by Ashley Dumas

It's unusual that we're able to excavate at Fort Tombecbe twice in less than two years, but a good cohort of Anthropology minors at UWA needed the field school course, and, frankly, I need to get out of the classroom to feel like an archaeologist. We will be at the fort every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon until mid-December. Each of the students will be contributing a blog post for the next few months, and we hope you will enjoy their observations and musings. You can look forward to hearing reports from Sarah Coffey (Chemistry comprehensive, forensic track,major), Michael Hornsby (History), Daniel Rhodes (History), and Connor Sparks (History). 

Our objectives this season are to complete the shovel testing of every parcel of land owned by UWA and The Archaeological Conservancy. All of the land has been inspected and collections made from the surface, and portions have been shovel tested during previous field schools. Shovel testing involves digging a small hole at regular intervals across the land; screening the soil for any artifacts; and then mapping the results on a map. A piece of land where shovel tests yield artifacts is likely the site of past human activity. At Fort Tombecbe, we are looking for evidence of activities such as gardening or trading or the construction of houses. Historic records indicate that a Choctaw village relocated, presumably from the west near the heart of Choctaw homeland, to near the fort in the early 1740's. One record suggests that the village was "within musket shot" of the fort, which could be as close as 300 yards. Another possible find are small, individual homesteads, where European soldiers from the fort or traders might have had a Choctaw wife and children. Construction styles and artifacts could tell us much about how this cultural contact worked. It is doubtful that we will have time to excavate any such finds, but knowing where they are will make for exciting future research. 

We hope you'll keep up  with our regular weekly posts and photos. As always, we'd love to have you visit the site. Just make an appointment by contacting me directly. 

by Daniel Rhodes

Field blog September 4 & 6

As the semester continues for the field school, we find ourselves making progress.

Tuesday didn't start out all that well, so I knew today wasn't going to be easy. Two of my classmates Michael and Connor were ill which doubled the work on the two of us Sarah and I, who were ready to go along with Dr. Dumas not that I mind; I live for this kind of work now. We continued our shovel tests along the Southern tract we had plotted in that past few weeks. As most of you know summer weather here in Alabama can be unpredictable. It started raining a little, so we shrugged it off and continued shovel testing where we had left off the previous week. Then it began to rain more and by that, I mean a lot. It started raining so much we were forced to take cover in the pavilion nearby (I don't know who built it, but I need to find out so I can send them a thank you note.) While we waited for the rain to pass, we talked about all sorts of things and took a few pictures (Sometimes you have to take selfies.) After the storm had subsided to a tolerable amount we continued with our shovel tests, I was hoping that the heavy rain would loosen the soil and make it easier to dig I was sadly mistaken instead of nice easy to screen soil samples we got a nice bucket full of mud (Sounds incredible right?). We shovel tested one more spot before calling it a day. We were all thoroughly soaked by the time we had packed up for the day. We stopped for Gatorade on the way back to campus then we parted ways for the day. When I got back to my apartment, I took an incredibly hot shower then an incredibly refreshing nap. When I woke up, I had enough energy to go to a movie the History Department had invited students to view. (I can never resist a Hitchcock movie.) It was Shadow of a Doubt. After that was over, I called it a night and fell asleep. The perfect end to a long day.

