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Sunday, August 16, 2015
Tuesday, August 11, 2015
Brinton Museum hosts lecture on American Indian art and artifacts
Brinton Museum hosts lecture on American Indian art and artifacts
The
Brinton Museum exhibition "To Honor the Plains Nations" features
American Indian art and artifacts. Father Peter J. Powell will discuss
the items at a Thursday lecture.
Father Peter J. Powell will
discuss American Indian art and artifacts during a Thursday lecture at
the Brinton Museum. Powell is associate curator of "To Honor the Plains
Nations," an exhibition of American Indian items that were recently
gifted to the museum.
Powell is scheduled to discuss the
spiritual qualities of the items, along with how they were made and used
by by the people who lived in the area surrounding the Bighorn
Mountains.
The associate curator is also a well-known scholar, author, Anglican priest and Northern Cheyenne Chief.
Wednesday, August 5, 2015
Site manager focuses on stories behind stone carvings at Jeffers Petroglyphs
Site manager focuses on stories behind stone carvings at Jeffers Petroglyphs
COMFREY, Minn. —
Jeffers Petroglyphs — where 3,000 stone carvings recently came to
light, where archaeologists uncovered tools that suggest Native
Americans did more there than simply pass through — the most important
discoveries may be self-discoveries.
A
sacred site for potentially as long as 11,000 years, Native American
elders believe it was a place for individual prayer. The most recent
carvings were made 250 years ago. Jeffers remains one of the oldest
continuously used sacred sites in the world.
"It
represents history. It represents stories. You know, it probably
represents even the other side, and probably the future. It represents
our past, and if you look, it probably represents our future," said Jim
Jones, the Bemidji-based cultural resource director for the Minnesota
Indian Affairs Council and a member of the Leech Lake Pillager Band of
Chippewa. While Jones doesn't consider himself a spiritual person, he
said he respects what Jeffers represents.
"It's
not just one physical spot, like Jeffers. It's the whole place. It's
the whole ridge. When you look at Jeffers, you can't look at it as just
one place," Jones told the St. Cloud Times
(http://on.sctimes.com/1I8oexV).
The 23-mile-long ridge of Sioux quartzite rises above the prairies and fields of Cottonwood County.
Today,
Jeffers draws visitors who want to see some of the 5,000 carvings,
ponder who might have passed through, take in 1,200 acres of surrounding
prairie. At Jeffers, they'll see depictions of moose, buffalo, elk,
thunderbirds and humans.
There's
a visitor center and an interpretive trail, yet Jeffers stops short of
feeling like a tourist spot. That's partly due to Tom Sanders. The
Minnesota Historical Society site manager for the past 17 years, he
downplays a new tour that includes 20 recently uncovered petroglyphs.
Instead,
Sanders focuses on the stories behind those carvings — stories he's
developed through conversations with Native American elders, supported
(but not constrained by) archaeological findings.
"This
tour is designed really to put a face on the people and to tell
history. It's really designed to tell 10,000 years of history using the
carvings," Sanders said.
It's a history of people including the Dakota, Cheyenne, Ioway and Arapaho — all among those known to have passed through.
"I
don't like the idea of things that make us appear to be different. I
like to focus on things that bring us together. It's a very important
American Indian concept, that we're all related. We're all human
beings."
On a baking hot Tuesday afternoon, Sanders explained the ridge's significance. And he told a few stories.
He
told of a sort of Native American superhero, Redhorn, a figure in
Ho-Chunk and Ioway stories who defeats every enemy — including the
giants. He pointed out a moose calf, which could represent a prayer for
replenishing the herd. He explained the significance of the atlatl, a
spear-thrower that gave hunters an extra 100 yards.
"Can you imagine hunting a mastodon with a spear?" Sanders said.
The
same symbol could have a different meaning to different cultures. If it
fits the carving, Sanders tells the story — or two or three stories.
Jones
— who has visited Jeffers representing the historical society, the
Science Museum of Minnesota and as a craftsman — has seen rock carvings
throughout the U.S. and Canada.
