This week we focused on our new area. They believe that this is also a hut because of the depression in the soil near a tree and the large amount of stone piled at the base of the tree which is evidence of chimney fall. As each group excavated their individual units it became clear that there was a definite soil stain that extended well into all of them in an almost square shape. This is interesting because it doesn’t really comply with the orders General Von Steuben gave for proper hut dimensions. It’s too soon to make any kind of general conclusion but its unusual apparent size could be due to the harshness of the circumstances in which they were constructed. It’s possible that the cold weather compelled the soldiers to build their huts as quickly as possible to protect them from the elements. Aside from evidence of features we have so far found some sherds of redware, a few nails from the 18th century, pieces of a clay pipe and a musket ball. The musketball appears to have scars from being put in with the ram rod but never fired.
On Wednesday afternoon we went to Temple and finished bagging most of the clean artifacts from the 2007 and 2008 field schools. This type of work is just as important as the actual digging. It’s interesting to compare the types of artifacts found at previous field schools with those that we are finding this year.
On Friday we definitively identified one of our units as containing the hearth of the hut. The rocks are flat and in the correct position, an exciting end to our fourth week.
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