George Bush Homestead Archaeology Project

Wonderful job, students, faculty, staff, and volunteers!

After spending the weekend with Pacific Northwest Archaeology Society members and Dr. Dale Croes at the Hoko River Mouth Retreat, students returned to work today to close down the site for the season.

Students lined the open units with a protective material that will designate where the previous season’s excavation left off, and back filled the units with the sediment they removed during the excavation process.

Before

After

After back filling was complete, students cleaned all the equipment and helped load it into the truck to be transported back to campus for storage!

Thank you everyone for the hard work!!

Students have been hard at work collecting hundreds of artifacts from the Bush Homestead site, however, until recently, the vast majority of these artifacts have been broken pieces of ceramics, glass, and nails.

This week students uncovered a couple of really interesting artifacts.

This artifact is a double sided felling axe head.

Next, we uncovered this peculiar artifact. At first glance we knew that the item was a crank of some kind, however, we could not decide what the purpose of the crank was. Later, students were able to identify the crank as a bicycle crank with the remains of a pedal attached.

We also uncovered our first feature! Features are important in archaeological contexts because they are artifacts that are either too large or inseparable from the site. In this instance, the feature is a deposit, which means that it is represented by a change in soil composition. The feature we uncovered is a deposit that was left behind after someone had a fire. This particular deposit tells us that nothing has disturbed the ground below the fire since it took place.

Students ended the week closing out their units, next week we’ll be back on site to back fill the open units and the rest of the week will be spent finishing up lab work for the season!

Just a reminder if you’d like to come visit the site, this Wednesday (08/19/2015) and Thursday (08/20/2015) are the last two days for public tours!

Tours start in the afternoon between 12:30 and 3:00pm.

Directions: The address is 8400 Old Hwy 99 SE, Tumwater, WA. You’ll take the Trosper Rd exit from I-5 South, cross over the highway and turn right on Capitol, which eventually turns into Old Hwy 99. When you get to the Olympia Airport on your right, keep an eye out for an old Pacific Pride gas station on the left side of the road. Turn left right in front of it: there is a driveway that leads down to a gate. You can park along the road. We’ll have a student at the gate from 12:30 on to guide you up to the site. If you don’t see anyone, we may be on our way up or down; please wait for someone to assist you. The excavation is on private property and we need to respect the owners’ space. Thank you!

For questions or for further information please contact Erin Gamble (gameri31@evergreen.edu) or Dr. Ulrike Krotscheck (ulrikek@evergreen.edu).

Students have been working hard and the excavation is definitely making progress. We’ve mostly been finding shards of glass, ceramics, and metal. However, we’ve actually found some pieces of leather, which is really exciting!

Here are some pictures from last weeks site tours.

Dr. Dale Croes came for a visit, he lead a field survey of the Bush Homestead in 2009 and is a prominent archaeologist in the Pacific NW.

Students measure the location of the diagnositc artifacts they find. In the lab, this information will be used to recreate the context of artifacts for further analysis.

A 1/2 meter x 1/2 meter unit was opened up in section 2 for a test pit. The test pit is a meter deep and is used to determine stratigraphy and the depth of occupation at the site.

Learning how to use a field notebook is an important tool students are learning.

Measuring the depth of the trench.

Dr. Krotscheck speaking with special visitors to the site!

Students were treated with a trunk full of historic photographs from one of the previous owners of the property.

Visitors to the site getting a chance to participate in the dig!

Future archaeologists?

We’ve made headlines! During the first few weeks of excavation we had some news teams visit the site and interview the students, and we just found out this morning that we’ve actually made national headlines!!

Here’s some links to the articles:

The Olympian: Evergreen students begin archaeological dig at Bush homestead

Thurston Talk: Tumwater’s Bush Homestead Site of Summer Archaeology Dig

The Washington Times: Students begin archaeological dig at Bush homestead

This is very exciting news, and we’re all very happy to see how interested the public is in the project!!

Last week, students worked hard to lay out the grid system and to prepare the surface for excavating. Students also collected all the surface finds, they collected a total of 236 surface finds which are now at the lab being cleaned and cataloged.

This week students started working in their individual units.

Evergreen’s first archaeological field school invites you for a visit. We have set up public tour times on Wednesday and Thursday afternoons between 12:30 and 3:00pm for the next three weeks (including this one; so through August 20th).  See below for the address and directions.

Directions: The address is 8400 Old Hwy 99 SE, Tumwater, WA. You’ll take the Trosper Rd exit from I-5 South, cross over the highway and turn right on Capitol, which eventually turns into Old Hwy 99. When you get to the Olympia Airport on your right, keep an eye out for an old Pacific Pride gas station on the left side of the road. Turn left right in front of it: there is a driveway that leads down to a gate. You can park along the road. We’ll have a student at the gate from 12:30 on to guide you up to the site. If you don’t see anyone, we may be on our way up or down; please wait for someone to assist you. The excavation is on private property and we need to respect the owners’ space. Thank you!

For questions or for further information please contact Erin Gamble (gameri31@evergreen.edu) or Dr. Ulrike Krotscheck (ulrikek@evergreen.edu).

We hope to see you there!

Yesterday and today,  students started preparing the excavation grids and collecting surface finds! Lots of manual labor under the hot sun, but the students did a great job and pushed through it.

Setting up the grid system.

Students working hard!

Setting up the total station.

More clearing brush and weeds.

Clearing the brush and weeds.

On Monday, the students will begin excavating their units!

Community Information and Input Meeting for the George Bush Homestead Archaeological Project Field School Thursday, July 23rd, 4:30-6:00pm, The Evergreen State College