"Are
there similarities? Yes. Are they the same image? I can't say. But I
know I've seen them somewhere else. Are they connected? Maybe. Probably.
But what's definitely connected is the stories," Jones said.
Most of Jeffers' 5,000-plus carvings appear on a rock face that measures 50 by 300 yards.
The
lichen removal that uncovered 3,000 more petroglyphs started in 2006.
It consisted of weighting down a black mat to block the sunlight.
Workers then simply washed the lichens away.
Making out the carvings takes practice.
They
were pecked into the stone using a harder rock, probably a chert or
flint. The depressions are less than an eighth-inch deep, a textured
depression set in the smooth reddish rock
Complicating
matters, the carvings appear amid lines glaciers etched into the rock
when they ground and spun their way across the landscape. Cracks run
through some of the carvings. The ones Sanders pointed out ranged from
about 4 inches to about 18 inches across.
The
images stand out best in the low light of early morning or late
evening. Sanders rigs up a plywood shade and a truck mirror to
compensate for the flat light of midday.
Our tour started with the easiest images to discern, including the solid-bodied moose.
From
there, Sanders moved to a canid — a wolf, in this case. A small hand,
which in some cultures represents a connection to the spirit world. Two
moose.
"We have to do things by logic with rock art," Sanders said. "This was moose territory 10,000 years ago."
Sanders
structured our viewing of 16 carvings by time frame, moving from
solid-bodied animals to people — which didn't pop up in carvings until
about 2,000 years ago. That was post-glacier time when the land dried
up, the larger prey disappeared and the focus turned to social bonds,
larger groups and ceremonies.
"Populations
were growing. And climate change made them really diversify in the way
they found food," Sanders said. "What we can see archaeologically —
people experiment. In times of stress, people experiment more. And they
learn more skills."
One
of Sanders' favorite carvings depicts figures, including what appears
to be a girl dancing, head thrown back. At this point, the figures are
outlines — which Sanders sees not as a simplification but as an
incorporation of geometry or symbolism.
"Archaeologists
write reports, and all it is is about pot shards and fragments of
arrowheads. They want a narrative," Sanders said.
"We're
giving it meaning. It could be many things," Sanders said. "Elders will
say, 'What's the point? Why are you doing this?' We're not doing this
just out of curiosity. We're doing this to try to create a narrative.
What does this say about our ancestors? We're not concerned about any
sort of absolute certainty."
The Sioux quartzite ridge is part of one of the world's oldest bedrock formations.
About
1.65 billion years ago, it was sand deposited by braided rivers. Today,
24 of the ridge's 209 outcrops contain petroglyphs.
Archaeology
puts those carvings in context, said Brian Hoffman, the Hamline
University anthropology professor who, with student archaeologists, has
collaborated with Sanders since 2011.
While
it affords a view of the surroundings, the site wouldn't have made a
good long-term campsite for the people who carved the petroglyphs
because it's too far from water and offers no cover.
Archaeologists
are studying spots within 5 miles of Jeffers that might help to
determine who carved the petroglyphs, when, and how long they stayed.
"Is it a local site or is it a regional site or is it even beyond?" Hoffman said.
Some of the stone tool discoveries originated in the Dakotas, Iowa and eastern Minnesota.
"We're starting to paint a picture where it's at least a regional site," Hoffmann said.
Artifacts
found at one location seem to indicate longer-term stays — weeks, at
least; those found at another seem to indicate a quarry.
The
types of tools that have turned up so far — chippers, anvils and
grinding stones among them — suggest to Hoffman a longer stay. The
microdrill that turned up this July would have been used to work on bone
or wood — not the sort of activity expected a long distance from water.
"Any
time we find something we wouldn't expect, we have to go back and
rethink all our assumptions," Hoffman said. "I don't think it's a
permanent site, but I think it's a site where they're doing more than
just passing through."
This
fall, a Hamline University-funded crew will return to search for
definitive evidence that pipestone was being quarried at the site. That
evidence might include percussion marks on the rock face or spalls — the
broken pieces of rock created in quarrying.
