Our second day in the field, March 18th, was another great learning experience for everyone. The weather was beautiful, considering the chill that we experienced a few weeks ago. Everyone was very excited to get back into the field after a day of learning how to correctly clean and label artifacts the week before, and we were not disappointed with the various projects and jobs we worked on.
We were joined by Peter Leach of John Milner Associates, who introduced us firsthand to Ground Penetrating Radar. While we did read up on the process in preparation for Friday’s fieldwork, many of us had never seen or used GPR firsthand. Emily, Marissa, Ashley and Elanor of the morning group helped Peter to lay out the survey grid of the North and Water Lots. Both groups were able to use the GPR unit to view the different features of the Water and North Lots. We were able to identify the drop off of the original 1800s era shoreline as well as what may be the foundations of a stone building, if the GPR survey matches with the various property and insurance maps that we have found in our research of the Read House properties. The afternoon group found the GPR system to be absolutely fascinating. While the afternoon group was viewing the North Lot, an older woman who lives on the property behind the North Lot stopped by to say hello and inquire about our project. We were more than happy to share our observations with her. This is just one example of the various ways that we are able to engage the community in our project and historical preservation. The GPR surveys were definitely one of the highlights of the semester thus far. After we finished working with the GPR unit, we were able to go to the roof of the Read House and see the properties and Historic New Castle from a new perspective. Friday was a perfect day for this and the view was absolutely breathtaking.
The morning group worked in setting up the transit in the Garden of the Read House. As I myself experienced on our first day in the field, they found that our transit is not the easiest to work with. However, it did pique an interest in a few people to read up more on transits in order to better understand why we use them in our work. Later that afternoon, Chrissy and Christine also worked to level the transit, which they also found frustrating. However, we all look at our frustrating experiences as good learning experiences.
In addition to this, Andrea worked with Fallon in the morning and Rebecca and Leah in the afternoon to map and sketch the brick wall of the front of the North Lot that faces the Strand. They took measurements of the wall and mapped its outline while taking scale sketches of the wall’s profile. We are considering creating a visual map that shows the wall via pictures as well as a second, basic drawing of the wall, perhaps with a color coding system of some sort to make interpretations of the different layers and additions easier to future researchers.
Of course, everyone was ecstatic to dig. Of the afternoon group, Chelsea and Mickey, Kate and Darcy, and Caroline and I worked on excavating more of the three test pits that were started in the Water Lot on March 4th. Kate and Darcy had to even out the bottom surface of their pit before continuing through level 2 of their pit. Around 5.5 inches deep, they noticed their soil was beginning to change color and so stopped, made notes and measurements and closed out their layer before bringing the soil to be sifted. While sifting, they found mostly rocks and coal pieces, but did find a type of battery core. They placed it in a labeled artifact bag before packing up for the day. Caroline and I had our first digging experience with our test pit. We also evened out our test pit before measuring the depth and beginning our excavation. We closed our level at around .6 feet and took our soil to be sifted. We found a metal tack, a metal nail, pieces of brick and coal. We also uncovered what we believe is the top of a brick, but did not have time to completely uncover it before the day was finished.
All in all, everyone is having an amazing time working on the excavation project and I for one am looking forward to this coming Friday to do more work on the project.