The House Hunters: Digital History & Archaeology

 

Elvis and Dariel documenting "Tom's Cottage", one of the oldest Black Bermudian houses in St. George's, (pre-1800)

The Camera and The Trowel

There are many ways to do archaeological research in terms of studying material culture and the built environment changing over time. While the students with trowels were very much in the public eye, another group spread out in the back alleys of St. George's to document a list of 20 addresses that are being actively researched and digitally modeled in my other University of Rochester Spring semester course, Digital History: Building a Virtual St. George's. Their target houses ranged from sprawling old mansions (18-20 Queen St.) to humble single-room cottages once occupied by enslaved St. Georgians, such as Tom's Cottage above (4 Clarence St).  An enslaved man belonging to William Foot (who lived in Longford, now a ruin on Kent St) resided here in 1800 according to tax assessments, living apart from his master.

The Virtual St. George's (VSG) team worked in pairs to take extensive series of photogrammetry pics - closely spaced overlapping images necessary for software to create 3D models therefrom. They braved barking dogs, sudden showers, suspicious neighbors and other hazards to get their quarry, usually taking 2,000-3,000 photos for each house.  Along the way they got to know St. George's and St. Georgians very well and developed a real sense of the topography and the community.  

The VSGers also visited the Bermuda Archive to access original manuscript material related to their houses and the 10-12 generations of Bermudians, free, enslaved, and freed, who lived there.  The 1821 and 1827 Slave Registers proved especially revealing regarding otherwise unnamed and undocumented residents and revealed a few surprises - like Black St. Georgians who themselves owned slaves.

By week's end, Team VSG had taken more than 32,000 photos and started model-making of some of their houses in the Globe Museum Archaeology Lab, and have since been hard at work back in Rochester further developing these with the other 14 students in the class.  I can't wait to show you their results!

Alongside all this work, we had weather challenges and also a lot of fun. 

With no wifi at Paget Island we had Game Night pretty much every night.

Wednesday's 50-knot gusts and a whitecap-filled harbour gave us half a day off.

 

The students also explored Paget Island's coves, forests, and ruins and visited the famous RML cannon in Fort Cunningham's moat.

  

No one got involuntarily wet (well, maybe a little on boat crossings) or died, so I'll call that a successful expedition!