2009 Last Dig Update

Makenzie Hatfield '12 and Collin Hayes '12 show artifacts to site visitors

Field Experiences

W&L students have gained both breadth and depth in exposure to archaeological field methods during recent weeks. Techniques and artifacts that were complete novelties to them three weeks ago are comfortably familiar now. At Monticello’s Site 17, students assess nails (machine cut vs. hand wrought) and ceramics (pearlware vs. creamware) and rocks (slate vs. phyllite vs. greenstone) with a combination of casualness and expertise that can only come from solid understandings. And now that all students have completed a number of excavation quadrats – executing each task from stringing out the new unit to excavating and recording it – they marvel that tasks such as profile drawing that once took them most of a day now require only part of an hour.

Erin Schwartz '12, Kathleen Ninan '11 and Susan Payton '11 drawing the profile of a wall in a quadrat they excavated

Field Trips

Preservation Virginia archaeologist Jamie May shows a newly unearthed artifact to W&L students and visitors

Students have also enjoyed a pair of field trips to very different sites: Jamestown Island and Monasukapanough. The former is the well-known English fort established in 1607 and under investigation by Preservation Virginia; the latter is a seventeenth-century Monacan Indian village near Charlottesville, currently being excavated by University of Virginia archaeologists. W&L students were amazed by the volume, antiquity, and completeness of many artifacts from Jamestown – including nearly whole stoneware jugs excavated from a well (c. 1618-1611) on the day of our visit – and by the fine, loamy soil on the site of the flood plain at Monasukapanough. That sediment provides a marked contrast to the red loamy clay (or just clay) through which W&L students have been digging at Monticello’s Site 17.

Tyler Thompson '11 and Monticello archaeologist Don Gaylord watch Alex Massey '10 take site elevations using a total station

Today it rained and rained and rained.” Colin Hayes ‘12

The wet weather has been an interesting challenge for the W&L dig. Some days the rain was steady; other days it was unpredictable. One evening Ian Dexter ’12 noted in his journal, “Rain took our group by complete surprise when it erupted upon us at 2:00 this afternoon.” Other days have been sunny but still muddy from previous wet ones, as Aleisha Butler ’10 commented: “Today was dirtier, in its way, than yesterday. The mud had a life of its own.” Richard Hahn ’11 observed that the back dirt pile – where the screened soil goes – had become “sludgy and unpleasant.” Probably an understatement.

Richard Hahn '11 and Susan Payton '11 compare a sediment sample to a Munsell Color Chart

The students’ ability to maintain positive attitudes – even joking about sliding down the site’s slope and into each other while troweling their quadrats – is a great testament to them. The course professors have also been amused and gratified to hear the students making jokes that include archaeological topics such as Munsell numbers. Munsell color charts – used to describe soil hue, chroma and value – becoming familiar enough to serve as punch lines is a sure sign of a successful archaeological education.

Tyler Thompson '11 and Monticello archaeologist Don Gaylord examine an artifact

Finds

The dig has also continued to be fun and educational because of the artifacts that Site 17 keeps yielding. Little compares to the excitement of unearthing artifacts in the field, although several students have commented on the satisfaction of working with artifacts in the lab too. As Danielle Maurer ’12 put it one afternoon, “The best part of the day was our session cleaning artifacts in the lab. Lab work, while lacking the thrill of discovery inherent in field work, is very nice because one gets to see all the artifacts from the site, and to see them clean.”

Monitcello archaeologist Sara Bon-Harper considers a newly excavated iron artifact with Kathleen Ninan '11

Artifacts students have recovered from Site 17 recently include English ceramics such as creamware and transfer-printed pearlware, dark green (“wine”) bottle glass, colorless table glass – the most exciting being a large, cut stem from a glass – iron hardware (one likely being a hinge), lead shot, and copper alloy buttons. Sophomore Kathleen Ninan noted, “I found two more large pieces of Chinese export porcelain today. At first I was excited because I thought they might mend with the sherd I found yesterday, but it was even cooler to realize actually how different they all were.”