Thursday started out a lot like Tuesday; it had been raining here all day on Wednesday. I believe the rain gauge I looked at said we had gotten five inches of rain. But it was dry enough for us to go into the field and continue our shovel tests My two ill classmates returned although they didn't sound good at all (I'm sure I'm going to get whatever they had in the day or so. So, I have that to look forward to.) We began with the spot we started on Tuesday, Michael and Connor got that spot while Sarah and I moved on to the next place on the tract. One spot Sarah and I dug in wasn't very deep at all. We call a hole complete when we hit the chalk layer, that's the hardest part of the soil, and it's challenging to get through without specialized equipment. The Spot Michael and Connor had was incredibly deep and even after we left I still don't know if they found the chalk layer or not. The possible reason behind that could be any number of things it could have been merely a low spot in the ground, but that seems unlikely since the two previous places we had searched were only about 10 meters away and weren't anywhere near as deep. Perhaps we stumbled upon a trench or a construction pit of some kind? Once Sarah and I had finished our spot, we moved to the next one. This one was a lot more difficult because it could happen to land on the gravel road that leads into Fort Tombecbe. We could hardly get any soft soil out of it mainly because it had been compacted by so many vehicles coming and going over the years. Another reason was we hit bricks that been left over from when the nearby brick plant was open. We called it a short day because we wanted to attend a lecture given by Marie-Michele Deraspe on the relationship between Quebec and Alabama given by the political science department. So, we all had a short time to get back, shower, and get to the presentation before it started. It was a fascinating presentation. I honestly had no idea how much of a connection there was between Quebec and Alabama, so I found it very enlightening. Upon further investigation on the subject, I discovered that the Governor of the territory at the time, Bienville and his brothers were from Montreal Quebec and had ordered the construction of Fort Tombecbe. An amazing and interesting coincidence in my opinion. After that, we were free to leave, so I went home, typed my blog entries and then quickly fell asleep.

by Sarah Coffey

Field blog for 8/21 and 8/23

For this semester’s Field School class, we are hoping to find the sites of the houses occupied by people living around Fort Tombecbe during the French and Spanish habitation, as well as any features left by those pre-existing houses or middens left by the houses occupants. We are beginning the semester by performing shovel tests in different areas around what remains of the Fort’s perimeter. This week, we began on the South-West side of the Fort to begin our first batch of shovel tests.

Before we can shovel test, however, we have to lay out our transects (long, straight lines) to make our grid. We are laying out as large of a grid as possible since we are going laying out our transects to the North and West, which mostly has not been shovel tested. Shovel tests are initial tests to see if there are any artifacts in the area being surveyed. To improve the likelihood of finding more artifacts over a wider area, we broke up our area into 10 meter squares, which means we have to lay out more gridlines, or transects. Once we finish laying out these transects, we will carefully dig a hole to a depth no more than 30 centimeters to survey for artifacts in each grid square.

On Tuesday, we started out at the Fort by working on our pace for measuring out 1 meter distances. After figuring out the best way to measure 1 meter distances over an extended distance, we found the datum we will be using in the first area to the South-West of the Fort. The datum is the point used to base all of our measurements from, whether it be to lay out our transects to form our grid, or to record where artifacts were found in the area being surveyed.

Using the datum, we measured 50 meters due North, placing flag markers every 10 meters. Afterwards, we measured 50 meters due West, placing flag markers every 10 meters. We checked these two measurements by measuring the hypotenuse from the North marker to the West marker. The needed distance was 42.42 meters. We measured 41.52 meters, which was almost a meter short.

Dr. Dumas showed us the best way to plot a square of any needed size by measuring 1 meter from the datum to the North, placing a marker, placing the tape at the North marker and measuring out the same 1 meter distance, then measuring out 1.414 meters on the tape placed at the datum and overlaying the two and placing a marker. To find the last marker, we placed the tape at the North-West marker and measured 1 meter South, then placed the tape at the North marker and measured out 1.414 meters and overlaid the two tapes.

As we were packing up to leave for the day, Sparky got the compass tangled on the strap of his backpack and needed help getting it off his backpack. It took almost five minutes before he decided to work on it as we drove back to campus. Poor Sparky.

On Thursday, we worked to lay out more of the grid we started on Tuesday. The gridline running due West from the datum was labelled Transect 1. After double checking that gridline and the one were measured due North from the datum, we laid out Transect 2, which started at the 10 meter marker due North of the datum, and were able to measure out and mark a total of 130 meters due West before the end of the day.

After we got back in the van to head back to campus, I found nymphs on my shoe – I had stepped in a tick nest. And later while I was spray my shoes and backpack, I got locked out of my dorm and had to wait for the RA to let me in. Thursday wasn’t my day at all.

