Kaitlin examines the east wall of Trench 6.

Week 4 was filled with interesting finds that connected the dots between many of the features excavated partially during Week 3. As is almost always the way in archaeology, the best finds wait until last. Trench 6 provided us with a wealth of fascinating architectural information during this final week of excavations. With the opening of Trench 4 we also exposed more architectural remnants to assist in our reconstruction of the Old House (or one of the Old Houses) and to guide our future excavation plans.

Trench 6

At the beginning of the week, Trench 6's excavations continued to expose a somewhat confusing mix of architectural and stratigraphic features. The depth of these features was surprising, and we began to worry that we might not have the time to fully excavate the unit before season's end.

Andrew begins the week's work by excavating through the remaining cultural fill in the northwest corner.


Colin collects a soil sample from the same corner.


Colin and Andrew continue to excavate Trench 6. The sandy soil in the foreground looks similar to the sterile glacial soil typical across much of the Greene Farm landscape, based on our nearly 400 STPs in 2004. But...

In this same corner emerged a diagnostic sherd of 17th-century tin glazed earthenware - a clue to the deposit's date, as well as confirmation that we were not yet at sterile soil!


Early in the week, our goal was to excavate to sterile soil in the area around the stone feature. None of the stones were removed until the excavation profile showed that they were not in an original or articulated position with the feature.

A close-up view of the sandy fill soil around the wall feature during excavation. Although the stones were not entirely mortared together, they were aligned and situated in a manner that suggested their historical orientation.

An overall view of Trench 6 following early week excavations of the sandy fill soil reveals a southerly curve to the wall. Historians of early Rhode Island architecture, such as Antoinette Downing, describe 17th-century building practices and note that early fireplace bases were curved and were not mortared. This observation suggests a possible identity for the feature's curve. Additionally puzzling is why the curved stone feature does not match the well-preserved foundation wall uncovered in Trench 1 in 2007. One possible explanation may be that the foundation wall was for a stone-ender, and a small gap existed between this and the fireplace base.


A view of the north wall of Trench 6 towards the end of the excavations shows a thick layer of mortar and plaster, which was probably used in the construction of the wall feature (or fireplace). Downing notes that mortar and plaster were often used to coat the exterior of fireplaces as well.


Our resident Egyptologist Erin Fairburn lends Trench 6 a hand.


Close, but not done yet... Further excavations mid-week exposed several postholes dug into the sandy soil of Trench 6. This square posthole is surrounded by a thin burned layer (the black), which indicates a burning episode at this structure historically.

Andrew and Colin slowly trowel along the northeast side of the feature, so as not to miss any other emerging postholes. The above posthole is visible in the foreground here.


Their careful trowelling exposed a very important architectural clue - a second posthole of identical size and comparable elevation and depth, also adjacent to the north side wall feature. The two postholes are spaced exactly 6 feet apart.


A view of these postholes from the other direction (facing west). The posthole in the foreground was still unexcavated at this point.


As excavations continued, the unexcavated posthole (above) appeared to cut into an even earlier historical square posthole, visible here to the right of the dark brown spot. This earlier posthole is filled with an orange-brown sandy soil. An additional round posthole emerged north of these square postholes, and is visible near the tip of the scale bar here. The discovery of the two square postholes nearly on top of one another is a significant clue that the Old House structure underwent (at least) two phases of construction or reconstruction during its lifetime.

Oral and local histories recount that the earliest version of the Old House (built by1658) was burned during King Philip's War in 1676. The extent to which the burning damaged or destroyed the house is unknown. The stratigraphy surrounding these two postholes may, in fact, provide us with a lot more information about the conflict and subsequent reconstruction. Here is a profile (vertical) view of the two postholes, the earlier orange square posthole underneath the darker brown posthole. The pedestal was left in place for this picture to illustrate how the relationship of each to one another. Even more interesting to note is how the later posthole (the dark brown square) cuts into the thin, black burn layer visible in the wall. With 17th-century material excavated from this burn layer and soils on top of it, both of these postholes are dated to the 17th-century. The dark brown posthole was dug after a burning episode, in a location very near an earlier one.


A top-down view of the postholes


A profile view of the postholes. Black burn layer is thicker to right of these postholes, and thinner to the left. The top posthole cuts into this black burn layer, which means that it is of a later date than the burn episode. The variable thickness of the burn layer, and concentration towards the western half of the unit suggests that the burning episode may not have consumed the entire structure, or did not burn for an extended period of time.


