In Unit 5, Caroline and Will have completely articulated the chimney fall and an adjacent feature. This will give us a place to begin next season as we expand the area to delineate the hearth and orient the house. After they expend fastidious effort drawing and documenting the architecture, Anna and Dusty shoot about 200 points with the total station to construct a three-dimensional computer model of the collapse.

Will Cauthorn and Caroline Reid measure and sketch the profile section of Unit 5.

In Unit 1, Tracy has discovered another posthole bookending the square with its twin (discovered last week). We are closer to determining the nature and size of the superstructure that once resided here. In Unit 7, Anna discovers another posthole paralleling the one in Unit 3. The original two posts must relate to the cellar’s superstructure, perhaps framing the opening.

The real find was in Unit 3, where Morgan discovered the brick floor lining the bottom of the cellar. The orientation of the bricks is perfectly aligned with the ornamental flora, suggesting that we have probably hypothesized the house’s orientation correctly.

Morgan Pittman discovers the brick floor!

Voila! Unit 3 completed!

After Morgan’s discovery, the pressure is on in Unit 2, where Caroline and Blake hurry to find the continuation of those bricks.

Dusty breaks ground in Unit 8, looking for the cellar’s last corner.

Looking South, we see Unit 3 in the bottom right and Unit 2 in the upper left. The rectangular cellar is oriented diagonally Northeast/Southwest through the corner of these squares. We have decided to open two new squares, Units 7 and 8, to complete the quadrangle and expose as much of the cellar as possible.

We get lucky. In Unit 3, the artifacts have started to dry up, replaced by a thick deposit of mud and loosely packed clay. Below the mud is a layer of sand. Was the sand brought here or is it a natural, geogenic part of the landscape? Since we have not reached the bottom of the cellar yet, this suggests an occupation gap between the original construction/abandonment of the cellar and its reuse as a garbage dump with the 1890s artifacts. The mud fill looks like an organic deposition, rather than a human contribution. So the cellar is evidently decades older than its final cache of artifacts might have suggested. We are pleased with this result, because we had hoped to associate the feature with the original 1840s manor house. Time will tell.

Unit 3 has produced evidence suggesting an organic deposition of fill material in the cellar following an abandonment.

Below a thick layer of mud and clay is an intriguing layer of sand.

In the middle of the cellar, artifacts stick out of the balk into Unit 2. In the lower left, a piece of porcelain or stoneware. In the upper right is an iron piece resembling part of a stovetop. At the bottom is an intact iron hoe blade.

Back at the lab…

Guy Weaver, Avery Pribila and Morgan Pittman conduct the daily artifact reading.

Blake Martin enters the artifact inventory into the searchable database.

Artifact trays drying on the rack.

Results of a rough sort.

Inscribed and marked pottery are significant aids for dating archaeological contexts.

The gang at artifact washing.

Cailin Meyer and Marcus Moreland scrubbing pottery and what-not.

Dusty Long and Caroline Reid process the flotation samples to filter out the botanical remains.

The site is not pretty. The cellar and many other squares are filled with water despite (and in some cases, because of) the plastic tarps we use to cover them at the end of each work day. A bucket brigade line quickly forms and inside of twenty minutes, the water is mostly gone and digging can continue.

We opened a new square today with the hopes of clarifying the entirety of the house’s cellar. Near the chimney fall, a new feature has appeared perhaps with carbonized remains. After this feature is clarified, we intend to cover the square until next season, when we will expose the hearth.

Anna Inman and Dusty Long continued to retrieve satellite data on the outer contours of the copse in which the manor house is situated. This will help us establish the location of the house site a little better relative to the aerial photographs from the 1940s and 1950s.

What a day for artifacts! In addition to the ever-growing collection of metal and ceramic objects, four notable finds surfaced today: an arrowhead from the Archaic Period, a child’s gaming piece, a complete ring with the gem intact, and a glorious button with inlaid gold.

In the afternoon, the students traveled to the cemetery of the Ingram family, one of the first settlers to establish sizable plantation holdings in Hardeman County in the early nineteenth century. Dan Allen, a specialist in cemetery restoration, instructed students in the fine art of mortuary archaeology and burial conservation.

Archaeologist Dan Allen introduces students to the discipline of mortuary conservation.

Dan Allen demonstrates tricks of the trade. “I like to use various tools, like gravity,” he says.

The cellar continues to produce lovely artifacts: stoneware, glassware, decorated porcelain, and an assortment of bizarre metal objects. Jay, Cailin, Lindsay, and Hannah are doing a fantastic job clarifying the extent of the deposition.

