Update - Geophysical and Maritime

The field school has reached its half-way point, with our scope of Area A expanding to four blocks and five trenches with a combined total of over 75 test units. The search for architectural remains continues, and we are adding some crushed brick piers to our map that line up well with known geophysical anomalies and the results of our predictive models.

We are interested in carrying our excavations to the south and east next, so we had our first geophysical survey of the summer in the freshly cleared area. Soil Resistivity has been an effective tool at Arcadia in past years, and Sarah Mitchell came down to show our students how to operate the device.

The soil resistivity meter reads electrical impulses sent from a pair of metal spikes stuck in the ground several meters away. The current travels through the ground to be measured by the machine that the operator walks with and sticks in the ground at prescribed points. High resistivity in one area can mean a number of different things, such as compacted or artifact-laden soil. If present, foundations can also be detectable as well.

In addition, our field school has begun its maritime component. We now have some of our crew in Pond Creek every day mapping the shape of the channel and the structural remains of pilings, rocks, and beams that have lain there since Arcadia was abandoned. UWF was able to get some underwater video of the mill foundation beams in the early 1990's, but this recon survey will give us a more complete idea of how these structures are situated and how well they are withstanding erosion. In addition, part of understanding community organization at Arcadia comes from knowing where roads used to be, so one of the other goals of the underwater survey is to find bridge-related features that would help us locate any roads that crossed Pond Creek.

Data Visualization with GIS - Part Two

Part of understanding the past involves visualizing the "built world," or the physical result of the relationship between people and their environment. At Arcadia, the extensive earthworks and structural remains serves as powerful evidence of the ways in which the environment was permanently altered by human occupation. Geographic Information Systems software is uniquely suited to addressing research questions concerning how the natural world was turned into a built one during a site's occupation. (Please click the image thumbnails for a larger version.)
This image is a contour map showing the topography of the Juan de la Rua land grant. This particular parcel of land was valuable because it had an excellent mill seat. A mill seat is a narrow channel in between two landforms of comparatively high elevation, so that the water running through it accelerates enough for it to be useful for milling operations. When all of the trees were stripped off of the property for logging in the middle 19th century, it was possible for someone standing on one of the hills to see the entire complex. The tree and brush cover at Arcadia today means that we cannot see what they saw, but with the right tools, it is possible to more effectively visualize this landscape digitally.

ArcScene is a GIS utility capable of rendering mappable data in three dimensions. It was able to get elevation information from the available contour data and stratify it along the z-axis, creating an explorable 3D map. The camera was placed on the north-west corner of the property, so you are looking downstream towards the south-east. The first thing that should be apparent is the natural funnel-like formation of the land that provides the water power that the complex needed to cut lumber and process cotton. Also, the location of the textile mill, as denoted by the blue circle, was meaningfully chosen. The machinery for textile manufacturing was expensive and had to be bought and shipped to Arcadia, so if the dam eventually failed, the machinery had to be protected from flooding. The flat, raised table of land where the blue circle is was perfect for keeping expensive machinery both close at hand and out of harm's way should the dam fail.

The software is capable of even more useful forms of visualization. By rubber-sheeting a historic map such as this one over the known topography, it is possible to explore the map in a way that helps visualize its features like never before. Notice the dotted lines on the historic map. They show roads and paths that may still exist archaeologically, giving us hints as to where unmapped features such as buildings might be found.


Lastly, I will share an animation created with ArcScene's flyover feature. It's an excellent way to show what a person would see from a given vantage point, or what a bird would see if it was flying though the region.

Artifact of the Week - U.S. Armed Forces Button

All artifacts have their own story about how they were used, when they were thrown away, and how they survived in the ground. Sometimes, however, a single artifact's story of its recovery, documentation, and identification can be a documentary in and of itself. As mentioned earlier, some artifacts are more difficult to identify than others, and much of the fun in archaeology is solving these kinds of mysteries.


This button was recovered from an early 19th century sheet midden that our third trench excavated last week. Artifacts like these can be tricky to identify if their characteristic insignia is partially eroded away, as it is in this example.

After our Principal Investigator Mr. Phillips took the photograph, Brian Mabelitini, our Field Director, consulted some button books that have different examples of U.S. army and navy buttons. Our initial interpretation was that it was a Confederate staff officer's button because it has the eagle and star border motif that those buttons were known to have. However, given that Arcadia was abandoned several years before the civil war began, there would have to be a second occupation to allow for a confederate soldier to discard the button at what became the sheet midden.


Brian then decided to digitally enhance the image to try to get a better idea of what the button was depicting. While it was difficult to see initially, the eagle now appears to be perched atop an anchor! With this in mind, it is possible that the button is actually an early 19th century (War of 1812) U.S. Naval button. This creates an alternative interpretation that fits more seamlessly with what we know about the history of Arcadia, because we have historical evidence that Andrew Jackson's army passed through the Juan de la Rua land grant during the first Seminole War.

As you can see, conflicting interpretations about the same artifact can make it quite difficult to say with certainty where it came from. While we have some plausible ideas, the jury is still out on this one. The button will hopefully tell us more about the person who wore it after the lab gets a chance to conserve and analyze it.

