George Bush Homestead Archaeology Project

Many hands make light work, and light is exactly what we’re going for as we finish excavating the hearth. For all we know, this has been in the ground for over a century, so it is extremely important that we treat it with utmost care in order to preserve its delicate structure.

It’s slow going but, with great intention, we work together to remove this historical treasure safely.

Finally, the hearth is removed. We were unable to keep it in one, continuous piece but, considering how delicate this feature is, we are pleased with our slow and careful work. All that is left now is to let it dry before cleaning and analyzing it in the lab. Because many of us are interested in pursuing careers in archaeology, experience like this is invaluable. Who knows what story it will tell?

Meanwhile, our refuse pit from earlier this week is coming into view. With something like this, we first expose the upper level of the feature without disturbing the orientation of individual artifacts. We slowly bring this forgotten deposit into focus, revealing an image of the past. Does this qualify as fine art? You be the judge.

We are excited to begin delving deeper, but also suspect that we will not have time for a full excavation of this particular feature during the current field season. In the same way that we finished excavating the hearth uncovered near the end of last season, it is up to next year’s archaeologists to continue what we have begun this season. Archaeologists collaborate across time, often with people they will never meet in person, and yet it is this kind of collaboration that makes what we are doing possible.

As the sun sits high in the sky, our wonderful professor dishes out ice cream sandwiches to hungry archaeologists in 90+ degree weather. Our spirits are renewed as we look forward to more digging. Thanks Ulrike!

Finally, some of us return to the lab and get a head start on cleaning, organizing, and cataloging our many finds. Tomorrow, we will all take a break from the sun to continue this process together. This is an overlooked but essential part of archaeology. One person’s trash is another’s treasure, and we take a moment to admire how beautiful some of the glass artifacts from the trash deposit appear when laid out together, freshly cleaned and free of the earth from which they came. We look forward to more lab time tomorrow!

We have finally investigated all four of the anomalies that showed up in our GPR survey, and what we have found is a whole lot of clay.

But with these possibilities ruled out, we are free to leave this cul-de-sac and get back on the open road of discovery. And so we continue. Here, a pair of archaeologists are hard at work opening up a small but promising test pit for further investigation.

As they dig deeper, we find one of the holy grails of archaeology: a trash pit. The rumors are true. Archaeologists love trash, and this deposit is overflowing with it. Even as we get started, we are presented with an abundance of leather, glass, and metal artifacts, all of historical value.

Here, we see some historical glass and a metal spring. A bootheel rests just outside the frame. These are just a few of the hundreds of artifacts that have come from this pit so far. We have only begun to scratch the surface of this pit, its size and edges are still unknown, and it should keep us busy for quite a while. Who knows what we will find hidden in the earth?

Meanwhile, excavations on a hearth that was previously discovered continue on. Thanks to the great work of last year’s crew, we are able to continue where they left off. Here, they uncovered the existence of this feature near the end of their dig. Now, we continue on and will soon be able to remove, clean, and catalog this window into the past. At the same time, we extend our area of excavation to include the area surrounding this hearth. This is a great example of how digs evolve from year to year, and we are indebted to the hard work of last year’s field school. We hope that future archaeologists will eventually benefit from our hard work this summer!

Last week, Steve Hackenberger trained us on how to use ground penetrating radar (GPR) to find anomalies in the earth. After taking a number of readings, we found some!

The task now is to discover whether these anomalies are natural or cultural features. We are hoping to find cultural features, and so we begin digging to find an explanation for these anomalies.

Phew! After going down nearly a meter, we discover a deposit of highly compacted clay. This is not the road we are looking for, but there are other anomalies to uncover, and even the discovery of natural features like this one are highly valuable in that they help us narrow down the possible places where cultural features might be hidden beneath the soil.  Meanwhile, a reporter from the Olympian is taking photos, hopefully to follow up on their recent coverage of the dig as Ulrike crouches in our pit.

 

Gasp! We thought we had stumbled upon a game changing find, but it turned out to be Jessie taking a much deserved break after a long dig. We hope compacted clay is comfortable.  In the meantime, there are more anomalies to uncover, and a promising new deposit to begin excavating as we continue searching for answers in the dirt.

Today was such pleasant weather for the field, cross your fingers a cool front swoops our way and gives us most 70 degree days! Last week it was hot, hot, hot, and the ~15 of us out at Bush Prairie felt every hour of it. We have accomplished great work thus far! We’ve…

Uncovered the original excavation site and laid out the grid again. We are working in around 15 different squares. Most of them are concentrated around the super cool deposit the field school found last year, something that was also uncovered and is being carefully excavated by one of our volunteers.

We’ve had some groups of visitors come by since last Wednesdays, when our public tours started. (See this post for our tour schedule and details!) There are two model excavation units for those who want to get their hands dirty at the site (especially the kids!) Nathan trained everyone in how to use our Total Station, so now we’re taking points across the excavation and building a map the field school may use for years to come..

Today, Steven Hackenberger from Central Washington University came back out to the homestead to train us in his Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) equipment, from which we have enough preliminary data to start some shovel tests across the field. Those will commence tomorrow. A few more excavation sites have opened up next to a test pit, also started today, that gave us some really, really interesting finds! Pieces of leather, tons of metal, charcoal, some bone, interesting shards of glass.

I know that we can’t wait to see what else we find. Be sure to come out and see for yourself before it’s over!