"If
we find more direct evidence of quarrying activity, it would really
change our understanding of the redrock ridge," Hoffman said by phone
from the field. "The diversity is much greater than we had maybe
expected."
Monday, August 3, 2015
Bring Native American artifacts for ID Night at Libby Museum
-
Bring Native American artifacts for ID Night at Libby Museum
WOLFEBORO - The Libby Museum is proudly hosting “Native American Identification Night” with Dr. Robert Goodby on Thursday, Aug. 6 from 7-8 p.m. This free program is sponsored by the Friends of the Libby and is open to the public.
Similar to Antiques Roadshow on PBS, this program is intended to help you discover
if you have an authentic artifact. We encourage all those who plan to attend, to bring in your own Native American artifact and Dr. Goodby will try to identify it using his years of experience. Is it just a rock or do you have an authentic Native American treasure? You might find that you have a 5,000 year old spear point in your possession! Goodby will also identify and talk about the artifacts in the Libby Museum collection.
Saturday, August 1, 2015
Brazilian archaeologists find human presence dating back 4,000 years in Rio
Brazilian archaeologists find human presence dating back 4,000 years in Rio
Some 500 artifacts made from stone and shells that experts
consider vestiges of a human presence in southeastern Brazil dating back
about 4,000 years were found during excavations for an expansion of the
Rio de Janeiro subway.
The artifacts were found at an archaeological site near the port and downtown area, the Rio de Janeiro state government said.
Digs in the area began in 2013 as part of the subway expansion project, which the city pledged to complete when it was selected to host the 2016 Olympic Games.
The site, which was preserved to allow a team of archaeologists hired by the construction company to do its work, has yielded 50 stone artifacts and about 400 seashell instruments.
The artifacts are typical of those made by the primitive nomadic groups that moved across the Rio region long before the first indigenous peoples settled in the area, state officials said.
"These are pieces between 3,000 and 4,000 years old from the period when paleo-Indians who roamed the territory around the Guanabara Bay were hunters, fishermen, gatherers and nomads, and had not organized into tribes yet," the Rio de Janeiro state government said in a statement.
Experts have identified spearheads and tools, such as primitive hammers, axes and scrapers, used to take meat off animal hides and to work stones.
"The prehistoric items will help us to understand an important part of the process of primitive population in Rio de Janeiro," archaeologist Claudio Prada de Mello, coordinator of the team that retrieved the artifacts, said.
"To find something like this in downtown Rio de Janeiro, an area that has undergone several cycles of settlement and transformation, is fantastic," the archaeologist said.
The artifacts were found at an archaeological site near the port and downtown area, the Rio de Janeiro state government said.
Digs in the area began in 2013 as part of the subway expansion project, which the city pledged to complete when it was selected to host the 2016 Olympic Games.
The site, which was preserved to allow a team of archaeologists hired by the construction company to do its work, has yielded 50 stone artifacts and about 400 seashell instruments.
The artifacts are typical of those made by the primitive nomadic groups that moved across the Rio region long before the first indigenous peoples settled in the area, state officials said.
"These are pieces between 3,000 and 4,000 years old from the period when paleo-Indians who roamed the territory around the Guanabara Bay were hunters, fishermen, gatherers and nomads, and had not organized into tribes yet," the Rio de Janeiro state government said in a statement.
Experts have identified spearheads and tools, such as primitive hammers, axes and scrapers, used to take meat off animal hides and to work stones.
"The prehistoric items will help us to understand an important part of the process of primitive population in Rio de Janeiro," archaeologist Claudio Prada de Mello, coordinator of the team that retrieved the artifacts, said.
"To find something like this in downtown Rio de Janeiro, an area that has undergone several cycles of settlement and transformation, is fantastic," the archaeologist said.
Friday, July 31, 2015
Teams digging into history of the earliest people
Teams digging into history of the earliest people
Workers cluster in a corner, each working
on a square meter excavation area as archaeological researchers continue
a dig at a site on Buttermilk Creek near Salado, Texas. The workers say
they have previously unearthed artifacts that are 15,000 years old. 
