News and Events
Field School in Archaeology at Poplar Grove
*** For updates and details on the trove of historic documents discovered at Poplar Grove, please visit the blog of the Poplar Grove Project at http://poplargroveproject.blogspot.com.
We appreciate all of the interest that this story is generating from across the country, and look forward to sharing some of our finds with the public at that new website. ***
Continue reading below to learn about an archaeological dig that Washington College undertook in 2003 at the Poplar Grove slave quarter.
June-July 2003
Located in Queen Anne's County, Maryland, the progress of the field school at Poplar Grove is documented in each of the following entries.
2 June 2003
Today is the first day of our fifth annual Archaeology Field School. As some of you may know, for the past two seasons, we have been excavating at the Harriet Tubman Birth Site in Dorchester County. And, until very recently, we thought we would return to the site again this year. However, a late change in plans has shifted our efforts to a site a littler closer to home.
For the 2003 Field School, faculty staff and students will be exploring a purported slave cabin at the Poplar Grove Plantation in Queen Anne's County. Everyone is really excited about this new location. Poplar Grove, originally called Brampton, is a land grant reported to date to the mid-17th century. The main house has an 18th century core, but has been added onto perhaps as many as eight times. Scattered across the property are a variety of outbuildings, including a log meat house and smaller houses. To rear of the main house lies a formal, terraced garden, with ancient English boxwoods that family lore says provided cuttings for George Washington's gardens at Mount Vernon.
Although we will be doing some site-wide surveying and mapping, the primary focus of our excavations will be an 18th century structure purported to be one of the original slave cabins of the plantation. The investigation of the cabin ties in nicely with our overall research theme of African-American history in the region. In 1999, our field school excavated in and around another 18th century slave quarter located at the Hermitage, also in Queen Anne's County. And, of course, we have conducted worked at both the Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass Birth Sites, in Dorchester and Talbot Counties, respectively.
It is our plan to provide weekly updates of work as it progresses throughout the six-week course. Much of the work this week will be the initial surveying and gridding of the excavation area. As you can see from the images, the slave cabin will require a lot of clearing of overgrowth before we can even get started. So be sure stay tuned!
7 June 2003
Well, despite the rainy weather, the first week of field school at Poplar Grove saw a great deal of progress. We are concentrating for the moment on a building that is purported to be a slave quarter. The framing of the building clearly looks like 18th Century construction, and its floor plan is of the "hall-and-parlor" layout typical of the period. Since its dimensions precisely match those of a slave quarter mentioned at Poplar Grove in the 1798 Direct Tax records, we're reasonably sure that this is the same building. Unfortunately, its in bad shape—the entire rear of the building has fallen in.
Students and staff spent several days clearing trees, weeds, thorns and a multitude of vines (including lots of poison ivy) from the slave quarter and surrounding area. Removing the overgrowth was necessary not only to gain access to the cabin, but to create a clear line of site for surveying with the theodolite and establishing a site grid. The grid provides known coordinates and datum elevations which are needed before units (an area of excavation) can be laid in and work begun. Field school participants also spent time this week in the archaeology lab learning about site formation, soil stratigraphy, record keeping and setting up units—sometimes the rain was just to heavy for fieldwork!
By Friday afternoon clearing was complete, several baselines had been surveyed in, four excavation units (1 meter by two meters in size) had been opened and excavation was underway. Unit 1 was placed on the west side of the slave cabin near the front door. Unit 2 was laid in just north of the structure and aligned with the front wall. Unit 3 also was set north of the cabin, but further east, towards the original back wall of the quarter. And Unit 4, was placed between the slave quarter and another structure to the north. The locations were chosen to look at artifact scatters associated with the cabin and to search for any additional buildings that might have been located nearby.
As the students began slowly scraping the soil with their trowels, artifacts immediately were uncovered. Window glass, nails, ceramics and even fish scales were found as each bucket of soil was screened through 1/4 inch mesh. Unfortunately, it seemed that just as everyone was getting into the swing of things, it was time to stop and close the site for the weekend. The excavation units were covered with sheets of plastic to protect them from the impending weekend rain.
Even though they're a bit sore and tired from the first week's efforts, the class seems anxious to return Monday morning and get back to digging. Hopefully the weather will cooperate next week and allow us to complete the four units opened Friday afternoon and begin work on several new ones.
