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.