SALADO, Texas (AP) —
In a grassy meadow where eons ago some of America's first settlers
camped and chipped stone tools, a precisely dug dirt pit, four yards
square, is sinking steadily into the dark soil.
And as it descends
at a rate of an inch or two a day, the remote excavation northwest of
Austin is also traveling backward through the millennia toward the
continent's first native people.
"We're down about three feet now, and that's
10,000 years back," said Thatcher Rogers, 22, one of about a dozen
archaeology students who spend their summer days on hands and knees,
scraping with small trowels.
"I'm trying to take a millimeter or two off at a time, and focus on not removing the larger flakes. And I'm trying to notice any differences in the soil," Rogers, a recent graduate of the University of Wisconsin at LaCrosse, said.
The remote dig, protected by anonymity and locked ranch gates, was reactivated in early June after a three-year hiatus.
If all goes well, perhaps quite soon, primitive stone tools, similar to those discovered here a few years ago, will again be unearthed, reinforcing an emerging, if once controversial theory, about when the first humans arrived in the Americas.
Most scientists believe humans came to this continent across a land bridge from Asia at least 14,000 years ago. The earliest known civilization, known as the Clovis people, left distinctive stone tools that are dated to about 13,000 years ago.
The artifacts found here and at other distant sites appear to push back the arrival date by several thousand years.
"The objective now is to go back and see if we can learn more about the early people. The more we dig and the more we see, it's becoming very clear that this material was in place below the Clovis material," said Michael Waters, an anthropology professor at Texas A&M who is overseeing the excavation.
Waters also directs the Center for the Study of the First Americans (www.centerfirstamericans.com.) at Texas A&M which, as its name suggests, is focused on exploring the enduring mystery of when and how the first humans came to this continent.
He believes the items found here thus far shed light on the question, as they date back to well before the Clovis period that was long been thought to be the continent's earliest civilization.
So far, little is known of those who preceded them, leaving scant clues here, and thus the muddy students work with a focused sense of mission.
No scrap of possible evidence is overlooked. When the dirt scrapings are sifted and washed through quarter inch screens, small rock flakes are extracted, the debris of primitive tool-making here.
And, as the notebooks, surveyor's tools and small orange plastic markers indicate, everything is measured, marked and recorded to provide valuable context to the laboratory analysis to follow.
Spurring the team on this hot June morning was the delicious anticipation of what might lie a foot or so deeper in subterranean realms that might hold treasures from when humans first camped here.
"It's all exciting but the main reason we're here will be six or seven more levels down, which will be Clovis. Past that, it will get super interesting," said Lauren Cook, 27, a doctoral student at Texas A&M.
Begun in 2006, the dig at Buttermilk Creek became instantly well-known in 2011 when its discoveries were made public in an article written by Waters for Science Magazine.
In yielding a few dozen very crude stone tools, as well as thousands of chert flakes, evidence of ancient tool making, the site advanced the theory that humans had been here at least 15,000 years ago.
Water's conclusions directly challenged the Clovis First model, named for distinctive grooved blades and projectile points first found near Clovis, New Mexico in the 1920s and later in numerous sites elsewhere.
Until recently, few questioned that the Clovis Culture was the oldest in North America, and those claiming otherwise were treated by some as heretics.
"There's nothing more bloody than a paradigm shift. Investigating sites like this is risky to some people, but I'm a full professor and I can take risks," said Dr. Waters of the reaction among some anthropologists to a Pre-Clovis claim.
"Some anthropologists believe people were here 25,000 to 39,000 years ago, and they would say I haven't gone back far enough. Then there's a group that believes Clovis was first, and that I've gone back too far," he said.
But, he said, the oldest stone tools and blades found here will likely help scientists better understand the Clovis period that followed.
"This site is telling us that people came up with the basic technology to morph into Clovis. They were making bifaces, bone tools, blades and bladelettes. All the techniques were here that you needed to invent the Clovis point which caught on and spread like wildfire across North America," he said.
