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)