14 June 2003
The end of the second week of field school brought lots of sunshine, temperatures in the high 80s and increasing humidity. Earlier in the week, however, we had our share of heavy downpours, gusty winds, lightning and thunder. Despite the changeable weather, the students made excellent progress on the units they opened last week.
Unit 1, located in front of the slave quarter, has turned out to be quite interesting. A row of articulated bricks was found running in a north-south direction just outside the front door. The stratigraphy (layers of soil) in the unit became complex, revealing seven distinct loci (layers) at one time. Each of these layers must be excavated, screened and recorded separately. We don't know yet what these bricks represent. Are they related to the slave quarter? Or, was there perhaps an earlier structure at the location. Was it a structure at all? Hopefully, time will tell.
Excavations in Unit 2 also revealed plenty of brick. However, these bricks were not laid in place, but instead looked like rubble or debris—chunks of bricks along with mortar. Perhaps this scatter of brick fragments is related to the original chimney that once stood against the north exterior wall of the cabin. Fragments of what look like pieces of a cast iron stove were excavated from Unit 2, along with glass, ceramics, and many other objects.
Unit 3, located only a meter or so away from Unit 2, is surprisingly different. Although the upper layer of soil contained plenty of artifacts, they trailed off in numbers relatively quickly. This may reflect the slightly greater distance away from the existing cabin—or could it be a clue that something else stood here and prevented an accumulation of debris? Again, only time—and more excavation—will tell.
Farther north, the ground has been extremely wet. We excavated in this area hoping to see if another structure might have been located between two standing structures. The ground has been so wet that it's almost impossible to see soil changes. We've therefore pulled the crew off of this unit and they opened up a new excavation—Unit 5—behind the quarter. This will look for activity areas, refuse scatters or other buildings to the rear.
The students are now adept at many of the basic archaeological techniques used in the field. These include taking measurements and elevations, note-keeping, drawing scaled plans, and recording soil colors via a Munsell Soil Color Chart. Each week adds a new group of skills.
The class took a break early in the week to lend a hand in removing old documents from two buildings on the property. These have been moved to Washington College's Custom House, where students and staff from the C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience will examine them. With any luck, they'll include information helpful in planning and interpreting the archaeology at Poplar Grove.
Weeks 3 and 4—June 16-27
Mother Nature finally relented in the beginning of Week 3, and dry weather allowed us to worry a bit less about mud. Alas, it was a momentary respite. Wednesday and Thursday, June 18-19, were so wet that we couldn't dig. Instead the whole crew worked in the lab, washing artifacts from the first half of the season. With all hands on the artifacts, we made great progress and completed initial processing of more than two-thirds of the artifacts from this season. To break up the lab work, we had lectures on how to excavate specific types of features and on ceramic identification. Although the skies weren't clear on Friday morning, they weren't pouring down rain, so we took a chance and went out to the site. After a good half day of digging, the torrents once again fell, and a wet crew headed back to Chestertown to get an early start on drying out for the weekend.
Monday, June 23, brought clear skies and much warmer weather. As a result, the pace of excavation picked up. The class suffered through the midterm exam on Tuesday, but all survived. The next half of the course will bring continued fieldwork, along with lectures and practical work in historic architecture, surveying, and remote sensing.
On Thursday, the class explored architectural history and on Friday put their knowledge to use in sorting the architectural puzzle that is the Poplar Grove main house. Constructed in perhaps as many as eight phases, it is as much a stratigraphic problem as any of the soils encountered at Poplar Grove!
Here's a summary of what's been found in some of the excavations over the past two weeks.
Unit 1—Excavations continued in this complicated unit, and the linear brick feature was finally taken out. It turns out to have been only one brick deep, and most of the bricks were fragmented and incomplete when they were laid. In other words, it is highly unlikely that they were intended as a support for a wall or structure. It instead looks like their function may have been to act as a drain or splash guard for rain dripping off the front eave of the cabin, which appears never to have had any gutters and downspouts.
Unit 2 was all but completed at the end of Week 4. This has been perhaps the most prolific part of the site so far in terms of artifacts. Large amounts of trash were recovered from a pit or depression that ran toward the existing cabin; it held pipe stem fragments, pottery, and many other objects. In the north end of the unit was a concentration of brick. At a depth of approximately a 1/2 meter, however, the artifact concentrations gave out. The excavation here seems to have hit undisturbed subsoil.