Slowly but steadily, the finds from Buttermilk Creek and other digs in Brazil, Chile, and around North America, have persuaded many scientists that the first humans likely arrived from Asia at least 15,000 years ago.
"There are now a lot of sites which have a strong claim to being Pre-Clovis. Not everyone accepts them and of course you can argue about any individual site, but mainstream thinking has moved back beyond the Clovis First idea," said Daniel Sandweiss, a professor of anthropology at the University of Maine who specializes in geo-archaeology.
"In my thinking, Buttermilk Creek is a good example. The stratigraphy is good: You have Folsom, Clovis and something before that. I think Mike Waters has made a good case for it. But its far from unique now."
Josh Keene, 32, the field director at Buttermilk Creek, believes the Clovis First die-hards are quickly losing ground.
"Ninety to 95 percent of the archaeologists now accept Pre-Clovis. It's just a question of which sites are accepted. Pre-Clovis sites are given extra scrutiny," said Keene, 32, a doctoral candidate at Texas A&M.
Keene, who dug here years ago as an undergraduate student, supervises the crew and keeps track of the paperwork, a daunting task given that every step is recorded.
"Every one inch level has its own paperwork," he said.
"Right now they are finding golondrina spear points from about 10,000 years ago. We'll start finding Pre-Clovis at the end of next week," he added.
For the young students for whom this may prove to be the dig of a lifetime, expectations are high.
"Oh my god, this is fantastic," said Kristy Ely, 22, a senior at the University of Wisconsin at LaCrosse, who is also grateful for the air conditioned quarters.
"Level by level you can see the differences. Right now we're mapping quarter-sized (artifacts). A little deeper it will be dime-sized," she said, while washing dirt through wire screens.
"We were just told that Level 30 is where Folsom is found and that adds a lot of excitement. People are digging a little more carefully," she added.
And, as the team works toward the first people, they are being watched by anthropologists from afar, eager to learn of new discoveries which may help rewrite textbooks.
"If I were living in Texas, a little closer, I'd be visiting that site often," said Dr. David Anderson, a professor at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, who specializes in Paleo-Indian archaeology.
"They have really good scholars working at that site. Because there are so few well documented early sites, particularly in North America, whenever they are found and well excavated and reported, they are to be cherished by scholars and scientists," he added.
"I'm trying to take a millimeter or two off at a time, and focus on not removing the larger flakes. And I'm trying to notice any differences in the soil," Rogers, a recent graduate of the University of Wisconsin at LaCrosse, said.
The remote dig, protected by anonymity and locked ranch gates, was reactivated in early June after a three-year hiatus.
If all goes well, perhaps quite soon, primitive stone tools, similar to those discovered here a few years ago, will again be unearthed, reinforcing an emerging, if once controversial theory, about when the first humans arrived in the Americas.
Most scientists believe humans came to this continent across a land bridge from Asia at least 14,000 years ago. The earliest known civilization, known as the Clovis people, left distinctive stone tools that are dated to about 13,000 years ago.
The artifacts found here and at other distant sites appear to push back the arrival date by several thousand years.
"The objective now is to go back and see if we can learn more about the early people. The more we dig and the more we see, it's becoming very clear that this material was in place below the Clovis material," said Michael Waters, an anthropology professor at Texas A&M who is overseeing the excavation.
Waters also directs the Center for the Study of the First Americans (www.centerfirstamericans.com.) at Texas A&M which, as its name suggests, is focused on exploring the enduring mystery of when and how the first humans came to this continent.
He believes the items found here thus far shed light on the question, as they date back to well before the Clovis period that was long been thought to be the continent's earliest civilization.
So far, little is known of those who preceded them, leaving scant clues here, and thus the muddy students work with a focused sense of mission.
No scrap of possible evidence is overlooked. When the dirt scrapings are sifted and washed through quarter inch screens, small rock flakes are extracted, the debris of primitive tool-making here.
