Archaeology Dig Diary July 12, 2006

Archaeology Dig Diary - Wednesday, July 12

The field school departed after six weeks of mostly shoveling on the side of the hill overlooking the Rappahannock. The pitch was so steep that they had to chock the wheelbarrow tires to prevent them from rolling down to the river’s flood plain. We are just about finished expanding the excavation and have turned our attention to excavating features. The expansion has uncovered new architectural elements including sections of intact foundation stone, and a run of stone infilling that appears to have been used to block access to underneath the structure between the stone piers.

The first feature excavated was a utility trench associated with the 1906 farmhouse. This pipe trench may intrude the stone lined cellar and leaving it in place would result in 1906 related artifacts being found in the colonial cellar – very bad.

Kate finished mapping the stone lined cellar and has begun excavating. She divided the cellar into four quadrants and will excavate one quadrant at a time. She removed the fill of a previous archaeology test unit which revealed the cellar contained 4-5 major layers. She also exposed a beautifully constructed stone wall foundation. The stones are dressed Aquia Sandstone which has been partially robbed (recycled for use in later structures). This is the best executed stone foundation uncovered at the site to date.

Artifacts from the top layer of fill include a beautifully preserved iron fork with a bone handle, an 1809 half penny, and a stoneware vessel marked with the seal GR, which stand for Georgius Rex, or King George III.

Stone-lined cellar