before-it-was-Virginia Heritage: Wade Site

I got up obscenely early (as in, before 5am) on a Monday morning in June, packed up my car, and drove down to Longwood University's campus in Farmville.  From there, I joined a caravan to the site house, then onto the Randy K. Wade Site in Randolph, Virginia.  Archaeologists and field school students from Longwood have been excavating at the Wade Site for over ten years, which has allowed them to amass a huge amount of data on the Native Americans who lived there from about AD 900-1425.  They also conduct their research in consultation with Sappony Indian Tribe of Virginia and North Carolina (which I find especially exciting).

Geographic location of the Wade Site, 44CH62, in Charlotte County, Virginia

This year, the field school opened an 8x8 meter unit (note: this is a pretty large area, but manageable with 20 eager diggers).  I volunteered during the third of four weeks, when they were cleaning up the lower portions of the plow zone (natural or cultural fill disturbed by plowing, usually a couple feet deep) and beginning to define the outline of features (cultural deposits like pits, postholes, and hearths).  They drew plan maps of their features on Friday morning and started excavating them in the afternoon.  I wish I could have stuck around for the rest of the field school to see how feature excavation went!

The block had dozens of features - we're looking at some pretty dense occupation here!

Since my experience in prehistoric archaeology has primarily been in the southwest, this week was a great opportunity to experience Mid Atlantic/Southeastern material culture.  Since the site was probably an island on the Staunton River during its prehistoric inhabitation, there was a lot of fish bone, turtle bone and shell, and riverine shell.  Additional artifacts included ceramics and lithics - both projectile points and debitage/flakes (the "byproducts" of stone tool production).  There were also some human remains uncovered - as I understand it, not an uncommon occurrence for this site.  Longwood archaeologists and Sappony leaders have consulted and worked out a procedure for the partial excavation of human remains and associated funerary objects - after which all materials are reburied.  I found this agreement particularly interesting (and promising), especially considering the sensitivity of such issues.

Discussing the context and treatment of human remains at the site

Despite the incredible heat, my week with Longwood's field school was a really great experience.  They were a very hospitable group and I really enjoyed spending time with everyone both on and off-site.  Guess this is what it's like being in the (real) South!

Virginia Heritage: Colchester

Digging is one of my favorite Saturday pastimes.  After spending a long week in the stuffy, air-conditioned office, it's wonderful to spend a day in the fresh air.  However hot, it's a pleasant way to decompress and (quite literally) get my hands dirty.

While in past years I've spent many Saturdays volunteering with Alexandria Archaeology at the Shuter's Hill site by Old Town Alexandria's Masonic monument, this February I started volunteering with the Colchester Archaeological Research Team (or CART) in southeastern Fairfax County.  CART focuses on the excavation of both historic and prehistoric site components on county-owned land around the Occoquan River and the Mason Neck.  I've spent a few fun Saturdays excavating at the historic tobacco port town of "Old Colchester," which is located just across the river from Occoquan.  The town dates primarily to the second half of the eighteenth century and though there's only one original structure left, there's a wealth of history underground.  It's still early on in the project - it seems like every time I'm there the team has found a new mystery structure or soil anomaly.  I definitely recommend checking out CART's blog if you're interested in following the excavations.

An especially fun unit I was working on back in April - I think they eventually had to saw out this tree/root

Since I be moving back to Williamsburg for grad school next month, I won't have as many free Saturdays in Northern Virginia.  However, I look forward to continued volunteer days with CART and Alexandria Archaeology during breaks!