And, as the notebooks, surveyor's tools and small orange plastic markers indicate, everything is measured, marked and recorded to provide valuable context to the laboratory analysis to follow.
Spurring the team on this hot June morning was the delicious anticipation of what might lie a foot or so deeper in subterranean realms that might hold treasures from when humans first camped here.
"It's all exciting but the main reason we're here will be six or seven more levels down, which will be Clovis. Past that, it will get super interesting," said Lauren Cook, 27, a doctoral student at Texas A&M.
Begun in 2006, the dig at Buttermilk Creek became instantly well-known in 2011 when its discoveries were made public in an article written by Waters for Science Magazine.
In yielding a few dozen very crude stone tools, as well as thousands of chert flakes, evidence of ancient tool making, the site advanced the theory that humans had been here at least 15,000 years ago.
Water's conclusions directly challenged the Clovis First model, named for distinctive grooved blades and projectile points first found near Clovis, New Mexico in the 1920s and later in numerous sites elsewhere.
Until recently, few questioned that the Clovis Culture was the oldest in North America, and those claiming otherwise were treated by some as heretics.
"There's nothing more bloody than a paradigm shift. Investigating sites like this is risky to some people, but I'm a full professor and I can take risks," said Dr. Waters of the reaction among some anthropologists to a Pre-Clovis claim.
"Some anthropologists believe people were here 25,000 to 39,000 years ago, and they would say I haven't gone back far enough. Then there's a group that believes Clovis was first, and that I've gone back too far," he said.
But, he said, the oldest stone tools and blades found here will likely help scientists better understand the Clovis period that followed.
"This site is telling us that people came up with the basic technology to morph into Clovis. They were making bifaces, bone tools, blades and bladelettes. All the techniques were here that you needed to invent the Clovis point which caught on and spread like wildfire across North America," he said.
Slowly but steadily, the finds from Buttermilk Creek and other digs in Brazil, Chile, and around North America, have persuaded many scientists that the first humans likely arrived from Asia at least 15,000 years ago.
"There are now a lot of sites which have a strong claim to being Pre-Clovis. Not everyone accepts them and of course you can argue about any individual site, but mainstream thinking has moved back beyond the Clovis First idea," said Daniel Sandweiss, a professor of anthropology at the University of Maine who specializes in geo-archaeology.
"In my thinking, Buttermilk Creek is a good example. The stratigraphy is good: You have Folsom, Clovis and something before that. I think Mike Waters has made a good case for it. But its far from unique now."
Josh Keene, 32, the field director at Buttermilk Creek, believes the Clovis First die-hards are quickly losing ground.
"Ninety to 95 percent of the archaeologists now accept Pre-Clovis. It's just a question of which sites are accepted. Pre-Clovis sites are given extra scrutiny," said Keene, 32, a doctoral candidate at Texas A&M.
Keene, who dug here years ago as an undergraduate student, supervises the crew and keeps track of the paperwork, a daunting task given that every step is recorded.
"Every one inch level has its own paperwork," he said.
"Right now they are finding golondrina spear points from about 10,000 years ago. We'll start finding Pre-Clovis at the end of next week," he added.
For the young students for whom this may prove to be the dig of a lifetime, expectations are high.
"Oh my god, this is fantastic," said Kristy Ely, 22, a senior at the University of Wisconsin at LaCrosse, who is also grateful for the air conditioned quarters.
"Level by level you can see the differences. Right now we're mapping quarter-sized (artifacts). A little deeper it will be dime-sized," she said, while washing dirt through wire screens.
"We were just told that Level 30 is where Folsom is found and that adds a lot of excitement. People are digging a little more carefully," she added.
And, as the team works toward the first people, they are being watched by anthropologists from afar, eager to learn of new discoveries which may help rewrite textbooks.
"If I were living in Texas, a little closer, I'd be visiting that site often," said Dr. David Anderson, a professor at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, who specializes in Paleo-Indian archaeology.
