass, ceramics, shell, animal bone, and pipe bowls and stems.) We hope to find something more diagnostic in the days ahead. While artifacts are exciting, the main priority is to figure out what the feature is. The investigation continues tomorrow. Stay tuned!