Samantha Nagano
By May 12th, most of BcGn-17 was done being excavated, except for a feature in OA2 that still needed further examination. This resulted in most of the class moving to BcGn-15, except for a small group of us (Megan, Syd, Emma, Hailey, and I) who stayed back to excavate the feature, which took just over 3 days.
The following is a dramatized retelling of this excavation, loosely inspired by listening to “Epic: The Musical” as we worked:
The class moved away from the first site, moving onwards to new challenges and leaving only a few to remain. Those who stayed knew their goal and that they were the only ones left to complete it, so they began with haste.
They split the great feature on the diagonal, leaving one side untouched while commencing work on the other. This start was deceptively simple, for they could not know the obstacles that would soon engulf them. They removed rock after rock, a tedious task but rewarding as they soon began to find artifacts. They excitedly continued, finding glass, charcoal, bones, brick, nails, and more. However, as time wore on they became increasingly aware of the rising temperatures. The sun was relentless, beaming down on them as they worked unabated due to the lack of wind and/or cover. Still, the group continued, unwilling to surrender to the challenge they pushed on.
As the students got deeper they came face to face with something they did not expect- water. They were confused, but then realized what they had found was the water table, a sign that they were almost as far as they could go, but not quite as they had only scratched the surface and still needed to fully reach the table. This is when the rain started. At first, it was refreshing, a change of pace from the previous sweltering heat, soon became something else. While the students dug they quickly became overcome by the mud, the combination of water from the rain and the water table had swiftly created an area of sheer chaos. However, the students were too close to turn back then. They used everything they had to finish what they had begun. It was overpoweringly cold and wet, but they continued on until they were, at last, done.
END
While that account was an exaggeration meant to be fun, the main points are right and I will now elaborate a little on the main events and finds. Essentially, there was a feature in OA2 that we wanted to partially excavate so we could determine what its purpose was. We removed the large rocks and dirt from the feature while collecting the artifacts that we found within it. As we excavated we found mainly architectural artifacts like brick (frogged), mortar, glass, and nails as well as some possible food-related remains like bones and charcoal. The feature seems to have continued past the water table, but due to the water, we had to stop there. Based on what we found, we suspect that this area was a root cellar under a kitchen that had a brick chimney. I found the evidence of the chimney to be particularly interesting as it was very apparent as we excavated. There was a pattern where whenever we would unearth a large rock, underneath it we would find brick, mortar, and large pieces of charcoal, these three artifacts kept appearing and seemed to be in sequence with each other. This is a connection that likely indicates the presence of a brick chimney.
By the end of our excavation, we had taken the 67 cm deep unit down to 125 cm, determined a reasonable theory on the nature of the feature, and got totally covered in mud. It was chaotic and hard work, but super fun.
