2011 Day 4: Finding Cool Stuff

Today we accomplished quite a bit at the Jospeh Howland site.  Several of today's volunteers are from Plimoth Plantation and had participated in the 2010 excavation.  Before we got started, Derek explained to the group what had been done before and what we were hoping to accomplish this year.

We had a few more people than yesterday, so everything was moving pretty quick- much to the chagrin of our screeners. 

Its was a bit congested at the screens today.

But, it looks like we are in a good place.  This  year, we are hoping not only to find the large foundation stones of the structures, but also areas that were previously excavated in 1959 or 1969.  At the very end of the day, it looked as if we may have found one of the locations of the previous excavations.  Jane and Melody's unit had quite a few rocks, but once they moved the rocks and got down into the next level, a very interesting pattern in the soil appeared.

Don't see it?  How about this?

Back in the 1959/69 excavations the archaeologists left unexcavated spaces between each unit called a bulk.  The bulks at the Joseph Howland site are areas of dark soil surrounded by areas of artifact free, light colored soil.  By finding these bulks we are able to align our excavation with previous excavations.  This is very encouraging.

Of course, no excavation is complete without a few cool artifacts here's a selection of what we found today:

A buckle

A book clasp (like what you usually see on diaries today)

Neck of a medicine bottle

Pewter button.

And the star, a thimble!

Of course, with only a week to excavate we often need to expidite the process.  So, we untilize a technique called "shovel scraping."  Instead of digging straight down, we still dig as level as possible...with shovels instead of trowels.  It requires special care and some practice to get it right, but under a trained hand it allows us to excavate more quickly.

Michael Gi. demonstrates correct shovel scraping technique.

Here are some overhead shots from today:

From left:  Michael Go., Joanne, Muriel, Pam, and Anna

Eldon (white hat) and Jonathan dig while Brad (blue hat) and Jim supervise.

From left:  Dick, Betty, Randy, Tatiana, Dave, and Jan handle the screens.

While many of the volunteers are descendants of the pilgrim John Howland, the success of "The Dig" depends a great deal on all the other volunteers (and most especially the archaeolgists from Virginia) that particpate in the annual excavation:

Thank you, everyone!

From left: (Top Row)  Dick, Tatiana, Vicki, Bill, Anna (archaeologist), Dave (archaeologist), Michael, Jane, Derek (archaeologist), Mrs. Gorham and "Harry"
Bottom row:  Martha and Jim

Tomorrow is the last full day of excavating, so hopefully we will be able to answer several questions that still remain concerning the Joseph Howland site.

Only time will tell...

August 20: Dig Day 4

Emily and Jan sifting.


The large open area being cleaned.


The dark stain visible in this picture could be an indication of the previous excavation or a cellar foundation.

Once again we did not have any vandalism at the site today. Plus, the temperatures were much cooler than the rest of the week. We were very thankful on both points. We had one new volunteer join us today, Emily an intern from Plimoth Plantation, and it was a pleasure to have another zealous worker to help us finish. We opened up three more squares, one to the northwest of the main grid and two which extended the large open area further. None of them turned up anything significant with respect to artifacts, but the two added to the grid were able to show us more about what is going on. Unfortunately, it isn't showing us enough. There are many possibilities of what we are seeing. One could be that we are in an area that Deetz never dug, another could be that we are on a cellar and haven't gone deep enough to see the rest of the stone, or that this is indeed a section of his grid that he did not dig very deeply. Unfortunately, due to the make-up of the soil and our limited time here, we probably cannot make a conclusion about what we are seeing. That means, of course, we will be coming back next year! Tomorrow is backfill day, but maybe a light will turn on before we close up for the year.

Look Out! Derek Clears the Way

Scroll down for more!

Day 4

Richard is ready to go!
Ray and Jonathan discussing the new possible location of the cellars
The some of the artifacts ready to come up in Chris' unit

The Coca-Cola bottle fragment that answered one of our questions
First of all, apologies for the delay on yesterday's report. The internet connection was down until this afternoon due to the storm that passed through yesterday afternoon. Please scroll down to find out what happened.

We had a very productive day at Rocky Nook. Derek, Dave, Beth, and Jesse took another look at Deetz's map and decided that there might be a possibility that one of his datum points had been based off of the Joseph monument. So with machetes, clippers, and a chainsaw the group tackled more brush so new units could be opened up. Hopefully, within the next day or so we may find one of the cellars within those units. Ray who dug with Deetz as a child in 1968 came out to help today and it was great to have him on board. Meanwhile, two more units were put in near the area where the group worked four years ago with the hope they would yield more artifacts. Also, a quadrant was plotted out in the large block in order discover for certain whether or not we are looking at Deetz's old test units. After going down about a foot through the lighter, nearly artifact free soil the sterile sub-soil was reached. Sitting neatly on top of the sub-soil was a 1960's era Coca-Cola bottle fragment. This little bottle glass fragment definitivly answered the question of whether or not these were Deetz'z units. He thankfully left an "I was here" message for us in the bottom. We have been looking for an indication of Deetz's excavations for five years and we finally have one! So, tomorrow we will continue to explore the new units and most likely investigate some sections of the midden that were not excavated by Deetz in '68.