At the end of August, Matt Kirk (pictured above) led a team from Hartgen Archeology (www.hartgen.com ) on a four-day landscape/architectural investigation on the south side of the house. Following standard practice, an archeological grid was laid out around the house and existing landscape features were mapped on to it to provide a context for the analysis. Next, a series of sixteen test pit locations were identified in conjunction with the archeologists and our architects to help guide the study. The diagram below shows the preliminary test pit locations:
Preliminary test pit locations. Courtesy of Hartgen Archaeology
Each of these so-called “shovel tests” were dug to understand the stratigraphy of the soil (including the location and depth of builder’s trenches), uncover artifacts (hopefully dateable), and reveal earlier landscape features (drives, paths, retaining walls, etc). In addition, the project called for the removal of the concrete cap and partially collapsed vault of the brick tunnel so that the area closer to the foundation could be safely investigated (we didn’t want any casualties here).
And away we went…
Archeologists Frank Cowan, John Ham, and Patrick Sabol begin the dig
Is there more? It’s like reading a mystery that someone has ripped the last 50 pages out of and told you that you can’t read the sequels! Looking for any more updates soon, keep up the hard work