Washing is done!

I type with pruny fingers…(ok, not really). This morning we finished washing all of the artifacts recovered from the excavations this season (and weeding out all of those mysterious lumps of things which, when washed, turn out to be just pebbles…), and tomorrow we can sort, identify, and re-bag the last of them. After that, we’ll label the glass, ceramic, and bone artifacts with archival ink to note which test pit and soil layer they came from so that they’re easy to keep track of during cataloguing and after. If you’re free tomorrow (Saturday) or Tuesday the 11th, come on by and help label! Have a great holiday weekend, everyone.

Scheduling

Washing of the artifacts is going well so far. As we found last year, we’ve recovered more coal than anything else – although there are some interesting ceramics and animal bone. A note on scheduling for this coming week: after this Saturday, July 1st, the next day of work here at the Gage House will be Tuesday, July 11th, and our absolute final day for this season will be Friday, July 14th. Where did all the time go??

Test excavations are done!

I’m happy to report that we completed the final STP for this summer this morning – thankfully, the rain has held off so far today. The last STP was placed under a pin flag left by the Fort Drum survey crew to indicate the path of the linear anomaly that was found during the soil resistivity testing. This means, in a nutshell, that a buried, unknown feature that cuts diagonally across the back yard conducts electricity in a different manner than the soil around it – although we didn’t know before digging whether this was a wall or ditch, etc.

In excavating the STP placed here, we ultimately found a level of soil densely packed with gravel, and under that, a layer of reddish brown clay – this is likely the anomaly identified during testing. However, as these layers covered the entire bottom of our test pit, we can’t definitively distinguish it as either the linear feature or a generalized layer. We didn’t find any artifacts below the second level of this test pit, and the gravel and clay layers at the bottom of the pit could be intentionally placed fill, a (natural) drainage channel, or something else. The only thing it definitely isn’t is architectural – we had speculated that it might have had something to do with the retaining wall we know ran along Walnut Street during the 19th century, although the anomaly’s placement made this unlikely. Images of the soil resistivity survey and the test pit are here.

Now that the digging is done for this summer, work will forge ahead on processing the artifacts we’ve recovered and using the available historical documents to help make sense of what we found. Stay tuned…

Second week update

This past Wednesday through Saturday was very productive (thanks, volunteers!), and we’re just about finished with the test excavations for the year. We finished out the remainder of the test pits initially planned for this summer, and added three more – one along the driveway (to see if that area of the yard is full of intentionally-placed, sterile fill – which it is), one just behind the oldest portion of the house (to see if the sheet midden reaches the house – it doesn’t quite), and one about halfway between these other two, to investigate a linear anomaly that showed up in the remote sensing testing done by the Fort Drum team back in April (haven’t finished excavating that one yet).

On Wednesday, as the previous post said, we had a great visit from a local group of homeschoolers, and then on Friday, Melissa & Zach, new volunteers, spent the day with us. Also that afternoon, the DeAngelos stopped by to continue surveying the property and gave me a lesson on how to set up, operate, and break down their total station. Saturday was the last official day of excavations, as well as our public open house (the site is always open to the public, but this time we advertised in the local paper and had a few more things on display than usual). Turnout was fairly light, but that way Blythe, Vicky, and I had plenty of opportunity to talk with those people who did stop by. This week I plan to finish excavating the last test pit (looking for whatever that linear anomaly is – buried wall, path, drainage channel, etc.) and we’ll keep whittling away at the pile of artifacts needing to be washed, identified, bagged, and cataloged. It’s a good thing, too, that we’re about done with excavating – as this week’s forecast includes daily thunderstorms and rain showers… I put up a few additional photos here. Come help us wash artifacts this week!

Site visit and newspaper article

While I’m temporarily stuck inside due to thunderstorms, a quick update:
Yesterday, we had a wonderful visit with a group of local K-6 students and their parents. Vicky, Hannah, Rosey, and I talked with them about archaeological methods, and the students helped us screen soil and wash artifacts. Some photos of the visit are here.

Also – in today’s Post Standard Neighbors East newspaper section, we’re on the front cover! The story is by Jim Read, who spent time at the site with us last week. It’s available online as well, without the photos, here. (Note to self: keep joking asides to myself when talking with a reporter!)

First week update

On Saturday, we completed our first week of excavations this summer – and it was a very productive week. We started this field season with a projected seventeen shovel test pits to excavate (those which we didn’t have time to excavate last summer), and between Monday and Saturday, we completed fifteen of them. Thankfully, the previous week’s rain made excavating easier, and the weather (for the most part) cooperated with us as well. This week, we’ll finish up the remaining two test pits and add in a few more in areas of the yard where I’d like to have more information, and also based on the results of the ground penetrating radar and electrical resistivity testing done by the Fort Drum Cultural Resource Managment team in April. We’ll be out digging tomorrow, Wednesday, through Saturday – and Saturday will also be our big public site Open House and likely our last digging day. After that, we’ll be focusing on washing, identifying, and cataloguing the artifacts we’ve recovered. Thanks to Ed, Rosey, Vicky, Ralph, Barbara and Gordon for all of their help during this first week. Come by and see us!

A few photos are here.

Summer 2006 excavations

Well, this blog is sorely overdue for an update… Summer is once more upon us and I’m now in New York to get things underway. The Gage Foundation has moved out of the Gage House, to a house very close by at 109 Walnut, so that the restoration work can begin this summer. Things are changing, and it’s exciting to see that the Gage House is moving towards becoming a spruced-up historic house museum. The new Gage Foundation space at 109 Walnut is also the location of the Library of Feminism – which is in the process of being set up – started by the Foundation as well.

Tomorrow, Monday June 12th, will be our first excavation day for this season. We only have a few more shovel test pits to excavate before I can write up the report for the Gage Foundation and the NY State Historic Preservation Office, so this month-long season will include less digging and more lab work than last summer. Thanks to all of the volunteers who have already signed up – both new and returning faces from last summer – and special thanks to Barbara & Gordon DeAngelo and the Beauchamp Chapter of the NYS Archaeological Association, who are letting us borrow their field equipment for our work.

See you in the yard!