One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. If there’s one thing that is becoming clear, archeologists must get used to taking a couple of steps forward only to take a step or two back. A lot like dancing as one of our students observed.
The last blog post ended with the pronouncement that we’d found the back of The Wayside. Turns out… we hadn’t. Instead, what we’d found was the FRONT of the wayside.
This realization came during a rare Saturday dig day that corresponded to the Alumni Weekend. We wanted to be on hand to talk with any alums (which we did) as well as with anyone else who came by…. If we happened to dig a new test pit designed to confirm what we thought we’d nailed down on Wednesday? Bonus.
Five students turned up to help and we launched into an all-hands-on-deck effort to open a new pit where we thought we’d find a wall. Instead, what we found was a couple of bits of archaeology sitting on top of undisturbed ground.
Speaking as an historian, I can say that I’ve had my initial hypotheses proven wrong upon settling down in the archive. I cannot recall having my previous research completing reversed. I suppose it happens, but I’ve not personally experienced it. In archaeology it seems to happen constantly.
This should not have been a surprise. It happens repeatedly on every episode of Time Team. Shucks, in one episode they spend the first two days digging in the wrong place, only to realize that the entire building they wanted to find was on the other side of the property underneath their portable toilets and food truck. Oops.
As it happens, we did get a chance to talk with a number of alums who were keen to see what we’re up to. One, Robert (“Bob”) Occhialini (’66, BA in Economics), even remembered the house. He’d arrived in 1962 and lived in the freshman dorms located along the third floor of Decary Hall, overlooking The Wayside. Bob told us that upperclassmen lived in the house. The place had a reputation for ruckus parties. A really valuable recollection as we’re anxious to better understand not just the house, but the lived experience of it from construction to demolition.
With all of this new information, we approached our fifth day of digging with a revised strategy. We’d continue expanding our first trench, expand our second trench in the opposite direction, and open a new test pit closer to Decary in an effort to find the actual back of the house. At the same time, we’d carry on our public outreach efforts by working with a documentary filmmaker and talking with interested members of the public.
Trench 2 immediately proved vexing. Instead of a wall, it started to seem like we’d discovered a pillar. There was more concrete moving southeast in the direction of the flagstone, but nothing headed due east. Curious and curiouser. Perhaps the concrete isn’t original to the house and was added by the Franciscans when they remodeled? We’ll need to find out.
Over in trench 1, things started to resolve, albeit not in the way we’d expected. Simply put, the deeper the students went, the more they simply turned up more archaeology. A fair bit of it was not appropriate to the level they were digging. Cigarette filters were particularly out of place. We’d found them in levels 3 and 4 in trench 2, in the fill left behind by a 1963 bulldozer operator with a hacking cough. Why were they in level 8 in trench 1? Interesting.
Of course, their presence gave us an answer. We’re digging in a cellar that was filled in with demolition material. We had wondered if the building had a cellar. Now we know.
What’s more, now we know that we can reasonably fill in trench 1, but also that we should put in a new trench just a few feet closer to the road in search of a wall. Even if we miss the wall, it will give us a good sense of where the wall was because there just aren’t that many feet to play with.
The new trench closer to Decary also proved instructive. The students quickly found a layer of clam shells and an intact brick. We like to think the brick came from a chimney that the Franciscans removed when they renovated the building. The clam shells? They help to confirm the shore dinner hall notion archaeologically.
So, all told we have our direction for the last two days of digging: one next Wednesday, the other on the 19thduring UNE’s Open House. Whatever happens, these digs will be eventful!
An Unexpected Pleasure
A small group of us took up an invitation from the Maine Historic Preservation Commission to check out a dig site they’re working in the Kennebunk woods.
Two centuries ago, the site was an African American community and the team of archaeologists working there are keen to learn a lot more about life there. How big were the houses? How did the people who lived there get by on soil that is, to say the least, unproductive?
We received a fascinating tour of the site, examined some of the exciting artifacts being unearthed, and learned more about the strategy the team is pursuing.
Thank you to the Maine Historic Preservation Commission for inviting us. Really a amazing experience!
For more on this project: https://spectrumlocalnews.com/me/maine/news/2021/10/13/a-story-of-african-american-history-centuries-in-the-making
— Prof. Eric G. E. Zuelow