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.