"They have really good scholars working at that site. Because there are so few well documented early sites, particularly in North America, whenever they are found and well excavated and reported, they are to be cherished by scholars and scientists," he added.
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Archaeological dig site reveals treasure trove of artifacts under Huguenot Street (with photo gallery)
PlayPrev|Next1 of 3The Huguenot settlement in New Paltz dates back to 1678. But as long ago as that seems, archeological finds at what is now Historic Huguenot Street date occupation of the area back to circa 7,000 BC, according to Dr. Joseph Diamond, associate professor of anthropology at SUNY New Paltz.
Diamond has conducted archeological investigations on Huguenot Street since 1998. Every summer he directs the college-sponsored Archaeological Field School there for the department of anthropology at SUNY New Paltz, guiding a group of undergraduate and graduate students in unearthing historic and prehistoric artifacts.
The students are currently wrapping up another season of the program, following up their work on site earlier this summer by working in the laboratory at the college to curate and analyze what they have excavated. In addition to the hands-on experience of working in the field, the students received rigorous instruction from Diamond on mapping, recording data, classification and analysis of the artifacts found and environmental, cultural and historical reconstruction.
This is the Field School’s third year spent working on the church property. Diamond said he’s not yet sure whether they’ll return to that site again next year or not. On a visit last week during the final days of the dig, his students were divided amongst several large trenches they’d dug in the lawn outside the Reformed Church. The area was once the site of an earlier Huguenot church built in 1772, whose stone foundation was “robbed,” said Diamond, to supply materials to build the current church.
After the new church was built in 1839, the site became a horse stable — a parking lot for the church, if you will, to borrow an analogy from student Helen Curran — and in the middle of it all, a pigpen. “We found a pig bone here,” said Curran, “and believe it or not, it still smelled!”
Bones and other organic matter are more unusual to find, explained student Nathaniel Ogren, because the soil here is so acidic most bones dissolve after 300-400 years.
The students have uncovered items that date to widely ranging eras. “We’ve been finding a mixture of Native American artifacts like projectile points, pottery and beads,” said Curran, “along with historic things like nails and glass from the church. We found bricks, we found mortar that held the rocks together for the foundation, and just yesterday we found a coat button from the 1700s and a cross pendant from the same time. It’s really cool to see how many things are on this one piece of land.”
And it all gets mixed together, regardless of what era it originally came from, she says. “Obviously you’d expect to find the older things at the bottom and the newest at the top, but when the ground was disturbed for building, it gets all mixed together.” For example, Curran explained, the students are instructed to dig down ten centimeters at a time, and on their first day they found a piece from 1,000 BC that was close to the surface. Later, digging deeper, they found clothing from the early 1900s.
And the oldest thing they found this summer? Curran deferred to Tisa Loewen, who did the Field School last year and was back this year as a teaching assistant before going to NYU this fall.
“It was a spear point from about 3,000 BC,” Loewen said.
Curran explained that the students learned where to dig by differentiating between the soils. Yellow soil is glacial, untouched “never-before-been-dug-in” soil, while the dark brown soil was filler that had been added. When the soil is wet they can really tell the difference, she said.
Huguenot Street has always been a very busy place because it’s just several hundred feet uphill of the Wallkill — and historically people settle near the water — and it was occupied on this side, as Curran pointed out, because it floods on the other side of the river.
The artifacts the students found on church property remain the property of the church, although some will be housed at the college for an indeterminate time after they’re catalogued and curated, kept in a suitably controlled environment.
Most of the students working in the Archaeological Field School were either recently graduated and completing the course as their last class, like Curran (an anthropology major) and student Danielle Sweetser, a history major who was sifting objects and soil through fine mesh screening. A few of the students were undergrads with one or two years left in their studies, like Joe Bacci, an anthropology major going into his last year at SUNY and Nathaniel Ogren, entering his third year and declaring as an anthropology major.
Under professor Diamond’s guidance, archaeological studies at Huguenot Street have yielded evidence of a stockade built between 1678 and 1680 and earlier Huguenot houses predating the stone houses, built using sticks and clay.