Another top-down view of these postholes cut into the burn layer and one another.


When excavating the round posthole (pictured above), we bisected it in order to view it and its base in profile. This posthole was round (about 4cm in diameter) and had a rounded base. It is the only round posthole of this size found in Trench 6, and may suggest the presence of additional structural supports, or another structural feature or landscaping feature (i.e. fence).


After finding these postholes and completing more of the excavations in the surrounding area, we recognized that the stones in the northeast corner of the unit were wall fall rather than part of a wall feature. We removed these wall fall stones, exposing a relatively clean northeast corner and wall profile.


The soil underneath the postholes was, in fact, sterile. Excavations were ended here, and we will wait to remove the stones until we gain more structural information from next season's excavations.


A view of Trenches 1 and 6 facing towards the Main House (ca. 1690). In the foreground is the intact foundation wall excavated partially in 2007. the gap between this wall and the curved stone feature in Trench 6 is visible near the junction of Trench 1 with Trench 6. These are important architectural clues that will provide much new and additional information about early colonial architecture in Rhode Island.


Once done with the excavations, Jonathan begins the painstaking task of drawing perfect wall profiles to scale, mapping each strata and feature in detail.


Profiling in the rain, Jonathan continues to take measurements from underneath his makeshift tent. The individual strata were outlined with trowel marks in the wall behind him.

Trench 4

Meanwhile, at Trench 4 excavations had just begun at the end of Week 3. Our goal was to expose the stone and architectural features that extended into Trench 2. We were hoping that this was a segment of wall that aligned somehow with the features in adjacent or nearby Trenches.

Ashley, Caroline, and Krysta stare very hard at the architectural trench in the wall, as they devise a plan to excavate it from the surrounding Strata 2.

Strata 2 quickly started to provide us with 17th-century artifacts. Krysta finds a sherd of North Devon ware.


A close-up view of the coarse body and exterior glaze on the North Devon sherd.


Despite our relatively quick digging, any traces of a stone feature were fleeting at first. By the end of Monday, however, a line of mortar began to emerge along the east wall of the unit, as did two seemingly well-anchored stones along the northern half.


Within the second Strata, which was rich with 17th-century materials, Jonathan found this rolled copper artifact - possibly a kettle handle.


The digging was non-stop in Trench 4. The fact that a stone feature (or any other feature) was not surfacing across 75% of the Trench allowed us to move rather quickly, shovel skimming as Randi did here.


Along the eastern wall, Randi and Krysta try to make sense of the line of mortar beginning to emerge.


Finally, by Tuesday a stone feature was exposed running northeasterly. The architectural soil feature (builder's trench) is still visible in the wall profile near the western edge (left, here).


A view of the stone wall feature facing north, with Trench 6 in the background. Keep an eye on that lone stone in the north-center of Trench 4. It turns out to be important later!


Caroline and Grace excavate the remaining mottled Strata 2 from Trench 4. Underneath most of it was a dark orange, sandy fill soil.


Andrew and Ashley clean the surface of this orange, sandy Strata 3 for a picture. Note the wall feature, which was left intact and unexcavated. We wanted to see the wall in profile before removing the stones. As before in Trench 6, the stones were relatively small, and did not extend especially deep. This stones in this feature in Trench 4 were, however, mortared together.


Unlike Trench 6, the third strata here in Trench 4 contained 17th century materials, but far fewer overall than Strata 2. This orange soil is consistent with the orange sandy soil occurring before sterile glacial sandy soil across the Greene Farm landscape. Here is a picture of Trench 4 showing the outline of the wall feature, and rather strange turn and ending of it with the large stone in the foreground. Also, note the excavated builder's trench on the left, near the west wall. Although this trench did extend nearly across Trench 2 to the south, it ended only 20 cm. northward into Trench 4. A look back at the photos from Week 1 show the extent of this feature aligned with that from Trench 5. More research is needed to determine whether or not these features were contemporaneous or parts of two different structures. Finally, a posthole emerged underneath the stray stone in the north-central part of the unit. This association of posthole near a wall feature is interesting given the same pattern in Trench 6.


Not to be outdone, Adam excavated the soil on the other side of the wall feature. It was markedly different than the soil within Trench 4; it was nearly black, evidence of sustained burning. The soil also contained a quantity of 17th-century artifacts, despite the small area excavated.


Adam and the other side of the wall. We are not ready to call this the "inside" or "outside" of the structure until we collect a lot more excavation data in the next field season.


