We are beginning another excavation on the 301 project!  Here is the link to a handout detailing this amazing site.

https://deldot.gov/environmental/archaeology/houston-lecompt/pdf/handout.pdf 

Houston LeCompt Archaeological Site

Fieldwork has begun at the Houston-LeCompt archaeological site despite the hot weather.  One good thing to come out of the recent storms is that the rain left us with good workable soil conditions.  That makes a huge difference when digging in this heat!  We are about halfway through the process of sampling the plowzone for artifacts.  Recovery so far has been very heavy in most of our sample areas, with thousands of fragments of historic ceramics and glassware making up the bulk. While is is sad that so many beautiful objects were broken up by centuries of plowing, it is a testament to how long and how frequently farmers have been working this land.  Among those thousand of objects, there are also a few gems, such as half of a tiny teacup from a child’s tea set, a thimble, pennies from the late 1800’s, and a hair pin set.   However, it is what is at the bottom of our sample units that is exciting to us as archaeologists.  We are seeing features underneath the plowzone, around the area where the foundation and cellar were found during previous work on the site.