By Evan Wilson
After three weeks here at the Field School, I have learned quite a bit about archaeology and working as a team to accomplish a goal. As an undergraduate Computer Science major with a history minor at Michigan Tech, I have found the field school to be a very new and different experience, but not an unwelcome one.
This week was an exciting week, finishing with the community open house, “Days at the Foundry” on Memorial Day weekend. The community open house went very well. Around 300 people attended the open house on Saturday and Sunday. Many were local residents of the area community who had visited some of the past open houses, though there were also many first time visitors. Tours were lead up to the Blast Furnace excavations as well as to areas of excavation from previous years such as the Boring Mill and Blowing Engine.
The furnace excavations were expanded a great deal this week. A new excavation unit was opened under the casting arch in order to expose more of the working floor and to provide better access for excavators.
Another unit was opened up south of the furnace exposing a sandy layer that may have been used as the casting floor, into which pigs of iron would be cast. From the furnace, molten iron would be allowed to flow into a sand mold called a sow with numerous smaller molds in the sand perpendicular to it, called pigs because they resemble piglets sucking at a sow.
On Wednesday, samples were taken of slag on the wall facing the brook. These samples were taken every few centimeters up the face of the wall to better understand how the furnace operation changed over time. Slag is a conglomeration of impurities extracted from iron ore in order to make the iron pure enough to use. The amount and chemical make-up of the slag can give clues about the furnace fuel, the ore, and the efficiency of the process at the furnace over time.
At the East Bank House, the south, east, and west yard shovel test pits were completed and the north yard begun. Just to the north of the house, I helped to excavate a test pit into the builder’s trench for the foundation wall. The trench backfill should contain artifacts that could tell us more about when the house was built. Large iron artifacts were found that had been dumped in the trench, as well as large amounts of bones and shell. These objects would have been garbage of some sort at the time the house was built.
On the slope next to the house, another test pit revealed a midden with a large amount of trash. Broken ceramics, glass, bone, and shell were all found in the midden. These finds are very important since they provide a great deal of information about what was being thrown away at the house over a period of time.
Using analysis of the amounts and kinds of artifacts found in each area around the house, areas of high traffic or regular dumping can be distinguished from areas of little traffic and rare dumping. This is a great help in determining which areas would be best to excavate in order to reveal the most information about the site’s activities. Also this week, the crew was joined for the week by Dr. Tim Scarlett from Michigan Tech who provided additional archaeological expertise.
