Here is a summary from archaeologist Tim Roberts of Cultural Resource Analysts of what he and his colleague Nick Arnhold found today from their shovel tests! Let us know what comments or questions you have for the archaeologists!
Another exciting day of shovel testing at Richmond Hill! We collected some GPS points and excavated one test along the transect we laid in yesterday and one in the path of the new walkway.
The transect test produced a mixture of glass, historic ceramics, nails, and a couple of pieces of plastic including a vintage Listerine bottle cap (Listerine has been around since 1879!). While we seem to be outside of the intact, herring bone-pattern brick pavement the gardener has seen before, we believe we encountered a feature filled will brick, mortar, and a lot of slag and other burned materials like oyster shell and glass beneath the mixed fill about 50 centimeters below the ground surface. We’ll be back later to expose more of the feature to learn more about it.
The walkway test identified a thick layer of mortar beneath mixed fill about 25 centimeters below the ground surface. Beneath the mortar, another 10 centimeters of artifact bearing soil was excavated before coming down on sterile sandy clay subsoil. Each test is a clue to unravelling some of the mysteries of the history of life at Richmond Hill.
Pam Smith
