Week 3- July 28^th to August 1^st

Wow… we’re already halfway done, and there’s still so much to do. We managed to have a week with only one day of rain, but despite this, we’ve decided to take fewer people out of the field to work in the lab. As Kerry says: “the dirt just isn’t moving”. While this has slowed lab productivity, it’s also meant that we’ve been able to add four more units (PI’s 9-12) and close out two already (PI 3 and PI 7). Hopefully we can finish this great task we’ve set for ourselves.

We started out the week with a wonderful visit from Elaine Gunn. She’s one of the people in town who helped out with the 1969 commemoration of the site and has been very intent on preserving the Du Bois legacy.

Figure 1- Elaine discusses the various people involved in the commemoration of the site. Where is that boulder, anyway?

PI 5 yielded some of the most interesting finds of the week. Numerous rocks and other building materials were discovered immediately beneath the surface. Combined with a large quantity of coal and slag, we think that this might be the location of either a middle chimney in the house, or a woodstove. We’ve been examining old photos of the house to determine which, if any, of these hypotheses are true.

Figure 2- Matt describes the complex stratigraphy of PI 5.

PI 3 in midden B yielded almost no artifacts after the first 30 centimeters, the most in the very top levels. Looks like the folks in 1983 and 1984 got a lot of the artifacts off the surface.

Figure 3- Colin explains why PI 3 will be closed out at the end of the day.

PI 4, off the cellar hole also yielded some interesting questions. The material coming out of the bottom was newer than the material that came out of the top. This would imply some kind of reverse stratigraphy, but the reigning guess is that this area was backfilled at some point, perhaps with material that came out of the cellar hole itself.

Figure 4- Andy and Alex map and measure PI 4.

Friday we had lab inside to keep out of the rain. Our friend Fran, who has come to visit us every day, decided to buy us all pizza, for which we were most grateful. After a while, even the best Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches get a little monotonous.

Figure 5- Tess and Alex take a little lunch break in the A.M.E. Zion basement. This was our one day of rain. The pizza was graciously provided by our good friend Fran O’Neil.

After lunch, we packed up the site and came to the church to hear a talk by Warren Perry and Janet Woodruff. Warren and Janet discussed their work on the African Burial Ground in New York City, the New Salem plantation in Salem, Connecticut, and the search for African spiritual markers in colonial Connecticut houses. The talk was well attended by members of the Great Barrington community, and we all came away with a better understanding of the different ways that African and African-American archaeology can be done.

Figure 6- Warren pokes through material from the Du Bois site in the A.M.E. Zion basement. Looking on are Bernie Drew, Rachel Fletcher, Nancy Muller and her grandchildren Teddy and Julia, and Alex.

Figure 7- Warren discusses the African Burial Ground in New York City.