In Unit 1, Guy Weaver determines that the burnt feature is for certain a posthole descending into the earth for about a foot. This is evidence of a fence or other superstructure above. The puzzling objects from the detritus include what seems to be a trunk latch.

Meanwhile, Ethan and Tracy return to the scene of Monday’s forest reconnaissance to locate the missing road junction that delineates the western border of the Woodstock plantation. They returned successful with GPS coordinates for the rediscovered road.

The stratigraphic profile of the mound trench seems to reveal a clay cap under the topsoil.

Work at the plantation proceeds apace, with several additional prehistoric arrowheads, pottery marks, and broken playthings. We are persuaded now that kitty-corner squares Units 2 and 3 definitely contain a cellar.

In Unit 5, Caroline and Will have exposed a considerable amount of brick in such an arrangement that we are most likely dealing with the remains of a chimney fall. This is excellent, because it will help us eventually orient the direction and size of the house –– if we are not excavating a detached kitchen, that is.

Most work in an archaeological expedition occurs in the laboratory, if not during the season, then certainly afterwards. What happens to the soil samples we extracted from Unit 1? We wish to determine what kind of botanical remains (seeds, pits, even charred leaf) survive in the material record. Organic material like this, as well as materials used as fertilizer, hold clues about diet, nutrition, wealth, status, and agricultural strategies.

Using the principle of buoyant organic flotation, we employ a Flote-Tech machine, which generates a jacuzzi effect (moderated by pressure valves) that breaks up soil and clay, causing organic material to float to the surface and spill over into a fine mesh collector. This is called the light fraction extraction. The heavy fraction consists of the invariable artifacts (metal, glass, etc.) that obviously will not float to the surface. The efficiency of this machine allows us to process about 100 gallons of soil between cleanings, facilitated by an extraction pump. It is an ugly process, but the results are beautiful. Botanical remains simply spill into their mesh container, which we allow to air dry before bagging. Sieve shakers further separate the dry samples into particle sizes of our selection, permitting microscopic analysis and identification. Our stereo microscope has a real time video attachment, which allows us to project the scope’s image onto a wall screen in our lab for group analysis.

Milton Moreland and Dustin Sump fire up the Flote-Tech, as the water begins to bubble in the upper tank.

Dustin christens the contraption with its first soil sample.

The organic material spills over into the lower tank, where it is caught by the mesh screen. The water is recycled through the machine, while the soil itself is broken up and dissolved into the system prior to cleaning.

Dustin adjusts the pressure valve to regulate the jet strength.

Amy and Dustin find inner peace during their mudbath.

Amy reacts with wonderment to discover the marvel that is palaeobotanical flotation.

Jake Inman takes over in Unit 4, bringing his mighty arm and pick to bear on the densely packed clay.

Marcus Moreland bonds with his father over the sifter. Simply adorable.

Each day after excavating, the plantation crew heads back to Bryan Hall (now renamed the BCLC after itself namesake) for lunch. After lunch, we all pile into trucks and head over to the excavation’s laboratory, where the artifacts are processed. Work begins with washing each artifacts carefully with a brush or other method appropriate to the composition of the object’s fragility. Artifact trays are set to dry overnight, after which they undergo a rough sort; someone will separate the object into general categories: brick, round nails, square nails, porcelain, white glass, blue glass, amber glass, special objects, unidentifiable objects, etc. Then Guy Weaver conducts an artifact reading, in which he identifies the object while a team of scribes catalog the finds and store them in non-acidic bags. Yet another team enters this hand-written data into a searchable computer database in which each object receives an artifact code.

Hannah Spirrison performs the thankless but essential job of scrubbing artifacts. Thank you, Hannah.

Lindsay Plunk conducts a rough sort from the previous day’s haul.

Guy conducts the artifact reading, while Blake, Caroline and Will record the descriptions, dates and unit information about each discrete context.

Will bags the artifacts individually for easy retrieval.

Lindsay Plunk begins to clear soil around the delineated feature. Later she and Hannah Spirrison will research the pottery mark from this unit.

We are seeing a good diversity of artifacts from the suspected cellar. In the plastic bags are a fragment of china with the manufacturer’s mark and a perfectly preserved arrowhead, perhaps from the Paleoindian period.

Cailin Meyer contemplates the metaphysical ramifications of the prehistoric finds efflorescing from her square.

