Category: Student Blog

Kira Brown

One of the most common artifact material types we’ve found during the Nassau Mills Project is ceramics. Like home decor styles and fashionable silhouettes, popular designs for ceramics come in trends. Ceramic decoration also tends to follow the aesthetic movement of the day. For example, the highly popular Chinese-inspired Blue Willow plate pattern gained popularity alongside other chinoiserie-style ceramic designs, art pieces, music, and literature. Because of changing trends, designs can be approximately dated to certain periods of manufacture, which can help narrow down the time period of other artifacts in the same context.

Some simpler kinds of decoration can also give clues about when a piece was produced. Edge ware is a common type of ceramic decoration for dishware, where plain dishes are decorated along their edges with either small incisions or brushstrokes and then painted over, often in a bright cobalt blue. While at a glance edge ware pieces may appear very similar, close examination can reveal subtle differences that can often date when a plate was made, down to a few decades. Painted, non-incised edge ware in cobalt blue was one of the most common ceramic motifs found during the project, and the style’s popularity during the latter half of the 19^th century lines up well with when the house is believed to have been inhabited.

In some of our later artifacts, we can see how other materials, like bakelite, began replacing ceramic as a material in some objects. Bakelite is a hard plastic that became common in commercial products starting in the late 1920s, and peaked in popularity during the 1930s. The heat-resistant and decorative properties of bakelite made it a common alternative to ceramic and glass. Tobacco pipes, for instance, were one of the frequently found ceramic artifacts on our site. Although in earlier contexts pipe pieces were all ceramic, later tobacco pipes replaced ceramic mouthpieces with bakelite ones.

Many of the household objects that were once made of ceramic are now made of cheaper materials like plastic, or have fallen out of common use like chamber pots and washbasins; but ceramics still have their place, especially in the kitchen. If an archaeologist 150 years from now looked through your household ceramics, what conclusions could they draw about you or the life you lived? Are most of your ceramics durable stoneware for practical, everyday use, or do you have a collection of fancy bone china to impress guests? Do you use plain, unglazed terracotta for your flowerpots or do you prefer glazed pots in trendy styles? Before participating in field school, I may not have thought much about the story my ceramics tell, but nothing will make you think harder about your own ceramics than sorting through hundreds of pieces of someone else’s!

August Stein

I’m back! This year I’m taking the advanced field methods course, instead of just the normal field methods course. The difference? I have a lot more responsibility and I get to write the report at the end. Being able to put my skills to the test has really shown me what areas I need to improve.

For example, identifying animal bones has proven to be significantly more challenging than the theory class I took led me to believe. After cleaning and drying bones, we need to identify each type of bone to its lowest identifiable taxon, as well as its type. It’s no small task, especially when the bones are fragmented. In one day, we managed to collect over one hundred bones. Multiply that over two weeks of excavation, and we have quite a task ahead of us.

Fortunately, we have Trent’s reference collection at our disposal, and it’s very helpful for identifying bones. Having a physical frame of reference to double check with is invaluable. Sure, that femur may look like it came from a lion if you hold it upside-down and squint hard, but what’s more likely? A lion’s femur was thrown in a kitchen trash pit in the late 19^th century? Or it’s a fragmented piece of a cow, like the other hundred bones we’ve seen today. Unfortunately, we didn’t find any proof of Ontario’s infamous 19th century lion population, but we did discover that the people who lived in this house ate a lot of cows, pigs, sheep, and more rarely duck, chicken, and fish. The reference collection provides several examples of the morphology of animal bones, which helps to figure out what fragments belong to. Once we complete the analysis of these bones we may have a good idea of the diet of the inhabitants of this house. We are looking at what may very well be their kitchen scraps after all.

Caroline Priddle

Over the past four weeks we have all become very familiar with dirt. Most of the time my feelings towards the dirt were negative. It stained my clothes, got in my food and followed me everywhere I went. We often joked that we were “becoming  one with the dirt”. Throughout my time at field school however,  I came to learn that there’s a lot more to dirt than what’s on the surface.

In our last two weeks of the course, as we began our stage 2 and stage 3 survey, I developed a new feeling towards the dirt, one slightly more positive than before: relief. Specifically, the relief of reaching subsoil. Subsoil is the layer below topsoil where culturally relevant material can be found. There is typically a distinct change in colour and texture between topsoil and subsoil. When doing stage 2 survey, we were instructed to dig 30 cm diameter test pits at 5 m intervals until we reached 5 cm into subsoil. As a result, we became more familiar with the physical characteristics of subsoil. I was amazed at how much these could vary across such a small area.

During our stage 3 survey, the relief of reaching subsoil was even stronger. Stage 3 involved pairing up with another student to dig a 1×1 m unit in 10 cm intervals, once again until we reached 5 cm into subsoil. Some groups took longer to complete their units than others, and as Mason and I were on the slower end of the spectrum, we were very relieved when we finally saw the rusty red subsoil at the bottom of our unit.

We then had to document our finished unit by completing a unit form, a wall profile and a plan drawing. Part of this process included recording the colour of the soil in the different layers. To help with this, we used the Munsell soil colour chart. The Munsell colour chart is a tool that allows colour, something we usually perceive as subjective, to become an exact science. It is a spectrum of colour swatches that are based on the three characteristics of colour: hue, value, and chroma (Munsell 1905). It allows our descriptions of colours to be objective and universal and it eliminates any ambiguity that may be caused by our, as Albert Munsell described them, incongruous and bizarre colour names (Munsell 1905).

