Image 1: Vultures looming above the site
After inspecting the site, we found the buzzards were not too happy with our excavations. It seems that they had a taste for the orange flagging tape and the string around our units as well as the datum lines (Image 2). Further, they left many "presents" and feathers around the site. It was a lovely sight and smell to start the morning.
Image 2: Unit "visited" by vulture
Yet their pale soon passed and after restringing the datum and marking the units with new flagging tape, the excavations continued. While the buzzards greeted us from the trees for several days thereafter, we were able to make significant progress exploring the rear yard area of 18BA313.
Excavation Unit (EU 11), which mirrored EU 10 a few meters away to the east, was slightly deeper in depth with several artifacts, like pipe stems and pearlware and whiteware ceramic pieces, at the base of culturally sterile soil (Image 3). We know from our excavations over the past two years that the sterile soil in the area is a reddish-brown clay. In 2009, we decided to test whether this soil was a fill soil or a natural, sterile clay. At about a meter and a half below the surface, this soil disappeared only after we hit limestone bedrock— which seems to make sense given all the quarries around! Still, in EU11, we dug about 20 to 30 cm into the clay just to make sure it was devoid of artifacts. The soil proved to be sterile and we backfilled the unit.
Image 3: EU 11 Wall Profile
Just a meter or two to the north, EU 9 proved to be much more challenging (Image 4). After removal of the post and posthole, we excavated the west half of the unit. We found very few artifacts, and the soil was extremely hard. In fact, we had difficulty excavating with even shovels and a pick. In the sun, this unit caused much sweat and a few blisters before we reached a reddish-brown sterile clay. As in EU11 upon reaching sterile soil, we mapped the different soil profiles and features in the wall of EU 9 prior to backfilling.
Image 4: Katie excavating EU 9
We then concentrated our efforts on the two remaining units, EUs 1 and 12. Away from the gaze of the buzzards, EU 1 sat at the far end of a rear lot close to Church Lane (Image 5). We hoped to encounter a privy in this location. We assumed that this triangular house lot would have its privy at the narrow end of the lot away from the road. While we found several nineteenth-century artifacts like pipe stems and ceramics, we did not locate a privy or any other identifiable feature. Besides a concentration of small bones, the soil stratigraphy was relatively level with the ground surface and shallow. Therefore, we mapped and recorded the soil stratigraphy and once again backfilled.
Image 5: Wall Profile of EU 1
Nearby units excavated in 2009 were equally shallow in depth to sterile soil. While these units were on a different lot, does this mean there was less intensive activity in this area? So far, the small fragments of artifacts and the large number of domestic artifacts suggest that the rear lots were used for a variety of activities associated with the occupants of the homes. Based on the marbles and doll parts found, maybe kids played in the rear yards, especially since the front yards of homes along Railroad Avenue bordered the busy rail line. Similarly, the lot along Church Lane also has a small front yard area, and the occupants may have utilized the rear yard as well.
The last unit, EU 12, was our last hope for finding a substantial feature that may further shine a light on activities in the rear yard area or life in Texas in general. By the beginning of the week, we had some interesting finds from ceramics, like a whiteware ceramic base with a "Thomas China Co." maker's mark, to writing slates and pencils to many nails (Image 6). EU 12 also produced limestone and brick and an assortment of modern and nineteenth-century artifacts (Image 7). Is this debris from the residence on Railroad Avenue that burned down in the 1890s?
Image 6: Erika holding a whiteware ceramic base with "Thomas China Co." maker's mark
Image 7: Miguel and Erika excavating the first soil layer of EU 12
EU 12 initially contained different soil layers than what we had encountered in the other units. Yet, after excavation of these first layers, it was clear that they potentially were disturbed fill layers. The vertical positions of the limestone and brick as well as the large patches of reddish-brown clay suggest that this soil and rock had been mixed and redeposited as some point.
Further, we found artifacts, such as a Frozen Charlotte's doll head (Image 8) and other ceramics, but in the same context as plastic. By the end of the week, we had some help from one of Ed Doyle's (who ran the bar at the corner of Church Lane and Railroad Avenue in the early twentieth century) descendants. With her help, we found a feature in the soil that contained coal and limestone. By the next day, after excavation, this feature turned out to be a soil layer. Yet, we will have to see what lies beneath next week and what the profile of the feature looks like.
Image 8: Frozen Charlotte doll head from EU12
Finally, we had an opportunity to visit Wye House, a plantation where Frederick Douglas was enslaved and where the other field school is running. As our field school winds down next week, Katie will soon give us an account of that visit and how it may relate to Texas.
Adam Fracchia
July 4, 2011
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