By Sarah Coffey

Blog for September 18 and 20

On Tuesday, we finished Shovel Test 13, where we found the tin-glaze pottery last week, and continued working on Transect 2 to try and finish in the next day or two. On Thursday, we finished Shovel Test 7 and continued working on Transect 2. While digging Shovel Test 21, Dr. Dumas found a piece of colonial glass. After working for a while longer, I was screening Shovel Test 21 when the screen came out of the stand, so Dr. Dumas and I had to recover some material for the shovel test and put the remaining dirt that needed to be screened in buckets. Dr. Dumas drove back to the lab to get the stationary screens and also found a working portable screen to finish screen the shovel test material from 21. While working on Shovel Test 20, Sparky found a banana spider hanging from the wires on the phone pole next to us and named him George. Daniel used the stationary screens to screen the material from Shovel Test 22 and 7. By the end of the day, we were left with three shovel tests left on Transect 2!

What was strange about some of the shovel tests were the different depths we had to dig before getting to the chalk subsoil. For Shovel Test 7, we dug down about 90 centimeters before we decided to record the stratigraphy and backfill, because it just seemed never-ending. For other shovel tests, however, we dug no more than 15 to 20 centimeters before we hit the chalk subsoil. The different depths could be attributed to the different inhabitants of the Fort filling in gulleys with clay to flatten the area the Fort would be built on. Some could also be attributed to some soil washing as well, but not as much as holes being purposely filled to clear and level the area in and around the Fort.

Below is a photo of endless Shovel Test 7. 

Tuesday, April 18

Today marked the end of digging for the two panel holes (#’s 18 and 19) for the “Tombigbee River” panel. Natalie removed exactly 12 inches of clay before she found the chalk bedrock. That exactly one foot of clay in this area seems to strengthen our hypothesis that it was brought up to the cliff as part of a well thought-out plan to stop erosion and raise the level of the ground surface. We drew profile walls for each of these two panel holes to record the different levels and time periods that we dug through, as well showing the modern post hole found in my panel hole (see previous blog post). After finishing these holes, we moved back to the panel holes that we had been excavating for the “Life in a Frontier Fort” panel but which were shut down because of all the rain. This panel is in the area that was between the Spanish oven and the officer’s quarters. In panel hole #14, we found another fragment of an iron strap in the southwest corner. It has tiny rivets in it, but we’re not sure what it is. It seems too thick to have been the iron strap around a barrel, so maybe it’s part of a tool.

Meanwhile, Valencia and Cory have begun excavating panel holes #15 and 16 for the “Native American” panel that will be installed. These holes are only about 15 feet from where Natalie and I are working now, but they are in an area that would have been just a few feet from the wall of where the Spanish and French officer’s quarters were located. It will be interesting to see what sorts of artifacts are found here. So far, Valencia and Cory are finding a lot of gravel in Layer A, and it most likely came from the roadway that was put through here when there used to be a campground nearby. 

Thursday, April 20

Today we continued the panel holes for the “Life in a Frontier Fort” panel. After some cleaning up of Layer B, we hit what we believe to be bedrock only about 25 to 30 cm beneath the ground’s surface. In other holes we have seen thick layers of chalk and clay interchanging to more than 50 cm deep. It just doesn’t show up here, so there must not have been a need to fill in the land in this area. Most of what we removed from these two holes seems to be loose debris and some chalk rubble. At the holes for the “Native Americans” panel, hole #’s 15 and 16, we began excavating Layer B, but no artifacts were found. No deeper than 10-12 cm below the surface, we hit big pieces of chalk. In the right side panel we were still in Layer A, so not much was found.

Friday, April 21

Today we had a volunteer and clean-up day out at the fort. We would like to thank everyone that came out to help clean up the fort, including Mrs. Rosa Hall, Steven Meredith, James Lamb, Tim Truelove, Jessica Smyth, Daniel Rhodes, and Connor Kendrick and Tyler Sessions of Delta Chi. The last two were recruited by UWA alum and fort supporter Jay Lindsey. 

