August 19: Dig Day 3

Richard and Beth hard at work.

Jonathan working on his third unit.

Good evening everyone. I'm pleased to report that we did not have any vandalism last night! Between the Kingston Police and Ray Sr. (a.k.a, The Admiral) we may have scared them off. Our spirits were much higher this morning because of that.

So, we were able to get to work right away. Today we opened 5 more units, thus opening the largest continuous area ever. We couldn't have pulled this off if it weren't for the help of all the volunteers. We are still in search of the cellars and the Deetz excavation area. Even though we have this huge area open, nothing is looking definitive yet. However, something always turns up on the last day. One highlight of the day was the discovery of a Westerwald rim and body sherd. It showed up just as we were getting ready to call it a day. It was also great to see Jan again after a couple years. She was definitely missed. We've got a great crew this year. Hopefully tomorrow, on the last day of digging for this year, we will find what we're looking for.

August 18: Dig Day 2

Today's Damage


So once again, the day dawned with the discovery of vandalism at the Joseph site! Today's damage was more severe than yesterday. They kicked holes in our screens, stole our rakes, yanked a rock out of one of the test units, pulled up all our string, and stomped around on Ray and Marcia's midden (thankfully, nothing significant was broken). The police came out again and took another report. They promised to do what they can to track the thieves. Hopefully, that will work out, but we're coming to the conclusion that this is going to be a daily frustration. Errr!




Alex, Pamela, Marcia, and Ray excavating their units.


Dave and Sarah Cleaning Their Unit

After we repaired the screens and restrung all the units we were finally able to get to work. It was another hot one today, so everyone was chugging the water and taking lots of shade breaks. Two more squares were opened today and we had a few more workers to get cracking on them. Ray and Marcia moved to this new location and it wasn't long before they were turning up more artifacts, notably a large quantity of nails. The cellars did not turn up today either, but Sarah and Dave found more midden that was chock full of artifacts including redware bowl sherds, copper banding, an iron strip, pipe stems and bowls, and animal bone. They also found a buckle.

The buckle in situ with redware sherds and brick.

Although we have not been successful in finding the cellars yet, we hope that the work tomorrow will shed more light on where we are located in relation to the work done in the 60's. That, of course, is our ultimate goal. We have three days left, so we all are feeling positive that this can be accomplished. In the meantime, we will be keeping our eyes open for those dastardly vandals.

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.