Our excavation on October 7th reinforced patterns from last excavation day, as Trench 3 continued to produce more numerous finds while Trench 4 provided more variety in contexts. We were also able to begin to use the total station for the first time to measure more exactly our context elevations and points in both trenches. A total station is a piece of equipment that measures coordinates and distances.

Catherine takes measurements across the Quiet Green with the Total Station.

Quiet Green Trench 3 (QG3)

QG3 continues to unearth many artifacts. The soil was damper than previously due to rain earlier in the day, but it did not influence the dig much. We continued to dig in the same context, using large picks to proceed through the rocky soil, only using trowels when delicate finds appeared.

After digging for only a short while, large deposits of brick fragments appeared. By the end of the day, we would find many more fragments, some nearly complete. We found nail fragments along with these brick pieces. They appear to be cut nails nearly two inches in length. These nails could be framing nails affiliated with the timber structure used to move the President’s house. The presence of both brick and nails (construction material) continues to affirm the existence of a previous structure or the presence of a construction site.

Objects relating to daily life were also found. While in previous weeks we found only small ceramic and glass fragments, this week we unearthed larger specimens. In one glass fragment small bubbles were visible, indicative of blown glass. Additionally, we found two clay pipe stems and a diagnostic piece of a pipe bowl with the design still present. Though the date of the pipe has yet to be determined, pipes are easily dated due to extensive documentation.

Two equally exciting finds of the day were an animal tooth (most likely a pig’s tooth or a cow’s tooth) and a large skeleton key. While the key appears to be in rough condition, the tooth is nearly intact and could offer interesting information regarding the site prior to the President’s house’s existence or to sometime thereafter.

A sandy context in trench QG4 – maybe a posthole from an earlier temporary structure on campus?

Quiet Green Trench 4 (QG4)

The difference in soil color running down the middle of the trench that was first observed last week remained obvious.  We decided to use hand picks to start to excavate the darker eastern section of QG4 (context 2), and while doing so stumbled on a new context, a small pocket of sand (context 4).  When we continued to excavate this area of sand we found that it had very obvious edges, and looked like it had been used to fill a hole in the ground.  Possible explanations are that sand was used to fill a post hole, or that sand was used to replace soil moved from putting up tents on the green.

We removed the sand from this area and continued to excavate by troweling the area around this context and continue to lower the darker original context (2).  Besides the pocket of sand, no change in soil was apparent at this lower level of the eastern context. The finds in QG4 were similar to last week- very small pieces of ceramic glass and brick- but we also found an Indian Head Penny dated to the early 1900’s.

At the end of the day our contexts continued to be of different colors diagonally down the middle of the trench. As noted last week, this difference in soil might be the first evidence of a prior path, but also might be the result of landscaping changes, or an unknown reason.

An end of day shot for Trench QG4, facing south.

Our contexts are now at different elevations, and we will probably lower the Western context (context 3) to be even with the Eastern one (context 2) at our next excavation date. We hope to continue to find equally interesting objects that will offer some more insight into Brown’s campus.