This past Friday, May 6^th, marked the second to last fieldwork session for our archaeology class.  After almost six weeks of work on the Water Lot, it was finally time to move to the North Lot.  In the morning session, almost every student opened a new STP in the North Lot while a few students finished up the STP’s that lined the shoreline on the Water Lot.

Those students in both the morning and afternoon sessions who worked on the Water Lot  took cores of the STP’s that lined the old shoreline in hopes of identifying similarities in the soil levels and soil types.  Christine Canaday and Clay Strickland both worked on two of these holes.  Clay identified a layer of clay in his STP.  Hopefully this next Friday Christine will find a layer of clay and see a more continuous pattern develop and find out what, if any, ‘story’ the shoreline has to tell us.

Also on the Water Lot, Chelsea Cox continued digging in our most exciting STP S152.5 E25.  In the afternoon, Chelsea reached level 17 and identified another feature.  Within the feature she found a few pieces of shell, but the feature turned out to be less than one inch deep.  After photographing and documenting the new feature the day had already come to a close.  This STP has presented our class with the most material to work with and gives the clearest picture of what it was used for and how the people of the time lived.  Next Friday, Chelsea in the afternoon and Brielle Hayward in the morning, will dig as much as they can of this STP before our time runs out for the semester and with any luck find even more interesting artifacts and features.

In the North Lot, Darcy Depetris began working on one of the GPR anomalies situated on what would have been the outside corner of the building structure.  In her STP, Darcy found some interesting transferware pottery in level two.  At another STP, Rebecca Cruz found a broken piece of a bottle with lettering on it.  Rebecca will hopefully be able to date and identify this piece of bottle.

After beginning work on the North Lot, most students have realized that artifacts are being uncovered at much earlier layers than on the Water Lot and there are more artifacts overall.   In addition, the soil is much different than the Water Lot and easier to dig in.  From our digging this Friday, it looks like the North Lot has a lot to offer and next Friday should prove to be even more productive.

Last Friday we were fortunate to have another beautiful sunny day, allowing us to continue our work in New Castle. This was an important day as it marked many transitions such as the opening and closing of several STPs along with beginning transit work on the North lot.

In the morning section, many students began work on the anomalies that Peter Leach identified with his GPR survey. Fallon Rice worked on a shaft feature anomaly that was between 1.15-2ft below the surface. She dug to 1.3ft when she reached a layer of randomly laid brick. This layer prevented her from continuing to dig the STP but it also provoked many questions. She did not think that the bricks were laid in a pattern and this made her wonder why were they there and what did they come from? Fallon was even more curious when she discovered compressed ash between the bricks. This made her question whether or not this could have been some sort of fire pit. Fallon’s STP also struck the interest of a group of school children who stopped to discuss what she had found.

Marissa Kinsey also worked on one of the GPR anomaly STPs. Her anomaly was a large circular feature about 1ft below the surface. After digging to level 3 and just over 1ft, she found a layer of soil that had a high concentration of ironstone. This made her question whether or not the layer of ironstone could have been what showed up on the GPR as a circular feature. Interestingly enough, Marissa’s pit (like Fallon’s) contained ash, in the form of noticeable patches found in levels 2 and 3.

Some of the morning folks, Emily and Elanor, had a chance to set up the transit and lay out STP sites in the North lot. They laid out two rows of STPs 25 feet apart, marked each with flag, and then took an elevation measurement using the transit and stadia rod.

In the afternoon session, Becca, Collen, and Kate began their work where Emily and Elanor left off. They measured each STP and labeled them. It was Becca who had the honor of beginning the first STP on the lot. This STP anomaly  is believed to be the corner of a foundation of a building structure. By the end of the day, Becca had removed only the first layer of soil. When this dirt was screened, Becca, Collen, and Kate were in shock of the amount of objects found, such as pieces of brick, glass, mortar, and pieces of schist. They all remarked that finding artifacts in the first level of soil on the Water lot was a rare occasion.

Other afternoon students continued digging STPs in the water lot. One of these students, Leah Sachs, worked on the same pit as Marissa. She dug past 1ft and decided that Marissa had been correct; the anomaly that the GPR had picked up was the ironstone. The decision was made to close out the hole at approximately 2 ft.

This was a rather eventful day in the field. Our hard work is becoming evident as more and more STPs are closed out. There is also an excitement in the air as we begin to set up STPs in the North Lot. We are all terribly excited to find out how our findings in the north lot will compare to those in the water lot.

