Thursday, November 7, 2013

Field Day 20


Well, it was a rainy but not at all unproductive day at the site! Above you can see Jenny, Tricia, and I working on Level 1 of Feature 4, which we were able to finish despite the rain (the pink umbrella is covering our recording forms and artifacts). We were even able to make a few notable finds, such as the shard of glass below, which has either an etched or painted design on it (although you can't really see it in the photo).


You may recall that Feature 4 is an extension of STP 3/3A/3B/3C. I have my own highly sophisticated process for labeling all the units, which is called "Making it up as I go along." Next season I am considering giving the units names like Mary and Tom. Or maybe Louis A. Brennan. When it comes down to it all of these designations are arbitrary, although I have tried to use some logic in creating them so that people in the future who look at our records will be able to tell what we were thinking. As long as everything is recorded properly, I figure we'll be all right.

In addition to working on Feature 4, we were able to backfill Feature 2, a.k.a. the corner of that weird rectangle of stone pillars from 1964. We kept the part of a pillar that we removed from the unit outside of the filled-in trench, but for now it's staying on the ground where it is. It's an artifact, but a really heavy one.


When it began to rain harder, we were forced to close the unit for the day, pack up our stuff, and go home. Excavating in the rain is really messy, and I think we all got covered in mud, but it was pretty warm and pleasant when it wasn't raining (incidentally, it's forecast to snow next week).


On a final note, I'd like to thank the Rockland-Bergen Postcard Club in Pearl River for having me as a speaker last night. I gave a presentation on the history, restoration, and archaeology of the cemetery, and shared some artifacts from the site and some postcards showing views of the town. I had a great time and gained some valuable experience in public speaking, which I hope to do more as we share our finds with the community.

1 comment:

  1. I hope you kept the hood up while you were giving the talk. It would make you mysterious; you'd get a following to rival the leather man. And I hope that when you stop digging up graveyards for the winter, you'll find something else to talk about.

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