Rosa led several volunteers in scrubbing and painting the iron fence that is around the granite monument. The fence has a plaque that reminds visitors that students from the History Department of the Alabama Normal College (now UWA) donated the fence. The monument itself was erected by the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in 1915. Its antiquated text is a reminder of how important history and archaeology are for correcting our perspectives on the past. The text reads, in part: “Where civilization and savagery met and the wilderness beheld the glory of France.”

While this was going on, we were able to get the right side of panel hole number 13 cleaned up for a photo. We also started hitting bedrock on the left side of the “Life” panel, but were not able to finish it before we left for the day. In the “Native Americans” panel holes, we continued on #16. We started to dig it out with a shovel to try and finish the hole because by this time we had not seen anything significant. After some digging, we noticed a change in clay color on the East side of the hole. Additionally, we noticed that we were pulling up big pieces of glass, a button, a clasp, and other artifacts, so we went back to using trowels and going at it slowly. We have encountered some sort of feature, perhaps a trash pit, which is full of artifacts. The pieces of olive green wine bottle are shaped like those dating to the latter half of the 18^th century, so we suspect that this pit is full of Spanish-period artifacts. We won’t know for sure until all the dirt is screened, washed at the lab and carefully sorted. Unfortunately, the pit extends beyond the borders of this panel hole, so future students will have to finish excavating it. Look carefully in the photo below, and you'll see three layers of a brass button that came apart as it was excavated. 

          For the “Native Americans” panel, hole #13, we used an iron pick ax to break through the chalk, which turns out to have been more rubble and clay intentionally placed as fill. It was deposited directly on top of the chalk bedrock.

 Saturday, April 22

Today was Community Day. We would like to thank everybody that came out, along with the helpers that came out to make the day a success. Officially, we had 87 people come out and visit!

          At 10:30 am everyone gathered around under the flags of the fort, where Dr. Dumas gave a brief talk on the history of the fort. Then, we walked to each panel, unveiling them one by one and giving a brief summery of what was on each. (The “Life at a Frontier Fort” and “Native Americans” panels are not installed yet since we haven’t quite finished the holes. Everyone seemed to really enjoy the walk and was really interested in the panels. Again, we cannot thank everyone enough for coming out today. After we finished the unveiling, we went about the day as normal with digging and allowed the visitors to help if they liked.

Below, Dr. Dumas unveils the panel about the Tombigbee River, and a close-up of the panel installation nearing completion. 

We were able to finish panel hole 14 today even though, while Natalie was digging, she would have some of the community come up and ask her questions. She did an amazing job in talking with the kids and the rest of the community, and letting them help dig and find artifacts. We screened dirt from panel hole 15. Valencia screened and had many visitors come over to watch, as well as screen the dirt. They seemed to be very interested in this. Cory continued digging into panel hole 16, focusing on removing all of the soil and artifacts from Feature 39, the trash pit. We also opened up four new holes along the line of where the French palisade used to run. Cedar posts are placed every 4 meters to outline where the palisade used to be and to help visitors see how the existing Spanish earthworks covered over the footprint of the earlier French fort. There are four remaining cedar posts to install, but we first have to carefully excavated where they will go, making sure that they don’t destroy any remaining parts of the palisade, such as wood, the builder’s trench, or any associated artifacts. After opening up the holes, I demonstrated for volunteers how we went about digging with trowels.

From the bottom of all of our hearts, we would like to say “Thank you!” to everyone who helped us make this day a success. 

April 11 and 13

by Valencia Moore

Greetings Readers,

          Like all other weeks at field school this has been an awesome one. Myself, Skyler, Cory, Natalie, and Dr. Dumas are all filled with energy and have the same two goals in mind. The first of those two goals is to finish excavating each panel hole to install signs throughout the fort for Community Day. The signs that will be installed will provide visitors with a brief description of the area where they stand. The second goal is to use our time wisely and have all layers of dirt screened and sorted through by April 22. 