On Sunday, May 1, 2011, students from the “Introduction to Archaeological Field Methods” course spoke with New Castle city residents and visitors. On the Water Lot in front of the George Read House the students opened test pits, set up soil screens and wash stations. Display of historical research documents and a survey transit were available to our visitors.
Visitors were invited to help dig a test pit excavation and screen the dirt. Young children especially enjoyed these two activities. Copies of documents, some from the 17th century, showed the visitors who owned the two lots where the archaeology students have been working this semester. People were interested in how ground penetrating radar (GPR) and survey transits helped with archaeology site surveying.
Artifacts from test pits, and the test pits themselves, showed people what has been found by the students in their Friday classes over the past three months. Pieces of broken brick, window glass, pipe stem, ceramic, coal and vessel glass have been removed from the 18-inch diameter test pits. Some of the test pits are over three feet deep where cultural materials are still being found. Many of the day’s visitors were excited to see the artifacts from past centuries.
This Archaeology and the Public event was part of the New Castle Courthouse Museum “First Sunday” activity. We thank the Courthouse State Museum, the George Read Museum and Garden, and Professor Lu Ann DeCunzo for this opportunity to share our archaeological knowledge with more people.
We will be at the New Castle site for the next two Fridays and welcome others to view our work.

University of Delaware anthropology students
Chelsea Cox
Darcy DePetris
Christine Hermann
Leah Sachs
Clay Strickland
Mike Wilson

On Sunday, May 1st, students in the “Introduction to Archaeology Field Methods” course will participate in the Old New Castle Courthouse First Sunday event from 1:00 to 4:30 p.m. You can observe the excavation on the Water Lot in front of the George Read House and discuss findings with the students and Professor Lu Ann DeCunzo.

Internets sites for more information:

New Castle Courthouse – http://history.delaware.gov/museums/ncch/ncch_main.shtml

George Read House – http://www.hsd.org/read.htm

This week we were in the field again and several groups  closed their first test pits. Eleanor closed hers after finding little to no artifacts or changes in soil on Friday.  Mike found quite a few things and his hole was actually quite interesting. He found what looked to be stones not laid in a distinct pattern but definitely in a single layer and of large enough size to possibly be paving stones. Honestly though, we’re not sure what those are yet. Juli and Brielle found another feature in their pit although it is not very deep as they discovered when they did a core test. Marissa found several more interesting things in our hole while I worked on the transit including an animal tooth which I am not confident enough to yet positively identify although it looks like it’s something in the rodent family such as ground hog. She also found some more glass, ceramics, brick, and coal. She is three feet down and has yet to strike water. Clay also closed his pit after finding little to nothing on Friday except the water level, which he informed us is just over 3 feet down and marked by a distinct change from clay to ashy sand. The rest of us worked on reestablishing the grid, marking future test pits, and incorporating them into the grid system as well. We also had some people come interview us for UDaily. They wanted to know everything we could tell them about what we were doing and what we found; everyone was very helpful and informative. I don’t believe there were any real problems on Friday, other than the difficulties Mike had in digging over around and through is layer of large flat rocks, everyone made very good progress. Friday we hope to open some new pits and continue finding features and artifacts that will aid us in revealing the history of the Water Lot.

April 15th, our fourth day out in the field. By now, most of us already know the process of excavating STPs. Core samples were taken in some of the STPs in order to determine the start of the water table. Core samples are taken with a hollow pole that you twist into the ground to get a preview of the soil layers below the top layer. This provides us with an estimate of the number of layers left before the water table is reached as well as the distance before we reach the water table. Two of the STPs were cored; the test pit farthest from the Strand went straight into the water table. Marissa and Fallon worked on the S177.5 W0 test pit and found vessel and flat glass, brick, 19th century ceramics, a decorated pipe-stem fragment, and rusted nails. Leah and Caroline closed out their STP, which was at the back of the lot, closest to the Delaware River, when they hit the water table, only finding a few more pieces of brick. As other STPs were getting closer to the water table and stopped producing artifacts, other test pits were also closed up. The closing procedure includes photographing the end point and then covering the hole.
There is one test pit that has been unlike any of the other test pits and that is S152.5 E25. This STP has produced some interesting anomalies. Brielle was digging today and came across a feature that took up half of the STP. Chelsea and Chrissy photographed and excavated that feature in the afternoon. Preparing a feature involves cleaning it up so there is no lose dirt in the bottom of the STP as well as making sure the bottom of the pit is relatively level. Next, a trowel needs to point north, and a white board has all of the information like the location, the excavation, date. There were photographs taken in black and white, color, and on the digital camera. Everything had to be logged before the excavation could start. This is a lengthy process, there was only enough time for the feature to be excavated but no other levels were started. When excavating a feature, only half can be done at a time because it is important to get a profile of the stratigraphy of the feature. Chelsea and Chrissy found brick, shells, bones, coal, and various kinds of pottery. One of the pieces we were able to date to around 1820. This feature, unlike the surrounding soil levels that mostly produced brick and clinker, contained several artifacts.
Most of the test pits excavated produced brick, clinker, some iron, pieces of pottery, and some glass.  I am excited to get back in the field and discover what else lies beneath the water lot in New Castle.