On the 16th of March, one half of the students on the team went to Odessa to take a tour of the old historical houses and sites with John Bansch, to learn more about the context behind our dig and the types of preservation that have occurred in the past.
Over the next two weeks, the team continued to map the area and record the locations of surface collections and metal detector hits, as well as continuing Shovel Test Pits (STPs). We’ve slowly been moving toward the marshlands on the “south” side of our site (the cardinal directions are arbitrary, and based on where we set up the Total Station as the origin). So far, we have found that the area’s soil mostly consists of sandy clay loam, and the untouched-by-humans soil starts a foot or two down, depending on the location of the pit. In one instance, the team found an anomaly, right near the edge of the marsh. It was a collection of cobble stones, possibly indicating the existence of a pier on the shore of the river/marshland. We are moving our way down along the shoreline with STPs, so if we find any more collection of cobble stones, that could imply that there was some sort of road along the bank of the river.
STPs are not only good for discovering the layers of soil and the makeup of each layer, but they also help us locate small nonmetal artifacts that the metal detector wouldn’t pick up. While one person digs the hole and discerns the levels of soil, the other sifts the soil through a ¼ inch screen into a wheelbarrow. This allows us to locate pieces of brick (which can also show up on the surface), pieces of old pipes, pieces of pottery, and more. The pottery is very difficult to tell the origins of, even for our team members with specific experience in that area of study.
In addition to STPs, the team worked diligently to continue truthing every metal detector hit. As we mentioned in the first blogpost, we found a combination of relevant and irrelevant artifacts. These ranged from old rusty nails (relevant) to soda cans (not relevant). In some cases, the team found strange pieces of metal that were difficult to identify: possibly a part of allow or some other farming tool. Some of the pieces are long and flat, while some are more like giant nails or stakes. Once, we even found two links of a chain still connected, but it was difficult to tell what it might have come from. Whenever there is any inkling of doubt, the team bags the artifact, writes the data on the bag and on the data sheet, and sends it in to the lab to be cleaned and analyzed.
With the locations of the bricks (from surface collections and STPs) and nails (from metal detector hits), Curtis created a map showing the locations of each find, and also a density map to see where everything is concentrated. Once we get more data, we should be able to make educated guesses the location of a building or other anomaly in the soil.
Matt Waverczak