Off to a Flying Start!

We are nearing the half-way point of our project, which is a good moment to take stock of goals and progress. Our focus has been on identifying artifacts and features related to Governor Richard Moore’s roughly two-month occupation of Smith’s Island, which we hypothesize was located on the Smallpox Bay peninsula.  Finding convincing evidence should be a rather straightforward task of identifying patterns of post holes cut into Bermuda’s native bedrock that resemble contemporary domestic construction techniques employed by Virginia Company settlers at Jamestown and reflecting typical English vernacular architecture.  To do this in Bermuda, however, requires full excavation of a large expanse entirely by hand, since no mechanical graders are on island, let alone transportable to Smith’s Island by barge.  The ground penetrating radar survey conducted in April covered a fairly large expanse that we cleared of dense Mexican Pepper and Allspice trees (and which fought us tooth and nail in the clearing), but this data was suggestive rather than definitive.  In short, there is no substitute for old-fashioned digging by trowel, one meter square at a time across a 15-meter by 15-meter grid – and then some.

     My admittedly analog plan of Locus B,
south of the standing stone ruin site

Once our team was assembled and equipment put in place, we have made good progress across the cleared area.  Our initial two trenches turned up only a few ambiguous features – when viewed from the top it is sometimes difficult to distinguish a human-made cut from a geological feature such as a wide root cast or natural surface depression. Methodologically we are exposing bedrock but leaving potential features unexcavated until most of the target area is cleared, the better to see patterning.

As has been the case in the past, the two stratigraphic layers covering the site are yielding a mix of 1960s-1970s metal and plastic agricultural trash associated with the hydroponics operations (including apparently a waste burning site, given the amount of melted plastics appearing), late 18^th- and 19^th-century military and domestic material related to epidemic-related occupation of the site, and early 17^th-century material, with little in between artifact-speaking.  

Some distinct patterning is emerging – larger concentrations of plastics in the southeastern part of the Locus grid and a fair bit of early material in the southwestern units excavated so far.  Soil thickness ranges from a mere 3-4 inches just south of the stone ruin to more than a foot at our new grid’s edge, some 12 meters to the south.  The SIAP diggers are getting fairly good at differentiating finds now and know which artifacts usually make me squeak with happiness or groan with frustration.

It has also been a joy to watch everyone not only fall into the rhythm of methodical fieldwork but also now differentiate layer changes and potential features on their own, lay out new squares, set up and use the datum level, fill out context forms, take context transition photos and elevations, and otherwise function like professional archaeologists.  Covid closures of field schools over the past two years robbed them of the typical training students get, so it is wonderful to see them internalizing archaeological practices so quickly.  A few still tend to “bowling” (not squaring up their unit sidewalls, creating a bowl rather than a box as they excavate deeper) but no one has blown through a layer change or dug out a feature’s fill.

I have Ewan and Peyton largely to thank for this – they have been attentive supervisors and patient mentors in working with the students under them and stayed on top of recording and documenting our progress. Everyone working on the site has proved committed and dedicated – and fun! 

Team Trowels & Tribulations

Team Precious Darling Snapdragons

Here are this year's team members:

Peyton

Xander & Ewan

Megan

Sarah

Skylar

Sadie

Hannah

Jared

Sammi

Katie

Wyatt

Mona

...and Sophia

Crouching Sadie

Sadly we just lost The Brits, who had to go back to do something as boring and irresponsible as writing masters’ theses to get degrees.  We will miss them, especially DJ Katie Kate’s music and energy, Sadie’s ability to dig perched on exactly 16 square inches of dirt, Wyatt’s knack for taking the Mick out of Xander, and of course Xander, who grows with each excavation we do together.

Multiple overlapping features,
extending into adjoining units

As is often the case, on one’s last day at a dig, strange sh*t usually happens and Sunday was no exception.  Guided by GPR data that suggested a deep anomaly, a test unit that Wyatt and Megan dug exposed a very large feature extending both south and east, requiring us to open up those units as well to fully understand the feature’s dimensions.  We have up until now only found post holes of various sizes, so this new find is quite exciting and a bit of a mystery.  A very large Fiddlewood tree seems to be growing in the feature’s center which will make excavation a challenge, but we should know by Friday what's going on.  

We are also chasing some other larger features extending into other units at the grid’s eastern edge.  Finally, a thorough sweeping of all hitherto exposed bedrock up to this point has revealed numerous highly suggestive cuts in the surface that resemble tool marks, such as shovel cuts or scars that resemble those made by an adze in wood – or perhaps a hoe in soft bedrock.  These run counter to the geological bedding of the bedrock in the area, so appear to be human-made.  There are also several filled in fissures that run across the whole exposed bedrock face and one fresh cracked surface, which I interpret to be evidence of long-past earthquakes that rent Bermuda’s brittle bedrock surface shell.

 

Of course archaeology digs are not all work, and we’ve had some fun days off… doing laundry mostly.

I have been favoring chainsaw over trowel lately to clear roots and trees and also open up the area surrounding Smallpox Bay - to such a degree that Peyton made this (TBH accurate) meme:

We also had a bonfire right on Paget Island’s foreshore, which was interrupted by the surprise appearance of the Space X launch from Florida and also the rise of a Super Moon.

By channeling my engineering daughter Katie, I have had fun building a floating dock at Smallpox Bay so we can load and unload right at site (saving us the long walk across Smith’s Island). 

And we issued the new 2022 SIAP T-shirts.  Bermudian volunteers Sophia and Timothy have been out digging with us regularly and have more than earned their shirts! 

In the days ahead, we look forward to hosting several VIP guests and giving tours, starting with the Bermuda National Trust’s Dirt Diggers Camp kids tomorrow – perhaps my future team members – and Bermuda’s Minister of Culture, Youth, and Sport next week.  There are still plenty of squares to dig in the next two weeks, so if you are on island and interested in helping us make (or at least uncover) history, send me an email!

Therapy Dog visit with Hugo and Coco