Indian Queen Tavern, Day 13: Two Visits Rock the Day

Posted by Mike Roller:

An archaeology site can be an interesting place to work. Inevitably, we are always dealing with local conditions, be it weather or social environment. Though we did do some interesting archaeology today, I would have to say two unexpected visits were the most exciting thing today!

First we had a visit from Mr. Magic, the elusive local purveyor of ice cream, and magic, on wheels. Did I mention it was hot today? Mr. Magic drives a remodeled vintage ice cream truck and serves soft serve ice cream sandwiches and other treats. My orange creamsicle float sure beat the heat! Of course that was until the storm hit....

Yes, about 2:30 we looked up into a sky turning all kinds of purple green and blue, and it was moving fast! We packed up our tents and buckets and paerwork about as fast as we could and headed home. This photo was taken from the window of my car.

Other than this, the morning was productive. Frank finished Unit 6, and removed the western section of unexcavated soil to reveal the rest of his brick feature. Strangely, it terminated just past the edge of his feature, leaving just this corner of a brick structure. The unit immediately to the west (Unit 7) contained a large 19th century architectural feature that may have obliterated the remainder if this earlier brick structure.

In Unit 9 Julie began removing the stone feature that we believe is twentieth century. We are hoping it will reveal more about the deep artifact rich depression we excavated deeper in this unit. We are hoping it is a cellar.

In Unit 11 I came down on something I was expecting, but in a different configuration. A stone foundation was identified running north to south, terminated by the later well. The dark soil I mentioed finding at the end of last week turned out to be charcoal rich soil that may be related to either a burn event or to kitchen refuse. At the end of the (shortened) day we found some small surprises in this charcoal: burnt corn cobs. Later in the lab, we will carefully examine samples from this soil to look for signs of other faunal and floral material, the remains of an ancient tavern meal?

Actually the archaeology part of the day was pretty cool too....