          I spent April 11 screening dirt excavated from panel hole #12, which is one of the holes for the “Archaeology and Preservation” panel. Based on the large numbers of bones, ceramics, and nails in the dirt, we think that this hole is located in a French period midden. A midden is a layer of debris that builds up as a result of human activity. In most cases, midden can simply be described as garbage. All of those artifacts were found in Layer A or Layer B. A few pieces of bone were found in Layer C. In panel hole #11, less than three feet from where I’m working, Cory dug into the third layer (Layer C) and got a clearer view of a large piece of chalk approximately 15 cm wide. It seems to be more of the chalk rubble that we have found elsewhere on the site (see previous blog posts) and that we suspect was being used to fill in erosional gullies. Cory attempted to screen the soil from panel hole #11 but it was too wet, so he left it laying out to dry with the hopes of screening it the following day. Cory and I both managed to finish panel holes 11 & 12.

Due to there being a lot of rainfall on Monday, Natalie and Skyler had to postpone their excavations. They began working on panel holes 18 & 19, which are being excavated for the panel about the Tombigbee River. They began setting up their unit squares and started new paper work for those units and got fast to work. In panel hole 19, Skyler found a roughly circular area about 10 cm that was full of charcoal and dark soil. 

He dug and dug, finding no artifacts. Finally, deep beneath the surface, he found a screw shank nail that had been clenched. Screw shank nails were developed in the mid-19^th century and were made of iron. The nail we found in the deep hole, clearly a post hole, is steel, so it is a 20^th century nail. We think that this post hole and screw shank nail are associated with a barbed wire fence that once ran across this part of the cliff. The fact that it is clenched near its head could mean that it was used to hold wire on a fence post. In any case, it is not a colonial post and nail. 

In nearby panel hole 18, Natalie found a thick layer of clay like the orange clay that we have seen elsewhere and interpreted as fill. Dr. Dumas is having her dig it out to see how deep it goes.  

          I hope you enjoyed this updated blog post. See you next time!

by Natalie Mooney

Hello Readers,

Fort Tombecbe has had an exciting week this week as many artifacts have been discovered during the week. Work has continued on Panel holes 12, 13, 14 and each panel hole has revealed a plentitude of artifacts. On Thursday, we also had the illustrious Tim Truelove and Professor Lamb visit the site in order to proceed with the placing of the panels.

In Valencia’s unit, Panel Hole 12, where she has excavated to Layer C, she has discovered what we believe to be a French midden as there are many different artifacts including ceramics, nails, and the prevalent type of artifact in her unit--bone. It is interesting to note that there may be a midden in this location as the unit itself is located in between the Commandant’s Quarters, the Troop Kitchen, and the Barracks. (A midden is any accumulation of artifacts resulting from human activities in a particular location.) The photo below shows a sample of the artifacts from this midden.

Panel Holes 18 and 19 were placed next to the cliff overlooking the Tombigbee River. We had originally speculated that there would not be a lot to dig in that location as it was so far out on the bluff. We were proven wrong quite quickly as Dr. Dumas uncovered the orange clay that is present throughout many of our units throughout the fort and was part of an eighteenth-century filling and levelling activity. Strangely enough this panel hole goes much deeper than Panel Hole 10, where we had also found the clay.  This signifies once again the tremendous efforts that went into creating the fort’s level area.

Skyler and I were assigned to begin excavating Panel Holes 13 and 14. This panel is titled “Life at the Fort” and describes the living conditions of the garrison at Fort Tombecbe. These panel holes are located in the general vicinity of the Commandant’s Quarters and the Commandant’s Kitchen.  As we began to excavate the first layer we were extremely aware of the very dense and compacted dirt. This layer held few artifacts, but was hard to dig through. In the next layer, we discovered a layer of chalk rubble covering the entire unit. This rubble was similar to what we were seeing throughout the fort, but it was much higher up. This layer was filled with tons of artifacts. In my particular unit, Panel Hole 14, I found charcoal, ceramic, mortar, and lots of nails. There was one nail that was standing straight up, which indicates that there was disturbance to the midden in this area. This is known because when buildings decay or rot artifacts are left laying on their sides, which is how most artifacts are found. When an artifact like this is found, then that means a person or animal came and intervened in some way to alter the resting position of the artifact. The mortar signifies that a building was located in our general vicinity, which makes sense when looking at the maps of Fort Confederation. I have to admit, I made a mistake this week. It is a valuable learning point, however, so learn from my mistakes. In the absolute center of my unit I was hacking away at the chalk trying to get through this layer efficiently, when Dr. Dumas noticed a piece of what we thought was natural that had a significant burn mark. I saved it to the side and then Professor Lamb walked over to view what we were doing and he discovered that it was a very large pipe bowl, hence the burn marks. This is one of the reasons why archaeology is supposed to be done slowly and carefully. Had I excavated as I am supposed to, the pipe bowl would still be in one piece. I cannot stress enough how important that this lesson should be to all incoming field school students. If you are not sure what something is pedestal the object and excavate it carefully. Everyone makes mistakes, but if you are conscious as to what you are doing mistakes will be minimized.

