Week 4 Update

A second posthole has been confirmed at the site, located 12 feet away from the one found last year. The post hole appears to be similar in size to the other one, measuring approximately 2.5 feet square. We have begun to excavate one half of the feature to get an idea of depth and to hopefully find artifacts within the fill that will help provide a more precise date for the construction of the structure. We believe these postholes date to the Jefferson-era of the property, but we are still unsure as to the building’s dimensions or function.

The field school opened up two new units this week at Site A, both of them along the line now defined by the two large postholes.  Each unit is 12 feet from either posthole to determine the length of the one wall of the structure. Remote sensing found an anomaly in the location of one of the new units and everyone is anxiously waiting to see what features are revealed. Meanwhile, students have found many artifacts in the plow-zone layer of both units, including the handle from a pair of scissors, whiteware ceramics, nails, a sherd of bottle glass with an “OWENS” manufacturer’s mark, and a piece of a teapot lid. A black spun-glass bead found on Thursday was probably part of a string of beads, as it is the twenty-fifth of its kind that has been found on the property. Students also uncovered a snap fastener from clothing. While others like it have been found at Poplar Forest before, this one is unique because it is complete with both the top and bottom still fastened together. Students learned about nail types in lab last week and were able to identify crimped nails in their units which indicate a building which was either burned or left to decay.

As excavation continues, both students and staff are eager to see what these new units will reveal in the lower stratigraphy. Another posthole may prove to be the key to determining the function and size of the Jefferson-era building that once stood here. Could it be the elusive stables?

Image 1 and 2-  The second posthole during excavation. The posthole has been bisected, or cut in half, with only one half excavated. This provides a profile of the posthole’s shape. We are still unsure of the purpose of the line of rocks also seen in these pictures.

Image 3 – At the top of the red clay fill in one of the units 12 feet to the north of the posthole. You can see a pipe-trench cutting through the fill. We believe the pipe carried overflow water from a nearby cistern built in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s.

Image 4 – An iron object from the plowzone of one of the units opened this week. Is it the heel plate for a shoe? We’ll need to conserve the object to clean it of the obscuring rust in order to figure out exactly what it is.