Visitors

As the field season begins drawing to a close, the number of visitors to the site has begun increasing. The site open house is Friday, May 22; people interested in visiting should notify Professor Alison Bell (434-760-3160 or bella@wlu.edu) or students enrolled in the class (who will pass the information on to Prof. Bell).

Visiting students from Faith Primary School in Waynesboro screening soil for artifacts

We were also delighted one afternoon to host kindergartners and first graders from Faith Primary School in Waynesboro, Virginia. Collin Neal said that “highlights of my day included a visit from a bunch of five year olds who helped screen some sediment. They kept handing me rocks. I thought it was cute so I just kept letting them do it but I felt kind of bad for their parents and teachers because all of their hands and clothing were pretty dirty from the nice wet clay!”

Aleisha Butler '10 shows an artifact to a visiting kindergartener

Week Two

 

Edmund Bacon’s house

Lots of artifacts to find

Archaeology!

— Kathleen Ninan ‘11

Tyler Thompson '11, Aleisha Butler '10 and Alex Massey '10 show other students an artifact they found

From 90-degree-plus Monday to cool-rainy Friday, this week was full of variety, and least of all was the weather.

W&L students continued excavating quadrats at Site 17 – hypothesized home of Edmund Bacon, Jefferson’s overseer – and also enjoyed time with artifact study collections in the Monticello Archaeology Lab. The diversity of artifacts they encountered in the field and lab was impressive and educationally enriching, as were the soils on the site. Students are seeing firsthand how much the colors, textures, inclusions, and depths of deposits can vary from one part of a site to another.

Here are insights from this week at Monticello in the students’ own words: some in prose from their journals and some rendered as haikus (the latter written for fun and for three bonus points on a quiz!).

Danielle Maurer with iron hardware

Finds in the Field

 Zero zero five

Right on the hot spot and thus

Full of artifacts

— Alex Massey ’10 on quadrat 005

Pocket knife unearthed at Site 17

Students this week continued to find wrought nails, window glass, olive green bottle glass, and ceramics such as creamware, pearlware, and Chinese export porcelain at Site 17. Other interesting finds included a pocket knife, partial horseshoe, and buttons. Thus far the artifacts generally seem to fit well with the time range (c. 1806-1822) when Edmund Bacon lived and worked at Monticello.

Some quadrats and contexts contain more artifacts than others, and first-year student Danielle Maurer ’12 commented that she “found it refreshing that quadrat 011 doesn’t have as many artifacts as 005. When every bucket has several artifacts you become somewhat inured to the thrill of discovery. Archaeology wouldn’t be nearly as exciting if every quadrat turned up amazing artifacts. The hit-and-miss, well-you-got-lucky quality is what gives archaeology some of its charm and excitement.”

W&L staff archaeologist/intructor Sean Devlin shows a copper alloy tack to Kathleen Ninan, Danielle Maurer and Susan Payton

W&L faculty and Monticello staff have been talking with students about the interesting variety of ceramics on site – including blue hand-painted porcelain, under-glaze painted pearlware with “warm hue” colors like deep brown, and mustard yellow annular creamwares. Sophomore student Susan Payton noted that she has been “contemplating what the variety of ceramics that have been found means for reconstructing the life that the overseer lived here. Is the variety of styles and designs a signs of the occupants’ keeping up with current fashions or that they simply enjoyed the variety? How many different vessel forms are we finding and what might that mean for the kinds of foods they ate, stored or served to guests?”

Monticello archaeologist Don Gaylord (left) and Richard Hahn '11 take elevations on site

Soils and Strata

I like dirt a lot

I daydream while I sift dirt

Look! I found a worm

— Colin Hayes ‘12

“I’m going to have good, strong peasant-farmer hands by the end of this dig.” — Aleisha Butler ‘10

In addition to learning to identify artifacts and generating hypotheses about them, students have continued developing their field techniques – including methods of establishing new quadrats, excavating them by troweling or “schnitting” (removing thin soil layers with a shovel), recording the information, and reading the soils for evidence of past human activity. Sophomore Kathleen Ninan in her journal: “Today we measured and strung out our new unit and started on the first context there. I improved my schnitting skills even though that’s a man’s job. Just kidding. But I really do think my digging techniques are improving and I can also tell the difference between soil layers much more easily.”

