Week 5
Hi everyone! I'm James Dau, an undergraduate student in Michigan Tech's Anthropology program. I've never done any archaeological field work before, so this has all been a new experience for me and I've certainly learned a lot. We're in our fifth week of work here at the foundry, and things are just as busy as ever. Work has continued in both project locations, the foundry itself and a residence associated with it. We also had help from our two volunteers: Peter and Corinne Giunta of Cold Spring.
In the foundry proper, we have continued to explore the west wall of the machine shop, trying to find the extent of the building's foundation in order to see what kind of construction and style of architecture was used. The first two test trenches we placed along this wall were completed in the early part of the week, neither of which exposed the entirety of the building's foundation. The western half of each trench was stopped by a layer of solid concreted iron, and the inside was blocked by a layer of flooring. The east end of the third test trench was stopped by a layer of flooring, though the west is still in progress. A significant layer of tar was encountered beneath the brick rubble, which proved a rather gross task to remove.
Additional work in the foundry revolved around the northwest corner of the boring mill, where we have been working on drawing a plan view of our entire excavations in that area.
At the residence, we have continued our work in many different areas. Excavation in the trench continued without much change. We began work in what we believe may be the residence's garden area. A trench was dug there, called the Garden Trench, where we took soil samples from the different layers. We also found an interesting artifact that appears to be a hand rake, which lends some support to the hypothesis that this was a garden. We spent a good deal of time documenting features this week, as well. There were three wells on the property that we photographed, drew, and mapped, as well as retaining walls and what is possibly the cistern for the house. We also mapped and documented many of the trees on the property, in order to determine which were standing during the period the property was occupied historically.
As we go into the last week of the field season here at the West Point Foundry, we've made a lot of progress, but we also still have a lot of work left to do. It's been a great learning experience for me, and I hope the next week proves to be as interesting as the past five. Tune in next week for the exciting conclusion!