Unit 3 was completed in Week 4, when the crew hit an undisturbed subsoil devoid of artifacts. They dug 25 cm into the subsoil with trowels and shovels and then excavated a smaller hole down for anther 60 cm deep, confirming the absence of artifacts or other archaeological features. Once excavations were complete, all of the final drawings and photos were done. Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of Unit 3 was a feature found in the southwest corner of the unit. Here a dark stain was associated with a large stone and several bricks. Although these do not appear too substantial, they may be the remnants of a pier of the type that currently supports the sills of the standing cabin. At the gable ends (north and south walls) of the cabin, the walls are supported by three brick piers, one at each corner and another in the center of the wall. If the Unit 3 feature is indeed part of such a pier, this suggests that another cabin stood in this area.
If we project the theoretical lines of a wall over this feature, it suggests that (if this hypothesis is correct) another pier might lie just north of Unit 2. Unit 2 had a large amount of brick in the north end of the unit, and another unit will be placed adjacent to it to explore this possibility. Another unit, new Unit 9, also has been opened to the east of Unit 3, to explore the possibility that a third pier marks the southeast corner of a second cabin.
Unit 4, our freshwater spring, is still far too wet to dig. Unit 5, which was opened in the rear of the cabin has been extended to encompass a 1 m x 4 m area. The crew excavating it was surprised to find that the upper levels of soil had been disturbed by plowing, and that "plow scars" (streaks where the trip of the plow cut into the subsoil) were visible at the bottom. It's clear that the former owners of Poplar Grove tilled very close to the cabin, making use of every bit of the field they could. The relatively shallow depth of the plow zone and the irregular nature of the plow scars suggest that the plowing was done with a plow drawn by a draft animal rather than a tractor. If any activities took place here in the 18th and early 19th centuries, the remains may have been disturbed.
Finally, new 1 m x 1 m units were opened at the north and south gable ends of the cabin, to explore the piers and deposits adjacent to the structure. Excavators in Unit 6 were startled to trowel away some soil in the unit and find an eye staring back at them! It turned out to be a fragment of a doll eye, remarkably painted.
Week 5—June 30-July 4
Week 4 began bright and early on June 30 with a field trip for students and staff. Stop #1 was the Hermitage, the old family seat of the Tilghman family in Queen Anne's County. Washington College's first field school, in 1999. As at Poplar Grove, our work at the Hermitage focused on a standing slave cabin, at that time in a state of severe disrepair. The Tilghman family has since done a marvelous job of restoring of the cabin, and it gives some sense of what it might have looked like when brand-new! After examining the slave cabin, we wandered the grounds of this marvelous old family estate and pondered the similarities between its setting and geography and that of Poplar Grove.
Stop #2 was the Queen Anne's Museum of Eastern Shore Life, at the Queen Anne's County 4-H fairgrounds. Here we looked at a 19th C. tenant farmer house, old steam-powered tractors, and a variety of artifacts and reminders of everyday life on farms of the past. Ever wondered what a "turkey blanket" is? Visit the Museum and find out!
After these two visits, which took up more than half the day, we took advantage of sunny skies to get some more digging done. While the excavation progressed, smaller groups of four students at a time went up to re-examine the main house at Poplar Grove, including the interior. What looks relatively simple from the front is in fact quite complicated. If you look back at the front façade picture on our June 2 update and carefully examine the brick, you'll see that there are two styles of brick laying, or brick "bonds." The bottom portion, to about two thirds of the way to the top of the second floor windows, is a variant of Flemish bond. From there up, it is American bond. At some point, the roof of this house was raised and the upper windows lengthened (and the first floor windows were shortened!). At the same, the "cross-gable" visible from the front was added into the old roof when it was raised.
This dramatically changed the look of the house, making it look more current and stylish in the mid-19th C. Wings also were added at various intervals. A wing to the right has brickwork on the bottom, including a semicircular fanlight that has been bricked in. On the top is a later roof with a cross-gable. The steep pitch of the gable roof, combined with the lancet shaped window, gives this Gothic Revival addition a probable date of 1840-1860, while the brick first story is much older. The house's complexity gets even more pronounced around the back, where the additions and changes multiply. Poplar Grove is a wonderful lesson in architectural history all by itself!
