An update with photos

As much as we continue to have fun this summer, we are experiencing a few rough patches in the road. As regular readers know, a major part of our project involves getting the local Hampden community involved in our work. However, this is often difficult given a limited budget, constraints on our time, unpredictable working conditions, and a less than stellar ability to promote ourselves.

With that said, we are still somewhat disappointed with the turnout at our public dig day last Saturday. We had a grand total of six people show up, and while we got a lot of extra work done on Saturday, we really want to share our activities with members of the Hampden community. Anyway, we're really glad to have had our several guests last Saturday Here they are:




Our other Big Problem this week is that the Pacific St. Construction crew has been using an overhead crane to assemble the new addition there. Understandably, they didn't want a band of archaeologists and archaeologists-in-training hanging around while they swung a really heavy framing members in the air, so we had to move on to our second site on Falls Rd. While this isn't necessarity a bad thing, it is somewhat inconvenient, since we have several units in progress still at the site. So far we are finding good stuff in the new spot, and we have a lot more visitors than we did in Stone Hill, so the move seems to be a net good.

The new site consists of three lots between Falls Road and Crowther Street. One of the lots has an extant building, while the remnant of nineteenth-century foundation/retaining wall is present on the other. We are testing the site for buried deposits that may relate to the late 19th and early twentieth century occupations at the site, and have so far located several interesting areas, including a large sheet midden that may be related to one or both of the houses.

No photos from the new site yet, but her are some others from Pacific St. Most of these were taken by Robyn Lyles, one of the homeowners at the Pacific St. site. Enjoy!



Here, construction workers are fitting together and levelling the foundation for a new timber-frame addition to the house.



Here's me actually doing some work for a change.



Here, Bob and three of our Youthworks interns screen soils for evidence of the early 19th-century occupation of the site.



And here's the archaeology shot, showing a stratified 1-meter square unit above what may prove to be one of the site's privies.