Unit 1 continues to produce carbonized material and intriguing objects. We probably have a posthole in the eastern corner and a collapsed structure of some kind around it. Lots of fence staples here. Could we have a pen of some kind?

Amy Huffenus and Jake Inman show off their hoard of nails, fence staples and such. The meathook on the artifact tray suggests curing took place on site.

Ornamental flora from the nineteenth century still frame the archaeological site. Daffodils, yucca and extremely hearty rosebushes (flourishing next to walnut trees, which tend to kill roses easily) abound. We definitely have a garden of sorts, but are we in the front or back of the house? Rachel Austin and Blake Martin have diligently been working in Unit 4 near a break in the line of equidistantly planted rosebushes.

Rachel and Blake sort the artifacts from their new square. Despite the object haul, we are not seeing any architecture in this unit.

In Unit 5, the square begun by our visitors from Friday, Will Cauthorn and Caroline Reid have been working steadily to expose the top layer of earth. They soon hit pay dirt, so to speak: a cluster of brick in the center of the unit. We had hoped for a chimney in this vicinity given the results of the shovel test, but we will have to be patient.

While Avery Pribila, newly promoted total station capo, uses cutting-edge lasers to calculate elevations, Caroline Reid uses the line level to determine the same. Caroline is so old school!

Unit 5, cleaned up with the brick cluster visible in the center.

A day in the life at Ames. Jamie has to chase the horses off as we begin our trek.

The crew heads into the forest, using the 1863 map as a point of departure.

Our trail of breadcrumbs. Elizabeth Welch marks the path of the 1860s Bolivar-Memphis road. We take satellite points of each flagged tree.

At last we’ve determined the location of the road south of the pasture where the slave cabins were situated. The camera peers upslope to ridge at which opening the cabins would have been visible to the 1863 surveyor, who marked the locations of houses off the road where Union soldiers might expropriate goods or livestock. During the war, this area was completely unforested.

Anna Inman and Dusty Long take GPS points of our location. In this instance, Anna has discovered a yucca, which is an ornamental plant. This indicates that Anna has in fact located a completely unknown archaeological site. Now entirely melted into the landscape, this location no doubt once housed a nineteenth-century homestead. Dusty takes a satellite point and we will add the location to the Ames registry of historical sites in need of conservation.

Jamie notes a fork in the road. Note Dusty’s backpack antenna, which boosts his signal under the canopy forest.

Sometimes the backpack antenna is not sufficient under dense coverage. Ethan and Dusty use the hurricane antenna affixed to a range pole to get a satellite read on the North/South road abutting the slave cemetery on the boundary of the Woodstock plantation.

Back at the plantation site, we are making good progress clarifying the open squares. The mounds crew from last week has rotated in and learned the ropes in no time.

Rachel Austin and Blake Martin open a new square, while Avery Pribila sifts the soil for artifacts.

Guy works with Molly Bombardi-Mount, Dustin Sump and Jake Inman on a square that has begun to produce a considerable amount of carbonized material. We will collect soil samples for flotation, a process that separates the botanical material from the soil.

Jay Jordan and Marcus Moreland show Guy how it’s really done.

Cailin Meyer carefully inspects her treasures from the sifter.

We begin with Sauls Mound, the largest of the Pinson earthworks, which dominates the surrounding environs. At 22 meters, Sauls Mound is the second tallest Native American mound structure in the United States. The apex may have featured standing ceremonial structures for ritual and astronomical purposes. Given the vantage point of the mound, several archaeologists have theorized that Native American astronomers may have used the upper mound to observe the vernal and autumnal equinoxes.

Sauls Mound, the tallest mound at Pinson and second tallest in North America.

The crew at the top of Sauls Mound. Back row: Will Cauthorn, Jay Jordan, Molly Bombardi-Mount, Amy Huffenus, Tracy Barnhill, Blake Martin, Jesse Weaver, Dusty Long, Ethan McClelland; Middle row: Dr. Milton Moreland, Avery Pribila, Rachel Austin, Caroline Reid, Morgan Pittman, Lindsay Plunk, Kelly White, Elizabeth Welch, Cailin Meyer, Hannah Spirrison; Bottom row: Dr. Ryan Byrne, Guy Weaver, Dustin Sump, Marcus Moreland, Micah Moreland.

Guy Weaver explains the archaeological and historical significance of Sauls Mound to the students. Guy has a long association with the top of this mound, where he was married almost thirty years ago.

From this vantage point, the occupants of Sauls Mound could chart the equinox sunrises.