Erin Schwartz '12 holding the rod with prism to take elevations with a total station

Other students, too, commented on their progress in distinguishing sterile, undisturbed subsoil from contexts impacted by past people – an especially challenging task at this part of Monticello where plowing and erosion have moved red clayey soils horizontally and vertically. As Makenzie Hatfield ‘12 put it, “Our quadrat was deceiving. We thought we were almost finished with it this morning. Every time we thought it was time to stop because we’d found subsoil, we found something else. It was awesome!”

Their efforts resulted in the discovery of several browner, loamy stains in the red clay subsoil of several quadrats. Colin Hayes ’12 noted that Thursday “was pretty exciting and I experienced another first: at the bottom of quadrat 006, we found several brown stains cutting into red subsoil. Two of them are probably plow scars, and others might be holes dug for posts.”

Students consider brown soil stains in red clay subsoil

Lab Artifact Immersion

“Today was a day for artifacts, both in the ground and in the study collection.”–  Ian Dexter ‘12

Monticello archaeologist Karen Smith talks with Ian Dexter '12 about ceramics

To augment and reinforce field-based experiences with artifacts, students spent parts of several days this week in the lab examining labeled, mended and preserved artifacts. They agreed with Alex Massey’s (’10) sentiment: “The Monticello study collection is amazing! They have every conceivable  ware and decoration type in easy access for reference.” Though Monticello staff demurred that their collection is smaller than some others on the east coast, the porcelains, stonewares, earthenwares, metals, glass and “small finds” like buttons, buckles and toys are fabulously diverse and educational.

Karen Smith, Kathleen Ninan '11, Franics Cullo '12, and Makenzie Hatfield '12 in the Monticello Archaeology Lab

A student favorite is the lovely dendritic, foliage-like design appearing on some mugs and bowls in a chocolate-brown color – which was actually, they learned, a solution of tobacco juice and urine.

 Mocha slipware (nice

tree designs) sounds tasty ‘til

you ask what’s in it

— Susan Payton ‘11

Additional archaeological skills mastered: the art of wheelbarrow napping at lunch

Week One at Monticello

This week Washington and Lee University enthusiastically kicked off its Archaeological Field Methods course at Monticello near Charlottesville, Virginia. W&L archaeologists Alison Bell (W&L ’91) and Sean Devlin (’04) are collaborating with Monticello archaeologists to excavate Thomas Jefferson’s overseer’s site, c. 1806-1822. Thirteen Washington and Lee students are participating in the excavation and recording of this site. The journals they’re keeping provide invaluable snapshots of our experiences, and we’ll integrate their thoughts throughout these posts.

Don Gaylord (right) shows Ian Dexter '12 how to take elevations with a stadia rod and total station

Monday, April 20 Students checked into their spring digs: a gated apartment complex complete with volley ball court, a tri-level disappearing-edge pool, and tanning bed (!).

Tuesday, April 21 “Today was a learning experience to say the least.” Tyler Thompson ‘11

Tyler Thompson

Tuesday consisted of an orientation to archaeology and Monticello, beginning with a lecture by Dr. Fraser Neiman, Director of Archaeology, on archaeological means of reconstructing “The Lost World of Monticello.” Ms. Karen Smith, Curator of Archaeological Collections, introduced the students to artifacts that the Monticello crew had found at the overseer’s site the previous week.

Karen Smith, Kathleen Ninan '11, Susan Payton '11 and Collin Neal '11

Next we toured Jefferson’s house, and finally Mr. Don Gaylord, Archaeological Analyst, led us on a plantation tour through the woods to explain how Monticello archaeologists have used shovel test pits over the last decade and more (about 17,000 pits in all!) to identify additional sites. Reflecting on the day, Alex Massey ’10 commented that “despite – or because of, perhaps – the sun, the rain, the dirt, and even the tics, I’m super excited to truly begin our dig tomorrow.”