A view of Trench 4 as excavations reached a light yellow sandy soil, and exposed the wall on both sides. The black soil is especially clear to the right of the wall, and in the east wall profile of Trench 2, which we also excavated. The posthole is pedestaled in the middle of the Trench.


Adam and Colin working on different sides of the wall. Colin is excavating the posthole in the center.


This posthole was square and lined with stone, similar in size to those in Trench 6 and similar in its stone lining to those in Trench 5.


Another view of the posthole, which was dug deep - from Strata 2 well down into Strata 3.


Trench 4 facing Trench 6. Another feature beginning to emerge in the northwest wall of Trench 4 - note the soil stain visible in plan and profile.


The feature in the west wall was square, and fairly difficult to see in plan view (top down) until this level. It was filled with a mix of Strata 2 and Strata 3 soil, and extended for almost 100cm. It is unclear what this feature was, but it was not particularly similar to the postholes or other features excavated.


One of the artifacts emerging from the Strata 2/3 soil in this Feature was a beautiful blue and white glass button with green design along the edges.


Another view of the button.


The button's design.


By the end of Week 4 we successfully reached the end of Trench 4. The yellow soil visible here was sterile, so we did not need to excavate it further. In the future, we may excavate it to the depth of the soil in Trench 2. To the right (east) of the wall feature is a thick black deposit, which will be interesting to explore further next year.
In the end, we were hampered by rain and decided to leave the wall feature in Trench 4 in situ, as we did with the feature in Trench 6. Following the field season, Krysta will return to the site to construct a thorough landscape map of the excavations and these features with the Total Station. Next season, we will explore the area to the immediate east of Trench 4 and in between Trenches 1 and 4. In the meantime, we have many interesting finds to keep us busy in the lab for the rest of the year!

Other Happenings

In between and in addition to all of the hard work of our crew during Week 4 we also had quite a few interesting happenings, visitors, and other experiences.

We had many visitors during Week 4 - most of which evaded the camera! Of the less camera-shy, Claire Dempsey, an architectural historian, and Mary Beaudry, a historical archaeologist, visited us from Boston. They provided us with many helpful observations about the material culture and archaeology.


Mary Beaudry tells us that the spoon handles pictured in the Week 1 and Week 3 have a berry (strawberry) on the handle tip - a very rare type of 17th-century spoon. And we have two!


In addition to our active landowners and their families, we also had a very special guest, Thomas Casey Greene, who is a direct descendant of Surgeon John Greene and the Greene family who were the first Europeans on this property and the residents of the Old House.


Tom Greene still resides in Warwick on a Greene family property that has also been in the family since it was purchased by Surgeon John Greene's son Jacob in the late 17th century. He is a wealth of knowledge and always an enthusiastic visitor.


A typical mid-week lunch break.


Lunch break turned violent thunderstorm! Grace, Andrew, and Zach stand in the field lab / shed hoping the storm will pass quickly.


But it doesn't and everyone eagerly begins processing artifacts in our makeshift field lab. Grace and Andrew take on the first step of washing select artifacts. Randi, in the background, completes the last step of processing - cataloging.


Jonathan and Noah collect the dried artifacts off of the screen and bag them according to material type to ready them for the labeling and cataloging process.


Ashley and Zach label each artifact with tiny and legible context numbers.


An assortment of ceramics, pipe stems, and bones drying on the screens.


As the weather clears, our CRM colleagues from PAL (Public Archaeology Lab) stop by to pay the site a visit. They completed several excavations this week in the adjacent subdivision neighborhood in preparation for new sewer line installations. In one location they uncovered a shell midden, and others contained historical artifacts.

The End (or just the beginning!)

A view of the excavations at the end of Week 4. This photo shows Trench 5 in the foreground, Trench 4 in the center (connected by Trench 2), and Trench 6 in the background.


Before wrapping things up, the crew turned their attention to the nearly 1 ton of architectural remains that we collected and sorted by type and by context. They committed their last day or so to counting and weighing each of these. Then they collected a representative sample from each context. The rest of the material will be used to backfill in the future.


We covered up our excavation units with several layers of lining, supports, and tarps to preserve them in situ (as much as possible) for next year's field season and for return research during the year.

Congratulations and Many Many Thanks to the field crew and property owners for their hard work, dedication, and enthusiasm!

Now it's back to the labs, where we're already learning tons about the materials we recovered during the 2008 and previous field seasons. Keep an eye out for frequent updates on our ongoing analyses (click here)