On Tuesday we began to work on surveying with a digital theodolite. After a lecture on methods and principles, groups of four students at a time began working with the theodolite. They learned how to set the instrument up, how to level it and get it oriented, how to shoot angles and calculate elevations, and how to calculate "stadia distances," measuring without a tape. Data collected during these practical exercises is being used to create a site map of Poplar Grove. Once students mastered the theodolite, they moved to using compasses and reading maps, after which they worked with a Global Positioning System (GPS).
We got a lot of survey work and excavation done on Wednesday, but by Thursday the rains came again. Artifact washing and lectures on mapping and GPS filled the day. In the afternoon, we were visited by 21 Moslem students from Pakistan, India and Bangladesh. Although our sites aren't old by their standards (the Harappan civilization of the Indus Valley dates to 3000-1500 BC), they were quite interested in how we do things and in the artifacts uncovered in the fieldwork.
Week 6—July 7-11
After a break for Independence Day, we began the last week of the Field School by bailing the water out of our excavations! As they dried out, we were treated to a presentation at the site by Clark Davenport of Geoforensics International, who spoke about the similarities between archaeology and forensic investigations, as well as professional opportunities in forensics. Davenport has wide experience with law enforcement and in geophysical testing—his anecdotes and practical advice made for a wonderful presentation! Later in the day we hosted a gathering of the Emory clan and neighbors at the site. They were given a tour of the main house, viewed some of the amazing family documents catalogued this summer, and toured the excavations. We were able to collect reminiscences about life at Poplar Grove and glean details about the grounds and the buildings—it was an enjoyable day!
With entertaining and festivities out of the way, we had to buckle down to some serious earth-moving and end-of-dig recording in order to finish up in time. During the last week, most of the excavation units were closed up as they reached undisturbed subsoil. Unfortunately, not all turned up what we would have liked. No more possible piers were uncovered that would suggest the location of another cabin—although some dense scatters of brick fragments were recorded in locations that were tantalizingly suggestive.
On the other hand, some very early deposits were uncovered in several areas, and a post-hole and mold were found deep in the excavation against the north gable end of the slave cabin. A post-hole is a hole dug for placing a post in the ground—prior to the mid-19th C. invention of the post-hole digger, these were always dug by shovel. After the post was put in place, the hole was backfilled with the same soil that had been excavated from it, but the soil typically was mixed up in the process. As a result, the fill in the hole is usually recognizable upon excavation as a different colored soil that stands out from the undisturbed soil around it. Once the post rots or deteriorates, it too becomes soil, but it is usually darker due to the organic materials it contains. This is referred to as the post-mold. Our post mold was 22 cm (8 inches) in diameter, a large post, and the hole was square, having been dug by a shovel.
This feature offers several possibilities for interpretation. The simplest explanation is a fence post placed against the house. However, early structures in the Chesapeake were what are called "post-in-ground," or "earthfast" buildings. Instead of having continuous brick or stone foundations, these quickly-built structures were secured to posts buried in the ground. This could be such a post, suggesting: (a) the presence of an earlier building here; or (b) that the present cabin was originally placed on posts, and that the brick piers on which it currently sits were later additions. Replacement of posts was not uncommon, as they succumbed both to rot and to the ubiquitous termites of the region. Figuring out the function of this post, however, will take additional excavations in a later season.
By Friday, July 11, most of the excavations had been completed and backfilled, and students had studied furiously for the final exam. In addition to the written test on Friday morning, each student went through a series of practical exercises designed to show how much they had learned over the course of the summer. The various tasks were:
- identification of several types of historic ceramics;
- identification and recording of several features in an excavation unit;
- use of a theodolite to record the angle and distance to a point;
- navigation of a compass course, with paced distances—after they recorded distances and bearings, they plotted the results on a map; and
- use of GPS both to navigate to a position and to record a location.
After that it was party time!
The twelve students involved in this summer's field school did an amazing job. Jumping into a completely new site, they cleared the undergrowth, gridded the site, mapped it, excavated and recorded 10 areas, and scientifically retrieved some 93 bags of artifacts. They learned about all phases of field archaeology, worked in the lab, and successfully completed exercises in architectural history, map reading, and surveying with compasses, theodolites, and GPS. What does all of the evidence they retrieved mean? Stay tuned...we'll begin the analysis of all of the records and materials this fall, and we'll update you as we go!
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