trowel skims pottery
carelessly reaching for notes
flexing spine revolts
Archaeology can be hell on the back. Carrying heavy tools and equipment from the truck to a site a mile away isn’t uncommon. Hauling dirt out of a 4-foot deep exploratory trench in a floodplain is hard work. Working in a cramped position while excavating a burial is exhausting. Try digging a nineteenth-century privy (“outhouse”) on a 90-degree day. Some smells never seem to fade….
Some of you know from my recent comments that I pulled something in my back last week. No, it wasn’t from fieldwork. I have no idea what caused it. But it definitely influenced this week’s poem.
I have strained it before when doing archaeology—indirectly. As a college senior I reached across a table to measure a pot for a Museum Methods class. There was a stabbing pain as my back locked up. Three months later, it was finally back to normal. Not a terribly exciting way to get an injury. This one should heal more quickly.
Before she tweaked her back, our intrepid archaeologist was excavating the feature she identified in Poetic Archaeology 5. The heavy machinery was sent to another part of her site where her crew chief took over the monitoring work. The feature isn’t too large, maybe 50 centimeters (20 inches) in diameter. She decided to use a trowel for her work rather than a shovel. At this Phase II level of investigation, she may excavate only half of the feature to see what it contains and to see if she can figure out what it was used for.
This feature was found in an area that had historical ceramics and glass on the surface (as noted in Poetic Archaeology 4). This is often a good clue as to what we’ll find still in the ground. And that’s true with this feature. After taking some ibuprofen, our archaeologist finds pottery like you see below. Only it’s nowhere near as clean as this. So imagine bits of clayey brown dirt clinging to these broken pieces, or sherds, as we call them in the US. Archaeologists in other English-speaking parts of the world will call them shards.
These sherds are all typical 18th century ceramic types. They could be found in any “middling” or upper class household. The Rhenish stoneware was made in Germany and likely stopped in England before coming to the American colonies. The British government kept tight control on imports into the colonies, not wanting the colonies to eliminate the middle man—English companies. That didn’t set well with many colonial businessmen. Add some of those nasty taxes and lack of representation, and some people started complaining….
The Staffordshire Slipware was produced in England, and the tin-glazed earthenware might be English or Dutch in origin. These pieces don’t narrow down the site’s time period beyond the 18th century for our archaeologist. She needs artifacts with a shorter manufacturing window or good historic documents if she’s going to tighten up the occupation timeline to less than 100 years.
When she’s not in the field, our archaeologist (or one of her crew members) is researching historical documents such as deeds for the property and probate records (e.g., wills, estate inventories) of former residents. More of these records come on-line every day, but we still spend time in archives and libraries, straining our eyes to decipher faded old handwriting on original documents or microfilmed copies.
This will isn’t related to her project, which is probably in Virginia or Maryland. But it’s one I had handy for a sample. (William Lucas is one of my ancestors.)
With the artifacts and historical documents, our archaeologist might pin down who lived at this site and when. Like today, property passed from one generation to the next in colonial times. But sales were also common, either during an individual’s lifetime or after his death. And that usually was “his” death. Women were rarely allowed to purchase land. Some inherited land from their fathers or husbands. But if the woman married or remarried, the property became the husband’s, although she had to waive her “dower right” if he wanted to sell it. Women who found themselves able to support themselves after a father’s or husband’s death often remained single or widowed by choice.
So for now we’ll leave our archaeologist in the field, nursing her sore back. She knows at least one feature dates to the 1700s. And based on the commotion elsewhere on the site, it sounds like the backhoe uncovered something good. She’ll check it out—as soon as she can get herself up and walking….
I hope you’re enjoying this occasional series of poetic posts and glimpses into a fictional archaeological project. They don’t get quite as many views as other posts. But you could be reading them from the home page, which doesn’t generate a “view” for the post in the stats.