The photos below show the careful excavation of the clay pipe pieces by me, with James Lamb and Tim Truelove looking on, and a closer photo of some of the pipe pieces, showing sooting on the interior.  

In Panel Hole 13, Skyler was getting through the chalk without finding nearly as many artifacts as I was. As he began to get deeper, and Thursday began to come to a close, more artifacts began appearing. One of the more interesting finds was a small, metal panel (about one inch wide by two inches long) that had rivets within it. I would expect on our return after Spring Break that he will discover many more artifacts.

As I mentioned earlier, the week of March 27-31 is the University of West Alabama’s Spring Break so there will be no excavations done that week. So thank you for your continued interest in the affairs of the 2017 Fort Tombecbe Field School.

by Skyler Browder

14 March 2017

We continued Panel hole 11 “Archaeology and Preservation” on the left side. While digging, we found a small cut glass ring setting; it was a bluish-green jewelry setting. As well, in the change of soil (Layer B) of the hole, there was a small piece of pottery found, as well as a lot of charcoal. One of the 1980 dig units was just North of where these artifacts were found. In the report for that dig, there is no mention that anything of significance was found, but we believe that we are digging either where or right outside of the Spanish Officer’s Mess would have been. We believe that we are around the mess because on the maps we have, there is a building there that is said to be the mess. In the next hole to the right of where that one was dug (Panel hole 12), we found a lot of bone shards, most likely deer or some other kind of common animal around the area. We believe that it is mostly deer bone because the deer have always been dense in population, and the local Indians would most likely traded deer skins and meat to the Europeans in the fort. We also finished drawing the profile walls for panel hole 8. We draw the profile walls, so we can properly show how the layers looks, and better understand what was being seen in a bigger picture, as we dug the hole. The drawing will show each of the layers that we excavated.

16 March 2017

Today, we continued on the two holes for the “Archaeology and Preservation” panel. In Panel hole 11 we made it down to the third change in the soil level (Layer C). While doing so, a nail was found in the clay. In Panel hole 12, we made it down to the second layer of soil (Layer B). In this hole, we found bone, a nail head, and glass. During the time out there, we had some help from the Black Belt Museum staff to bust through the chalk using a hammer drill. They used the drill to bust through the chalk and see if we hit chalk that was so thick, that we could not dig through it, bedrock. To be able to tell that we hit bedrock, we would notice that the chalk would continue, and see no change. While busting the chalk in the “Fort Confederation” panel hole number six they busted through what we believed to be the bedrock because we were not able to dig any further with our shovels and trowels. While they were busting the chalk, they discovered that the chalk was large individual pieces set into clay. We believed that the fort’s occupants used this as backfill in areas, or that it was used to build their buildings off of the ground. While going through the rubble and the clay there were a number of bone fragments found. It is believed that these fragments are bone fragments that date back to the time of the fort. They are very abundant because the chalk prevents them from decaying like they would in non-chalk soil. When studied, the bones will help us know what animals were eaten most often. So far, there are bones from wild animals like deer and domesticated animals like pigs and cows. 

The photo below is me holding a piece of Westerwald stoneware, made in Germany in the 18th century. It is a piece from a Frenchman's mug.