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US Route 301 Archaeology Update

Written on: October 19th, 2012 in Archaeology Updates US301

So what happened to the warm weather? Despite a little rain and a lot of wet feet, the Dovetail team continued to work on the Armstrong-Rogers site this past week. Our task? Removing the topsoil from the site core to expose subsurface features. We already knew the area contained at least one building foundation, one other stone feature, and a buried terra cotta drain, but we uncovered several additional exciting finds including a large square feature with brick flecking and several posts and pits. All features were scraped to identify their boundaries and mapped in using a total station. This data was used to create a hand-drawn field map to help organize the remainder of the dig and will also be the basis for a post-field GIS map. Artifacts noted during our topsoil removal continued to span the historic occupation period of the site, from the second half of the eighteenth century through the late-nineteenth century. But while a lot of attention has been paid to the historic artifacts because of the presence of architectural features, the stripping also uncovered evidence of the prehistoric use of this area. A large rim sherd of fabric-impressed, quartz-tempered prehistoric pottery (possibly Hell Island Ware) was found along the western edge of the site. In addition, several possible prehistoric pit features were identified during the scraping. We will add these to our list of features to be excavated in the upcoming weeks. Very exciting!