Overdue update

As it happens, today is rainy and I’m using this opportunity to write this long-overdue update on the excavations over the past two weeks.

First off – a day or so after the last post, a film crew from WSTM NBC Syracuse came to the site, and did a lovely story on the dig and the history of the house. It’s available online for viewing here.

On the 16th, Krissy headed back to California to get ready for classes to start again. I had a great time working with Krissy again, and I’m so thankful for her time with us – we got a lot done. In the end, she did find just about all of the fragments of the blue-and-brown-striped bowl, and it will be a beautiful piece for the Foundation to display in the museum once it’s glued back together.

I’ve spent a lot of time over the past two weeks excavating within the foundation, and (literally) getting to the bottom of it. It finally ended at reddish-brown compact clay subsoil at over a meter in depth, with most of the artifacts having come from the very top few layers of fill. Unfortunately, the pit under the foundation pre-dates it (as the pit undercuts the walls), and so we’re no closer to determining the foundation’s use than we were when we started. It doesn’t look like it was the privy after all.

We also opened up two units just outside of where the original kitchen door on the house was. This was one of the areas that until last summer had been covered by early twentieth-century house additions which actually protected the nineteenth-century ground surface. We found many artifacts on the ground surface last summer in this area, and opened up these two units to see what the kitchen-yard area was like. As predicted, we’ve found large amounts of artifacts in these units, likely having been discarded directly from the kitchen. We also came across the edge of a line of laid bricks in one of the units – we didn’t expose enough of it to tell exactly what it is, but it may be part of a path that led from the kitchen to the back yard.

Finally, we’ve also started a new unit directly outside of the french doors on the west side of the house that in Gage’s time, led to the formal garden. We’ve placed the unit hoping to catch any footing, etc. of the small deck and steps that led down from the french doors, but didn’t actually expect to find much in the way of artifacts because our other excavations in this general area in years past didn’t turn up much. To our surprise, we found a wealth of artifacts (albeit mixed up with modern debris probably associated with the construction/removal of the sun porch that covered this area until last summer) – including several buttons, a fragment from the head of a porcelain doll, fragments of a hair comb, and – our most exciting find of the day yesterday – an 1859 US penny, with a hole drilled in the top. The coin may have been worn as a charm or jewelry.

And that brings us up to today. This is the last week of working with volunteers for this summer; over the next two weeks I will be working to finish up the in-progress units before heading back to California myself. I’ll be on a somewhat irregular schedule over these next two weeks, but if you’re nearby stop by and I’ll show you what I’m up to. This has been a fun and productive excavation season, and I appreciate the fact that the rain has held off for the past few weeks after our rainy start!

As always, photos are here.

Enough rain, already!

We’ve had a productive week, despite the almost-daily thunderstorms. Last Friday, we were joined by our first new volunteer of the season, Carol, and we opened up a new unit new to the ones we had been working on, along the western edge of last season’s units. Right after lunch, we were rained out. We spent our time constructing screens to dry artifacts on once they’re washed. On Friday, we we were only able to put in an hour or two when the rain hit, and we spent the rest of the day washing artifacts. Saturday, though, was beautiful! We had several volunteers – Barb, who returned again to help (after working nearly daily during the first summer of STP excavating!), and the Hill family. We made quite a dent in the two new units by the end of the day.

After recuperating on Sunday and Monday, Krissy and I returned to the site yesterday to continue work. We started excavation of the interior of the foundation found last summer, with the hopes of determining the structure’s use, in addition to continuing work on the units from last week. We were able to put in a full day on Tuesday, but were rained out today in the afternoon.
While we’ve found that there is indeed a pit feature beneath the foundation, we’re not quite sure yet what it is, as the pit extends below the north and south walls of the foundation. I’ve posted a series of photos on the blog which show the layer-by-layer excavation of the interior of the foundation done so far. Check out those photos and others here.

Keep your fingers crossed that the rain is done!

Day 3

Today was another productive day, and we are nearly done with the unit we began yesterday. We returned this evening for the Foundation’s hosting of the Manlius Chamber of Commerce, and were on hand to show visitors the site and our most recent finds. Tomorrow will be our first day of this season’s work with volunteers, so it should be lively. More tomorrow!

Day 2

The equipment arrived! We were able to put in a good half day of excavating today, and had a great start. We opened up a new excavation unit, to the northwest of some of the units we opened last summer – just off of the southwest corner of the house. The two adjacent units were excavated last summer, where we found what appears to be 19th century trash related to the kitchen – including the yellow ware pie plate and ironstone tea/coffee service fragments currently on display within the Gage House. The new plan for the woodshed addition will be wider than it was initially planned – in order to keep the same square footage of the addition, without impacting with the foundation found last year – and this new unit is located approximately where the HVAC units for the addition will be located.

What we found in the new unit is similar to what we found in the adjacent units last year – below a thick layer of pea-sized gravel, we found numerous artifacts, including a wine glass or water goblet base; part of a crockery lid with a molded floral design; lots of glass – from windows, bottles, tablewares, and lamps; and part of what was probably a hat pin, with a harp at the decorative end (perhaps a symbol of Ireland?). Pretty good for our first day excavating! This shows us that this area of the yard has not been too disturbed by later yard uses, and helps add one more piece of the puzzle to our understanding of how the back yard as it currently looks came to be. We’ll be back out tomorrow, for a long day – 8-4pm as usual, plus we’ll be back on site for the Manlius Chamber of Commerce function held at the Gage House in the evening, from 5:30-7:30pm. In other news, News Channel 3 (NBC) will be coming out to do a story on the project next week. I should start prepping my tv poise…

First Day on Site

Today Krissy and I spent the morning getting equipment organized and checking on how the site weathered the winter. Units that we had finished completely were filled in at the end of last summer, but the area surrounding the stone foundation found was covered with plywood and tarps to keep it safe while we were gone for the rest of the year. Amazingly, when we uncovered part of this area, the ground was barely even wet – a considerable feat, given all of the rain we’ve had here this summer, and even just over the past week or so. I was half-expecting a muddy quagmire, but we just encountered a lot of worms, ants, and spiders that had taken up residence beneath the plywood. We brushed up the site to get ready for excavating, but after just an hour or so the rain started and we closed everything back up for the day. I’m still waiting on some of my equipment to arrive, so it looks like we’ll be able to actually start excavating on Wednesday morning.

Photos from this year’s work are posted on our Flickr page here.

Summer 2008 - Getting started

Well, August is here and we are getting set to start up excavations at the Gage House once again – tomorrow! This summer, we will be continuing the excavations that we started last year, concentrating on the area behind the house. We will be trying to figure out the function of the stone foundation we uncovered last July, excavate some additional units where the woodshed addition will be constructed, and excavate some test units along the west side of the house where the 20th-century house additions were removed last year.

For the next two weeks, Krissy Montgomery and I will be excavating – Krissy participated in the archaeological field school we held at the Gage House last summer, and now she’s back as a volunteer! Krissy & I will be excavating on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, with volunteers welcome on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays (please email me to schedule). I will be working on site at least through the end of August. This week will be a long one, as we’re getting started on Monday, and will be staying late on Wednesday to participate in the event held for the Manlius Chamber of Commerce on site. Monday and Tuesday will likely just entail us getting our equipment organized, the units from last year uncovered, and new units staked out. Hopefully on Wednesday, though, we will actually be able to start moving some dirt! Please come on out and see us – we may not be on site all day Monday and Tuesday, but the rest of the week we will be there from 8am to 4pm, so come on by! Cheers, Kim