Progress Update

Katherine excavating Unit 132

The Arcadia Mill field school crew just finished their sixth week of excavations. It proved to be quite a productive week for some of the units. Units 128, 129, and 130 have been fully excavated and documented. 

      

Unit 130: End of Excavation

Alicia holding the total station rod to
take final elevations of Unit 129

Excavations of Unit 129 revealed what was possibly a drip line from the house (FEA 466). 

FEA 466

Meanwhile, a new unit (Unit 132) was placed along the western edge of the depression in an attempt to locate the entrance to the basement, as well as an interior wall. Though there is no evidence of a wall, there is an articulated brick structure in the northern portion of the unit. It appears to be a small square feature, which extends outside of the unit. The crew will continue excavations in order to gather more information about this feature.

Wally and Adrianne excavating Unit 132

Unit 132: Top of level 2

Bottom of glass bottle (Unit 132) embossed with "Pensacola FLA"

The Colonial Frontiers field school came to visit our site this week, so Katherine and Janene quickly cleaned Units 125 and 126. 

Janene cleans Unit 125

During the cleaning, a small glass bottle was retrieved from Unit 125. The bottle was whole, though slightly warped, likely due to burning. The bottom of the bottle is embossed with "ODO RO NO". Further research suggests that it is a women's antiperspirant bottle from the early 20th century. The company has quite an interesting story that you can check out on the Smithsonian's website here: 

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-advertisers-convinced-americans-they-smelled-bad-12552404/ 

"ODORONO" bottle from Unit 125

Unit 131 has also been productive this week. As the crew continued their excavations, they came across an iron pipe (FEA 467). This plumbing feature is intriguing because the oral history states that the Simpsons were one of the first families in the area to install indoor plumbing.

FEA 464 and FEA 467 (Unit 131)

Field Trip Pictures and Friday Field Lab

Last week, the crew joined the Colonial Frontiers and Campus Survey groups on a field trip to Mission San Luis. We all had a blast and learned quite a bit about the archaeology that has been conducted on site. Here are some of our favorite pictures from the trip. 

First we visited the archaeology lab on site:

We were then guided through the site by an archaeologist who explained the excavations that took place as we went along: 

The students were even able to practice their atl-atl skills before we left:

As the supervisors watched from a comfortable distance...

Don't forget to come check out our Public Archaeology Lab tomorrow, June 27th from 10 AM - 2 PM. The lab is free and open to the public, though we do ask that anyone under 16 be accompanied by an adult. 

Progress Update

We are now halfway through the field season and things are looking good! On Thursday, the field crew went on a field trip to Mission San Luis to learn about the archaeology conducted there.

In order to investigate a potential brick feature, two additional 1x1 meter units were placed adjacent to Unit 128. However, further investigation revealed no architectural features. A few interesting artifacts have been recovered from these units including a button and a lead shot.

Unit 128 (bottom right), Unit 129 (top right), and Unit 130 (left) at the top of level 2. 

Mandy and Amanda work on Unit 130 

 Excavations of Unit 125 are now complete. This unit continued to surprise the crew this week.While excavating the "inside wall" portion of the unit, crew members noticed large pieces of carbonized wood. Further investigation revealed the intact charred brick floor, with portions of the burnt wooden floor still above it. It was decided to terminate excavations of the "inside wall" once the floor was exposed and thoroughly documented. While cleaning the walls, crew members exposed portions of what appeared to be a large cast iron object. Unfortunately, the object cannot be removed at this time due to its location. It appears to belong to a kitchen appliance, possibly a stove. The object also has a series of numbers on it that we will be researching. Excavations of the "outside wall" portion of the unit revealed what appears to be a small brick foundation for the wall.

Basement floor (Unit 125)

Cast iron object (Unit 125)

Inside Wall of Basement

Outside Wall of Basement

Bonifay Brick (Unit 127)

Unit 127 had some interesting finds this the week. Along with the stoneware vessel discussed in the previous post, the crew recovered a brick fragment that had a makers mark. Excavations of level 6 revealed a charred wooden beam, possibly a type of support for the house. 

FEA 463: charred wooden beam

In order to completely expose the stoneware vessel, crew members placed a 1x1 meter unit (Unit 131) directly south of Unit 127.

Unit 131 Before Excavation

Stay tuned this week for more exciting finds, as well as pictures from our field trip! 

Awesome find from Unit 127 and Friday Field Lab

Continued excavations of Unit 127 revealed an intact stoneware vessel (pictured right). It appears to have been intentionally buried, as evidenced by the mixed fill surrounding it. The crew noticed fragments of turtle shell in the top portion of the vessel, along with what appears to be a key (pictured below). Though the key was removed, the remainder of the vessel and its contents will be extracted as one item. Once it's in the lab, we plan on using x-rays to determine the contents before any further steps are taken. Unfortunately, portions of the vessel are outside the boundaries of the unit, so the crew will need to open up a new unit in order to retrieve the vessel. Keep checking back here for more updates about this interesting feature!

Don't forget to come check out our Public Archaeology lab tomorrow, June 20th from 10 AM - 2 PM. The lab is free and open to the public, though we do ask that anyone under 16 be accompanied by an adult.

Weekly Progress Update

We have just completed our fourth week at the Simpson Lot, and things are definitely starting to get interesting!  As you may know from earlier posts this week, Unit 125 has had the most interesting artifacts coming out of it--namely silverware, ceramic vessel pieces, and large pieces of scorched marble.  What makes this even more impressive is the fact that the crew has been digging constantly through brick rubble on the inside of the basement wall.  Pictured below is unit 125 in progress.

And here is a profile view of the basement wall from the outside.

Also This week, unit 126 was completed, and a new unit (128) was put in on the northern edge of the basement depression. Below is a picture of the finished unit 126.

And here is a picture of the 1 meter by 1 meter unit (128) before excavation.

And again with the first 10 centimeters excavated.  You can see that they have a large amount of brick just below the surface in the Northern half of their unit.  Because of the high number of bricks, two more units have been put in around unit 128 in order to better define the possible feature that this unit might contain.

Meanwhile, Unit 127 has been revealing more brick rubble in the Western half as the crew dug deeper.

Below you will see more brick rubble, a large glass jar, and some burnt wood that may be a large tree root that burned, or a possible scorched plank.  We will certainly know more about it as soon as we get into the next 10 centimeter level.

That's all for now, check back next week as we continue excavating at the Simpson House!