Thanks to the hard labor of our student crew over the past four very warmish days, we close out the first week of class with several exciting discoveries. During the course of today's work, we cleaned up the cluster of limestone blocks and chipping debris reported yesterday.
Some cautious probing around the exposed stones suggests that as we excavate deeper, this cluster of "rocks' will be more clearly define. However, before we do further work on this portion of the possible chimney base, we need to expose the entire feature so that we can work on it as a "whole." So, after cleaning it up at this depth below the surface, we opened the excavation unit to the north. The photo below shows Lesley and Amanda clearing the sod on the unit to the north, while Mackenzie and Chris work on mapping the exposed stones.
Since we now believe that the building we are investigating extends beneath and across the modern fenceline, we removed the rails from two sections of the fence in preparation for future excavations. That preparation also included cutting brush and carefully digging out several patches of poison ivy.
In addition to the building from the 1800s we are investigating, we have also found several more recent "features" in our excavations. Four posts from an older version of the modern fenceline have been identified -- with a slightly closer post spacing.
Relatively well preserved remnants of these wooden posts are present in all of the postholes...
We suspect these are the remains of the board fence that was present on the property in 1975, when the first archaeological project was conducted at the Sam Davis Home. The photograph below (Courtesy, Nick Fielder, Tennessee Division of Archaeology) shows this board fence and some of the 1975 excavation units to the south of where we are currently working.
Since we have some indications that there are two rows of cabins running east-west in this location, we also started expanding our test excavations to the north of our current building location. As the project proceeds next week, we will begin to report on the results of the search for additional structures there.
In another part of the Sam Davis property, our search for the original "yard fence" continued today as well, with good results. Tiffany, Meagan, Ryan, and Lauren continued excavations...
Our original three "possible postholes" reported yesterday didn't pan out with further investigation, but with a bit more digging today, we did find two "definite" postholes in a line extending from the "overseer's house" to the south.
One of these postholes still contains remnants of a post from that fence (shown below). In the other, the post was apparently removed when the fence was dismantled and the posthole was packed with debris.
As I close off for today, a reminder to our readers that archaeology is not just about "digging up artifacts" and "finding cool stuff" -- while that is an important part of our work, the students involved in this project are also learning the additional important parts of "archaeology." When we finish exposing clusters of rocks and possible postholes, we pause and draw "maps" showing the precise locations of all of these things, we clean up the excavations and take formal record photographs to document our work, and we keep careful records each day of what happens. That part of the work is tedious, boring, and repetitive -- but it is what allows us to interpret and understand what we are finding.
Visit us again next week as the work continues!