Rain, Rain Don't Go Away!!

Hello everyone!

I apologize for taking so long to get this weeks posting up, I have been very busy with everything. We had a great week out in the field and were very fortunate to get some rain this past weekend.

This past Saturday we were happy to host family day for Historic Columbia Foundation. Several kids and adults came out to learn about real archaeology in action and get dirty. The event was featured on the front of the metro section in Sunday's edition of The State Newspaper. You can view the article at http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_action=doc&p_docid=121774C4907155D8&p_docnum=1

The rain was GREAT for loosening up some of the soils in the units. I was able to trowel down through the red layer, which was very thick, in square 4. I got the same amount of dirt moved in two hours that I had in three days before the rain. It was wonderful!! What I came down on was similar to what we found in square 2, a line down the middle seperating two differently disturbed layers. I will have pictures on the next posting after I have a chance to clean it up for pictures.

We finally reached sub-soil in units 1 and 5, this is a sterile red clay. When I say sub-soil I mean a layer where there has been no human activity. These units are in the process of being cleaned up, photographed, and thier profiles mapped. I plan on backfilling them at the beginning of next week.

We are anxiously awaiting the gradiometer, that has been ordered from England, to continue the geophysical survey in another area of the yard. Hopefully that will come in before we finish up the rest of the units, so we won't have to proceed without doing the geophysical part of the survey. However, if it looks as if this will occur, we will move to a part of the yard we expect to see heavy disturbance from building deconstruction. If the geophysical equiptment does come in we will move to the front of the house next to spice things up a bit.

Someone requested more pictures of the GPR in progress, so I have uplaoded them above. See ya next week!

Helena Ferguson

Primary Investigator

Red Clay Fiasco

Square 1

Square 2

Lauran Riser working on the red clay in square 4

Greetings archaeology enthusiasts, our week out in the field was very interesting! This week started off hot and cooled down a bit as it progressed. We started each day at 6:30am to beat the heat of midday. I know that sounds early, but when you get out there knowing it is going to be blazing later that day, it motivates you. So here is a run down on what happened this past week.

I made an executive decision to alter the plan a little in regards to the size and frequency of the test pits. After opening up the two 1x1 ft test pits last week, we were having a little trouble getting into them because of some extremely compacted red clay. After taking the weekend to think it over I thought it best to open the test pits up into 2x2 ft units. This meant more dirt, but it made it a lot easier, somewhat, to hack at the red clay layer. The red clay layer I speak of is pictured in one of the open units above. Since these units are bigger, I also decided that the 40ft interval between the units would become the highest frequency of the survey.

Opening up the units helped in two important ways. First, it allows us to examine each hole to a higher degree, giving us a better understanding about an area. For example, STP #2 was one of the two test pits initially opened. When we got ourselves through the red layer, there was another disturbed layer underneath. However, when we opened the test pit up into the 2x2ft unit, we discovered a line dividing the east and west portion of the unit (see picture). Not exactly sure what the significance of it is yet, but it is located in one of the proposed pathways, so it could (maybe) be remnants of a previous pathway. Without opening up the units we would have written this area off as being disturbed. Second, we are now able to handle any features that may turn up in the units. Before, there were simply too many test pits that needed to be dug that digging the features would have been overwhelming. Going back to STP #2, now square 2, we are not sure if the line is dividing a portion of a feature or simply the next level. However, if we had continued with the original plan we would stop when we got to what we thought was a feature.

We moved a little slow this week, due to some vicious red clay. Let me tell you folks this soil is so compacted that when we hit it with our trowels, it is like striking concrete. This type of compacted soil is IMPOSSIBLE to trowel, so we have to break out the big tools for literally hacking our way thorough it. We have two very large 10lbs pickaxes, two mini ground breakers, and two floor tile chisels that we use interchangeably. These tools were very beneficial in getting through the red clay layer in squares 1, 2, & 3. Each unit is unique as to its depth of this compacted red clay, but they all have it.

We also opened up two more units in the northwest corner of the block, so we now have a total of 5 units open, all at different levels. It is really interesting to see all of them open at the same time, being that they are all at different levels of progression. I invite anyone interested in seeing them to come on out and take a peek. Next week, we hope to get down to subsoil in a couple of the units. Square 1, pictured above, has finally reached what I think may be the first undisturbed level in the units and is almost 2 ft deep. I hope to update on this more next week.

I was fortunate to have several volunteers come out this week. Thanks so much to Jakob Crockett, Lauran Riser, and Mick Wigal. You guys are awesome! We also have one other full time archaeologist working on the project. Ben Johnson, a fellow archaeology grad student, will be working with me all summer and his help will be invaluable, thanks Ben! (Ben just got married two weeks ago, so congrats to him!)

See you next week!


Helena Ferguson
Primary Investigator

Hampton-Preston Archaeology Project Field Notes

The Hampton-Preston Archaeology Project (HPAP) is devoted to exploring the archaeological component of the historic 4-acre block in downtown Columbia, SC. The Hampton-Preston Mansion and its surrounding yard have had a rich history. The mansion was built by Ainsley Hall in 1818 and is best known for its affiliation with Wade Hampton I and his family who turned Ainsley Hall's home into an urban estate. The mansion and grounds later served as the home to the Presbyterian College for Women and later Chicora College which is today's Queens College in Charlotte, NC. For a more complete history please visit Historic Columbia's website at historiccolumbia.org

This blog is dedicated to posting the weekly happenings of the HPAP. This summer, phase I of the project will be going on. This entails several different surveying methods employed by archaeologists. In addition to the shovel test pits we will be digging on a 40ft grid over the entire site, we will also be conducting a geophysical survey.

To bring everyone up to date on what has been going on so far with the project. I have technically been out in the field for the last three weeks doing various things to get the ball rolling. I started working with Dr. Johnathan Leader, the State Archaeologist, using ground penetrating radar in the northwest corner of the block. I chose this area because I was curious to employ the benefits of the GPR in this corner because this is where the garden greenhouse once existed. We were able to pick up several areas where potential foundations may exist, but it will remain speculative until it is dug. We also started on the test pits in that corner on the 40ft grid and have decided to put in pits every 20ft in this area. Several pits have been laid out and are waiting to be dug. There are currently 2 test pits open right know that are located in the northwest corner next to the wall. Both test pits have currently yielded very little artifacts and are extremely compacted, making them hard to dig. However, what both these test pits have in abundance is gravel. This actually makes sense due to the fact that when the block was commercialized there was a car lot that ran the length of the Pickens Street side of the block. As far as artifacts go, we have recovered a piece of Terra cotta, probably a flower pot and some window glass. There has also been some brick and mortar recovered from both pits. Though the digging is going slow and it has been excruciatingly HOT, we are moving right along. I expect to have more test pits done in the northwest corner by next week's posting. Several people have been out volunteering the last couple of weeks, including the 2008 Summer USC Field School. Thanks to all those that have been out helping me these last few weeks, I wouldn't have gotten anything done without you!

If you have any questions or are interested in volunteering, please feel free to contact me at hferguson@historiccolumbia.org.

Helena Ferguson

Primary Investigator