Gwen's Blog - The Dig
Day 1 Experience
I learned that digging looks easy but it is really a lot of hard work. Digging is interesting because you get to find a lot of things. The only things that I saw today were rocks, worms, dirt, and mud. The digging was really hard for me at first because it required a lot of weight and I am not very heavy. It hurt a lot at first doing the digging but then I got used to it. It was hard doing the part where I had to put my foot on the big shovel and push down a lot to the ground. I have so far learned that the dig is hard but with a little bit of teamwork you can easily do it.
Day 2
Today we found pieces of brick, ceramic, and snails. My group also found a yellow ceramic pottery rock while we were digging. The dig was really interesting today. What I did was throw the dirt at the screens than get whatever our group could find out and I explained about what I found today above. What we would do was put our hands in the dirt and just really dig in a lot with our hands and just see what we can find.
Day 3
Today I got hot and did not feel well and I had to go home, and I also lied down on the couch in the library building at Thomas Sappington House. While waiting for my ride to pick me up I was so worn out. I literally was just fine when I came home because it was just the heat that was my bothering me so I came back for lunch at the Thomas Sappington House with the group. Than Ms. Barnes came in and talked to us about the Thomas Sappington House.
Day 4
Today we dug and we found nails, a lot of glass, and pottery stuff. We found bottle glass and window glass. The glass was interesting. We measured out another 50 cm. From units and we call that Unit 5B Level 1. First we found the edges of the teurp. Basically we just kept on digging today. We found 2 railroad spikes.
Day 5
Today we dug up again and I found this glass piece that had looked like it had come from a tile of a building. We also found quite a few nails and some glass and this was about it really. Today we cleaned up some of the stuff that we saw with old toothbrushes to get the mud off of them and that’s basically what we did today.
Day 6
Today we started two new units, units 6 & 7 and then we started digging over by the barn then started digging by the house. I found nails and a big jaw bone with teeth attached to it. We also toured the Sappington House today. It was interesting because the whole house (well not all of it the kitchen was added in 1820) but everything else was built in 1808. Our legs hurt really bad because we had to stand on a slope of dirt.
Day 7
Today I found some nails and glass but not much else. There was a man who came in to talk about guns and shooting guns. Nothing much happened today.
Day 8
Steve another person who was working there was showing some kids around younger kids around who wanted to hear about archeological digs. These kids were saying that they wanted to be archaeologists when they grow up. Than Steve brought them into the discussion that was going on with a guest speaker about the Bosnian War. The Bosnian War was a tough subject for kids so the kids were scared. Than that was the day.
Day 9
Today we found nails, teeth, whiteware, yellowware, glass, etc. Today was definitely a good day to find stuff. Also it was very hot today. So we had a speaker talking about the digging archaeology experience she’s had before. The speaker’s name was Rachel Murphy. That’s about all for today.
Day 10
Today we did the measurements of the plan map. Than I screened but didn’t find anything this time since I screened in the new unit instead of the old unit today. The dirt smelled like poop in the new unit. We had a speaker come in who works at a museum presenting exhibits at a museum example; black kids and white kids, girls and boys, black artist white artist. Those would not be appropriate.
Day 11
Today me and one other student came this morning and one teacher and the person who lives there. Me and the other student didn’t get the message that we weren’t starting till noon. So we stayed and helped take down a tent. Than Ms. Burchett came and I showed her around. Then everyone else came for lunch at noon. After that there was a speaker that came in and we talked about how population was different in certain parts of the world and towns. Than we left and did the measurements for the dirt in the floor ground.
Day 12
Today I helped put shovels with all the dirt back in with the pit and we mapped and we measured the soil. Then the prism therefore totaling what a laser can do. Than I interviewed Steve.
Day 13
Why it’s Important to Know about Digging/ Do Digging/ Participate? It’s important to learn about our history and what we can find if we go even deeper that there is always more. It’s important to participate to help out the environment, community, and the area. I participated because I didn’t get in summer p.e. Before all the slots went out. Also I participated because I’m 15 and have never had a job before and I wanted to learn what a job would be like. The dig seemed really interesting to me so that’s why I signed up. We’re digging here because people believed that where we’re digging had a summer kitchen here. They had been told that the summer kitchen was destroyed by the basement that was built which is the resident manager’s house that was here. The steps for doing archaeology is to dig in the pit first than screen to see what you can find then put what you find then put what you find in a bag then wash what you find with a toothbrush and some water then dry it with newspaper or leave it to dry. Then put it in a bag and label the bag then you’re done.
