Field Day 14

Well, things really seem to be coming into place (literally). We have pinpointed the location of St. Mark's pretty definitively, and now the possible location of St. George's Church seems to be within our grasp. And that dry well? Probably not a dry well after all. Thanks, Bill! But let's start at the beginning. Untangling tape measures! I should probably never touch one of these again.

But now to Feature 1. When Bill pointed out that the rocks in the feature were too large and not in the right positions to be a dry well, but instead looked as if they were the support for some sort of large structure, I realized that Feature 1 is in the right position to have been the base of the St. Mark's Church's steeple. And then we (i.e. Bill) found this:


Four chisel marks, indicating that this massive stone was broken apart before being placed here and covered with other rocks. Many of the rocks in this unit, as you may remember, are surrounded by mortar, and it is in this unit that we have found such a massive amount of nails, glass (fancy and non-fancy), pieces of metal, and the hand pestle. Is this where the steeple was?

Here's Bill measuring the grooves. You can also just see the large groove in the rock directly above this rock (Groovy Rock?), which had been visible from the surface.


Meanwhile, Angelika discovered a small metal anchor just beneath the surface of the ground near the line of trees that separates the Episcopal Cemetery from the Methodist. I believe that this picture was taken when she was showing it to me, while I was pointing toward the other anchor we found in a rock on the surface of the ground nearby.


By anchor, of course, I don't mean the type used in ships, but a little metal knob used to connect the wooden part of a building to its stone base. The discovery of this anchor helped us to formulate a new theory about the location of St. Mark's. We realized that we needed to be digging here:

"Here" being an area slightly southwest of Feature 1, where it appears the corner of St. Mark's was located. We were previously unsure if these rocks had been part of the church or if they, like the dozens of footstones, had been placed here in the 1960s by residents who thought they knew where the church was. This might be one of those instances where a piece of knowledge led us in the wrong rather than the right direction. Because we knew people had been moving stones around the cemetery and that they had (according to a letter written to the town historian) placed cornerstones where they thought the church had been, we had assumed that what we were seeing was a result of actions taken in the 1960s. If we hadn't known what had been done in the 1960s, we might have assumed that this was the foundation all along!

This is what Feature 2 (as we named it) looked after a little digging:


Laurie said that these stones look like marble, and I think she may be right. In contrast, the stones in STP 3 and Feature 1 are granite. In addition, the construction methods used in STP 3 and Feature 2 are quite different. In case you don't remember, this is what STP 3 looks like. Compare that mishmash of irregularly shaped stones with these smooth, meticulously shaped ones.

The question is now, if Feature 2 is the foundation wall of St. Mark's, and Feature 1 is the base of its steeple, what is STP 3? We're investigating the possibility that it is St. George's Church. If our theory is true, then our site might look a little something like this:

The X's represent eighteenth-century gravestones, numbers 1-5 are STPs 1-5, and F1 and F2 are Features 1 and 2. Since it runs north-south, I am assuming that the foundation wall in STP 3 is either the eastern or western wall of the church. I have made it the western wall in the map above because of an area that Laurie, Angelika, and I have all noticed to the east of STP 3, where the grass is brown, the earth rises a bit, and a few unshaped stones stick out of the earth. This could be a continuation of the foundation wall, or it could be something else.
 
In any case, time is quickly running out for us to establish any new units this season. Since we don't want to leave any units open, we will have to finish the ones we have already started before the frost sets in. Above, work on the dry well Feature 1 continues.

Above, Gretchen and I look at Munsell color swatches while Tricia, who is digging Feature 1, looks on. Later two of the swatches fell off and I had to shove them into the pocket of the book so that they wouldn't get lost. Luckily they are colors that are rarely seen! If they were 3s or 4s we might be in trouble.

Above, historian John compares the stones in the graveyard against a photograph of St. Mark's. This is not as easy as it seems. The perspective of the photograph makes it hard to tell whether the church is behind or in front of certain stones.

Later, John used the shaker screen, because it's fun and everyone should get a chance to do it.


Everyone, that is, except for the Archaeology Dog. The Archaeology Dog's job is to roll in the leaves and sleep next to the units.

To conclude, our goals for the next few weeks are as follows:

-Show STP 4 and STP 5 to the experts (Carol and/or Eugene) before filling them in.
-Complete the excavation of Feature 2. This shouldn't take too long, as it is not nearly as complicated as Feature 1.
-Make as much progress as we can on Feature 1. We may not be able to finish it, either because time runs out or the rocks keep us from going any lower. However, it seems that we have not reached the outer limits of the feature, and so it may be possible to expand the unit laterally when we return in the spring, thus venturing into whole new worlds of nails and fancy glass (hopefully).
-Make a map of the cemetery with all of the units we have dug.
-Make a map of the cemetery with all of the gravestones and their dates.
-Write an overall summary of our work this season (in addition to my daily excavation log).
-When the excavation is done, bring the artifacts to their new home, and clean, organize, and catalog them.
-Have an end-of-field season party!