Alex Massey '10

Wednesday, April 22 “Today I saw a lot of dirt. Dirt with rocks, roots, leaves, and a few pieces of the good stuff. … What I’m realizing is that no matter how much I would like to call it all dirt, it has significance. The layers date and relate all the other objects trapped inside.” Francis Cullo ’12

Francis Cullo '12 writing field notes

On Wednesday we trekked down to the site, about as far from the “big house” at Monticello you can get and still be on Monticello property. The site is wooded and on a slope; Jefferson noted it on an 1809 survey, and Monticello archaeologists located it using shovel test pits in their plantation survey several years ago. This morning students broke into small groups, and each began work on a five-by-five foot quadrat. They learned methods of establishing the quadrat (using known points established by a total station, pull tapes, and the Pythagorean theorem), how to “shovel skim” (remove thin layers of soil), trowel, screen soil, look for changes in soil characteristics, and record key aspects of the quadrat including elevations and soil color/texture.

Richard Hahn '11, Erin Schwartz '12 and Colin Hayes '12 map their quadrat

We’ve emphasized the need for careful recording because excavating an archaeological site inevitably and irrevocably disassembles it. Kathleen Ninan ’11 observed: “I learned a lot about the methods used to keep records of each site, which were much easier to understand when we could actually see how each piece of data related to the site rather than just reading about it.” The effort involved to excavate and record sites properly is large, exacting, and deeply satisfying. Or as Collin Neal ’11 described his first field day and artifact finds: “I was really tired from working, but making a discovery was a great rush of energy.” And we did have some great artifact discoveries, especially on …

… Thursday, April 23 “This was the best day of class in college ever.” Richard Hahn ‘11

Richard Hahn '11 troweling quadrat

As per Monticello’s research design, we’re excavating the site this spring using a stratified random sample. This means that archaeologists establish a grid over the entire map of the site and choose quadrats within the grid to excavate based on a draw of random numbers. Because we’re aiming for objective testing at the site, quadrats are placed in areas of varying artifact densities, based on earlier shovel-test pit data, and students digging in different quadrats have encountered significantly different numbers of artifacts. Everyone will be rotated through the seemingly more- and less-artifact rich areas of the site during the course of the term. But students’ comments today – one from the most and one from the least productive quadrats – suggest how much they’re learning wherever they are:

“We found a ton of artifacts in unit 005 today! The big find was a sherd of Chinese export porcelain. We also found a good bit of hand-painted pearlware and shell-edge pearlware, a piece of glass that might have been part of a stemmed drinking vessel, and many nails, mostly hand-wrought. The pieces of brick and mortar point to the possibility that a brick-lined cellar or similar feature might have existed on this site.” Susan Payton ‘11

Danielle Maurer '12 with a sherd of Chinese export porcelain that she found

“One thing I learned today (and I think it may be the most important thing for the whole six weeks) is that you have two choices in archaeology, and it’s up to you to decide what choice you make. You can decide to be grumpy and moan about no artifacts, the work, etc., or you joke, keep up an optimistic spirit, and trek on. How you decide affects your entire experience.” Makenzie Hatfield ‘12

Makenzie Hatfield '12 at center and Aleisha Butler '10 at right

The Dig

“The Dig” — Washington and Lee University’s Archaeological Field Methods course — starts Monday, April 20th at Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s home near Charlottesville, Virginia.

Fourteen students and two faculty members will be working with Monticello archaeologists to excavate a site where Jefferson’s overseer, Edmund Bacon, lived c. 1806-1822.

In the long term our archaeological research will address issues of developments of race and class in the United States; in the short term we’ll blog our field experiences and finds — especially (fingers crossed) interesting artifacts!

Copper alloy thimble found at Jefferson's overseer's site, 4/17/09