Day 5: Good Weather, Doll Parts, Public Tours

The weather held up beautifully today, which made it easier to work on a Saturday. We opened up two additional units based upon information we gathered in the first four. One of them will explore an area further away from the house, where we may have the chance to find traces of outbuildings that may be underground. Vince worked really hard to get through a tough network of roots. At the end of the day yesterday, we found a possible prehistoric feature at the base of another unit. It looks like a mysterious linear stain in the sand, deep below ground. We decided to open the adjacent unit to "chase it down" and explore it some more.

Elsewhere, we have been finding a plethora of late 19th and early 18th century artifacts. Do you remember that doll head we found on Day One? We found two more doll heads today! Here is a narrative from Field Staff Tara Giuliano:

"The unit I have been working on with my dig partner Ben has been full of porcelain and bisque doll faces. We can tell they are a part of a doll’s face because of how it is shaped, how thick it is, and the “fleshy” color of the porcelain. Some of the pieces also have features like ears, eyes and hand painted eyebrows. We have also found doll figurines such as the one pictured below. It has a detailed face and a cute bonnet and is probably from the mid 1800’s." (the bonneted one is in the lower left of the dustpan)

Julie, gave some great site tours for our public day. If you didn't have a chance to attend, we will have another one when we start the Market Master's house in June. Here are some photos of the the tours:

This photo shows the diversity of materials coming out of the units. This is the kind of data we archaeologists love!