Happy Heroes Day (a Bermudian holiday) from windy humid Paget Island. Hard to believe but we only have seven more digging days left in the field school - and so much still to do.
We are still chasing the Big Building at Smallpox Bay and will have to postpone the hunt until next year. We have added four more post holes to the north wall line and three to the south wall line and have not found the end yet.
The structure is now at least 36 feet long and several of the new post holes on the south line are "doubles" (a large posthole with a smaller one immediately next to it). This suggests either the building stood for a considerable time and that repair post holes were added adjoining the original ones or that they went in as pairs from the start.
We have also found extensive evidence that the post holes we see are in fact casts, or rather post molds: the walls of the post holes are actually limestone cement poured into the post holes and taking the shape of the round or squared post. The edges thereof were fractured when the posts were removed. The same concrete material was also poured onto adjoining bedrock and as a floor sheet (now very soft and crumbly) against a post hole on the north wall line. We now realize that many of the SPB post holes are in fact post casts, given away by the hollow sound of the apparent "bedrock" surrounds when tapped with a trowel or mallet. The 1612 Plough builders just became a lot more sophisticated in our estimation, apparently employing a building technique not seen elsewhere on any other early English colonial site...
We have too few diggers and too few days to fully define the "Big House" (possibly the main meeting hall/de facto church, warehouse, or long multi-bay townhouse similar to Governor De La Warre's two-story mansion within Jamestown Fort) and from tomorrow onward we will pivot to excavating at Oven Site to see if we can locate that site's mansion house.
Before we leave Smallpox Bay, however, we are testing a new area in Locus C, to the west of the standing ruin in the woods near the western bay. We found a concentration of cut building stones on a slope produced at the edge of the 1970s plowed field, which may indicate where a now completely destroyed stone building once stood. Test excavations will also tell us just how thick the 1970s plowzone is and, if we are lucky, we may find undisturbed early surface layers buried beneath the plowzone overburden.
On the educational and social side of the dig, we have all bonded through heat, sweat, adversity, carb-heavy meals, and curiosity - so much so that the students feel comfortable enough to prank me. This group is so nice that they make us all PB&J sandwiches for lunch the night before each dig day. When asked what I wanted in my sandwich, I made the mistake of saying "surprise me" - which they did with a vengeance. Have you ever tasted a mashed potato, beans, and jelly sandwich? I have... and cannot recommend it. Thanks, Andrew!
Besides learning how to dig, take elevations, fill out paperwork, identify a large range of artifacts, and set up the autolevel, the students took part in International Archive Day last week and saw some of the great treasures of the Bermuda Archive - the 1610 Somers Map, beautiful Thomas Driver sketches, and Yellow Fever reports to name a few.
We have also welcomed several Bermudian volunteers out to site, and three (Ari, Lara, Seth) so far have come out for the minimal three days to earn their unique SIAP 2026 shirts. Eleanor, Martin, and Richard have also earned shirts for their steadfast lab volunteering in St George's. Please keep coming back!
Life has settled into a steady rhythm now - 12-18 kts from the SW, lots of sun, little rain, high humidity, and regular excavation of layers (master contexts) 001, 002, 432, 600, and then features. We will mix this up as we shift to new units and new stratigraphic sequences at Oven Site, and hopefully more 17th c. artifacts and post holes. Alas, pinning down the Big House will have to wait another year...
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