Munsell, Albert Henry. 1905. A Color Notation. G.H. Ellis Co., Boston.

Alyssa Williams

The tools for digging a 1×1 unit include a sieve, a shovel and optionally a bucket. For digging you can use a pointed shovel, a square shovel or a trowel. Which one you use depends on the situation and your personal preference. Additionally if any artifacts are found while excavating the unit an artifact bag will be needed to collect the artifacts. Always remember to properly label the bag.

The unit can either be measured out using a planning frame or with a measuring tape and triangulation. The corners of the unit must be marked. If the unit has sod on it the sod must be carefully removed whereas if the unit has no sod you can skip the next part. If the unit has sod you first cut the sod at the edge of the unit with a pointed shovel, square shovel or a sod lifter if desired. Once the edge has been established cut pieces of the sod away from the rest of the soil leaving approx. 5-10 cm high sod removed from the ground.

Once the sod is removed or if there wasn’t any to begin with use your shovel to remove dirt within your 1×1 unit. If excavating at fixed layers make sure to only go down to the level that was pre-determined. If excavating based on soil layers pay attention to the appearance of the soil and if it begins to change stop digging. Shovel all the dirt you remove either straight into your sieve or into a bucket that you pour into the sieve. This dirt must then be sifted through to determine whether the soil contains any artifacts. If any artifacts are found place them in an artifact bag. Continually dig out dirt and then sift it until you have reached the desired depth or 5cm into subsoil.

Throughout the process of excavating it is necessary to clean up the walls of your unit. This can be done with either a shovel or trowel by cutting away the dirt at the edges of the unit to make the walls straight and vertical. Be careful not to undercut the soil.

Cameron Grant

As I sit in my unit, I question what exactly it is that I am doing here. What brought me to Trent originally was this field school. Now that I am at this point in my education that I have been waiting for with such anticipation, was it worth it?

In this site, we are looking for evidence of living from previous inhabitants. We are aware of an above ground nearby midden with recent (post 20^th century) garbage including entire glass bottles, metal furniture, and even a nearby vehicle. In order to understand the history of this site, we must conduct a series of 1×1 test units to see how widespread the usage of the land was. If the units hold a positive number of artifacts, then we now have an understanding that there was previous human activity. Typically discovering this area usage happens through a number of methods, such as field walking or examining old maps if they are available. I am currently in one of many test units we have done in order to be graded, each done by a different team but all with the same goal. In our instance, we extended our unit down to 55cm before we hit subsoil. The process of digging a test unit is much more enjoyable than one would assume. Especially working with a friend, the tedium turns into teamwork.

What I enjoyed most during our field school was when we would return to the lab in order to process our finds. There might not be any beauty in the mundane to most, a rusty nail sitting alone on a stained orange tray is hardly symbolic of beauty. This is still what I found most fascinating. Many of our team’s finds were certainly more notable but I don’t think viewing archaeology like Smaug furthers anthropological understandings, it only exacerbates our goblin-esque desires to collect shiny baubles and trinkets. It is through the hundreds of ceramic sherds that we have processed that we understand trade patterns and cultural shifts in consumption habits and how different people played a role in it. Through these rusted nails we can understand what type of building techniques were used and how those changed throughout the years. We can’t go back and ask the people who lived there anything which is unfortunate, but we can still learn from them. Excavation is fun, and it brings a level of camaraderie that makes it enjoyable even in the heat. However, being able to sit down and have an intense analysis of artifacts is a level of intimacy with the past that brings a sense of fulfillment which is difficult for me to fully explain here. I think it just helps me to see that things were never too different to what they are now, and while our culture has changed our nature has not.

My only complaint is that I wish that this field school could last longer. A month is certainly long, but it feels as though we have been rushing through the stages. I never imagined the day that I wanted a course to last longer, but here we are. I understand why it cannot be that way, but if I am to be objective then I need to add a negative.

What I think will sit with me after this will be our excavation of the BcGn-23 site, where we held our initial excavations. We backfilled the dirt and our presence is now a glimpse in the history of this location on the Trent Campus. Students coming to see the campus for the first time will never assume we were once troweling under their feet, and they would certainly never have assumed there to once be such a rich history in this location. I suppose we have joined the history of this site; we are now a part of its story.

To answer my earlier question, yes. I absolutely do believe this was worth going to Trent. This field school has solidified my interest in archaeological and shown me that I am absolutely on the right path. I would recommend anyone interested to absolutely consider this field school if it an option for you. Not only will you exit with a strong foundation in archaeological excavation techniques for your future career, but I think you will find at least one aspect of archaeology that you will love and want to pursue in some form.

P.S. Some advice for the students reading this who are planning to, or currently are taking this course:

• Bring a upf blocking sunshirt, a full brimmed hat, and breathable leather gloves.
• Your attitude determines how the days of the people around you will go, try to be positive.
• Reviewing the Standards and Guidelines for Consultant Archaeologists throughout the course will ensure that you have a deep understanding of the course materials.
• Review the reference guides as well!
• Do not wear heavy clothing, it gets too hot and humid.