It's difficult to capture the raindrops from gentle showers in a photograph... But, take my word for the fact that every photograph of the day was taken in the midst of gentle showers. The rain stopped twice today -- once during lunch and about 15 minutes after we "closed up" after a rainy day, the sun came out. Although a "soggy day" was had by all -- we managed to accomplish a lot of work under our shelters.
We continued work on the Structure 1 area today -- with some interesting new hypotheses emerging from our finds today. Our "new" fenceline mentioned yesterday (shown more clearly in the photograph below) appears to end at an interesting location...
Our "chimney base" feature is so large that we believe it was most likely a central chimney on a double cabin. Our fenceline seems to start a bit over twenty feet from the edge of that feature -- this would be a relatively standard size for a double cabin with a central chimney. So, one of our "working hypotheses" is that this might be a fenceline running off the end of such a double cabin. A hypothetical reconstruction is shown below.
Please remember that these are only "working hypotheses" constructed in the field -- our full analysis of artifacts from each excavation unit will have to be completed and evaluated before we offer our "best interpretation." This doesn't mean that we have a "constantly changing story" -- it means that we are constantly gathering new information, evaluating it, and changing our interpretations based on that new evidence.
.The artifacts from our excavations in this area continue to encourage our current interpretations of a building that was used as a domestic residence in the mid-1800s and then later used as a storage building in the late 1800s through early 1900s.
Of particular interest and encouragement today was another piece of a plate with a "maker's mark" on the back. While we haven't been able to identify precisely the several earlier backmarks, the one from today was an "archaeological gem." While you won't be able to read the mark in this photograph, it is very legible "in person." This particular plate was manufactured by the Davenport Company in Longport, Staffordshire Potteries, England -- a series of potteries in operation from about 1793-1887. The "gem" part of this particular fragment is that the Davenport mark includes the year of manufacture -- this particular plate was manufactured in the year 1852.
As our work continues, we feel more and more confident with our interpretations. Two more weeks of fieldwork will provide more clues -- and probably change our current interpretations. The labwork will begin soon thereafter and continue through October.