Student Highlight - Joseph Mikos

Joseph Mikos is a transfer student from Pensacola State College. His interest in archaeology began after taking an Intro course with UWF professor Dr. Ramie Gougeon, and he wants to pursue a career in Cultural Resource Management. He is also interested in working on a Master's degree while studying the archaeology of the American Southwest.

Student Highlight - Jenny McNiven

Jenny McNiven is a first year graduate student from Albany, New York. Her undergraduate work involved a degree in theater and a degree in archaeology with a concentration in ancient history. Her other experiences include working in the archaeology lab at the Corpus Christi Museum of History and Science, as well as excavation experience at the Fort Lipantitlan late prehistoric site in San Patricio, Texas. In her spare time she performs in local theater, plays piano, and spends time with her husband and three dogs.

Announcement - Public Archaeology Lab

I'm pleased to announce that Jan Lloyd, the Director of the Archaeology Laboratory at UWF, is holding public archaeology labs for visitors on the following Fridays between 10:00 AM and 2:00 PM:
June
10, 17, 24
July
8, 15
Each lab session will be held at the museum building at Arcadia Mill. While the museum is air-conditioned, please prepare for hot weather if you would also like to visit our excavations at Area A.
If you are interested in helping out while seeing some of what we've been excavating this summer, please come by! All ages are welcome, but children will need the supervision of a parent or guardian. We hope to see you there!

Update - Mapping Strata

Several of our first test units are now complete, so we are opening up additional trenches in pursuit of more architectural features. One frequently asked question is "When do we stop digging?" Archaeologists usually stop at the "subsoil," a stratum that predates human occupation of a site. After excavation, the walls and floor of completed test units are cleaned with trowels one last time, photographed, and mapped (In that order.) Since archaeology is a destructive discipline, it is important to document every observable physical characteristic of the exposed stratigraphy before back-filling each unit. While it may seem odd that we will be filling them in so soon at the end of the season, it helps protect the surrounding proveniences from erosion during the rest of the year.

Our mapping procedures require the use of a level line and a couple of rulers. Instead of measuring down from a surface that can vary from unit to unit, or even within the same unit, we align our rulers perpendicular to the suspended string and use that as the point to measure from. Thanks to this work, our better knowledge of the stratigraphy of Area A is permitting some of our new units to dig in strata rather than arbitrary levels.

I mentioned earlier that digging in 10cm levels is a popular choice, especially in prehistoric sites and sites for which the stratigraphy is unknown. However, now that we have a better idea of the site's stratigraphy, digging in strata has some tempting advantages. Saving time is an obvious first point; since the archaeologist is only looking for when the soil color or composition changes to stop and start a provenience, he or she doesn't have to constantly pause excavation to take elevation measurements to make sure that they aren't digging too deep.

Digging in strata on a site like Arcadia also helps give each provenience a single separate stratum as opposed to having a single provenience include multiple strata. If you're confused, the adjoining image should help explain. This delicious-looking layer cake to the right has an arrangement of "strata" composed of alternating layers of cake and frosting. Let's say we only wanted to eat the cake parts and save the frosting for a friend. If we didn't have any idea of what the cake looked like on the inside, we would be forced to arbitrarily "excavate" (eat) layers until we found the parts of the cake that we want to "separate into proveniences" (his frosting, our cake.) However, if you knew that this particular cake had six evenly-spaced layers of cake and frosting, you would have a much better idea of when to stop eating the cake and skim the frosting off with your fork. To complete this illustration before it makes me any hungrier, the best way to figure all of that out is to cut the cake vertically so that all of the layers are visible. That way you don't have to risk eating any frosting at all (why you would ever want to do something like that is not part of the illustration.)

It's time to talk a little about some of the artifacts that we've been recovering. Our field season this year has been fortunate to find a considerable number of artifacts associated with people's activities.

This iron is remarkably well-preserved. We suspect that one of the artifacts that we've previously excavated and identified as a drawer handle might actually be the handle to this iron. The lab will be on the lookout for a potential cross-mend.




From left to right, we have a burned peach pit, a fragment of a toy marble, a couple of gun flints, a couple of percussion caps, and a possibly decorative metal ring. Personal items like the ring, the marble, and the peach pit give unique insight into the habits of people living in the past by hinting at the sorts of things they ate and how they chose to spend their free time. Since all of these artifacts come from an early 19th century sheet midden, the gun parts suggest that the individuals living at the village were armed.

Student Highlight - Travis Jorgensen

Travis Jorgensen is an undergraduate Junior at the University of West Florida. He grew up with an interest in Archaeology that caused him to want to sign up for the field school this year. He enjoys scuba diving in his spare time.

Student Highlight - Dani Mount

Dani Mount is an undergraduate Archaeology Senior at the University of West Florida. She transferred to UWF from Moorpark College in Califoria last year, so she is helping to bring a variety of theoretical perspectives to the crew this season. Her previous field experience includes surveying prehistoric sites in California, and she is excited to work on a site with a strong historic component this year.