Sayre School Historic Archaeology Project

Sponsored by Cultural Resource Analysts, Inc.

Sayre School Teacher’s Guide

Introduction

This packet has been prepared by Cultural Resource Analysts to help teachers prepare students for their upcoming field experience. It includes a list of terms that will be used by the archaeologists on site, a brief discussion of archaeology and the scientific methods that will be utilized on this site, a handout on Myths and Misconceptions, a resources guide provided by the University of Kentucky Archeology Education Network, and a sample lesson on "What Ought to Rot". It is our hope that this packet will help teachers guide their students through the sometimes complicated process of archaeology.

What is archaeology?

Archaeology is:

• the scientific study of past human culture, technology, and behavior based on the analysis of remains that people have left behind. Archaeologists propose research questions to learn how specific ways of life developed and how they changed over time.
• A subdivision of anthropology, a discipline which examines human development and behavior from four viewpoints. Cultural anthropologists study present cultures. Physical anthropologists study physical development and evolution. Linguistic anthropologists study the development and evolution of languages. Archaeologists study the material remains of cultures, including written records, artifacts, structures, trash dumps, soil stains, or other evidence of human behavior.
• A way of preserving our shared human heritage by providing individuals with perspectives on their own time and place in human history.
• The study of the nonrenewable and fragile remains of past cultures, instilling awareness for the need to preserve and protect archaeological sites

Scientific Method

Discussion of yard testing

Research questions specific to Waterwild Farm

• What was the spatial layout of the farm? Are there old buildings, such as a detached kitchen, smokehouse, chicken coops, or privy?
• What is the age of the farmstead and the associated structures, as determined through archaeology?

Photocopies of two idealized farms are included in the packet. Figure 1 is an antebellum site, and the other, Figure 2,  is a Civil War site. Have your students compare the two sites. What are the differences between the pre-war and post-war farms?

Discuss the reasons for all the different buildings and why they may change or disappear over time, include what the students know of modern farms. On a pre-war site you might expect to find slave quarters, on a post-war site the slave quarters would be gone, but you might have a tenant house that is probably located further away from the main house. In the early days the kitchen was usually separate from the main house, but as cooking methods change and become safer with the advent of the stove, the kitchen would disappear as a separate structure, but become an addition to the main house. Over time with change in food preparation and procuring, buildings like the dairy, springhouse and smokehouse might disappear. As farms installed septic systems or hooked up to sewer systems, the privy or outhouse would disappear. Discuss the fact that on rural sites there may be several privies over time. As one privy vault was filled another would be dug. They may not necessarily be located near the same area. Discuss why the location of the privy may change over time. The change from horses to automobiles would eliminate the need for a carriage house, although this may become the garage.

Discuss how front yards were used and did this change over time? On most pre-war sites, the front yard was a place to relax, farm related activities were not conducted here. It was the showcase for the front of the house. How would this effect the artifacts you would expect to find? What would cause a change in how the front yard is used? Things like changes in roads may cause the front yard to change location, and so would change the position of buildings, since most buildings are located in either the back or side yard.

Talk about the differences in lifeways between the different people living on the farm. What would typical chores have been for a 10 year old (hauling water, hauling wood, hoeing the garden, mending clothes, etc.). What would be the duties of a slave as opposed to the slave owner. Remember in Kentucky the average slave holding family had two servants. At this time, we are not sure how many slaves resided at Waterwild, although they may have had as many as 10-20 slaves. You could expect at least one third were children, so not full time workers. Discuss women’s work and men’s work. Slaves and masters had to work together in the house and in the field. Discuss the fact they had to work as a team to survive and thrive.

Grid pattern

The grid that is laid over the site is typically tied into magnetic north. The grid gives us a man-made construct to organize how we think of the site. From the grid coordinates we can specifically locate where structures were and where artifacts were located. Using these coordinates, archaeologists can reconstruct a site in the lab.

Depending on many factors including time, area to be covered, and archaeological expectations, the grid coordinates can be placed every meter, two meters, five meters, 50 meters, etc. Each site is different. Based on experience archaeologists determine the size and pattern of the grid to fit each site and their research goals.

Using Figure 3, have the students locate the various structures (barns, wash house, slave house, etc.) and name the grid coordinate(s) where the structure is located. What would happen if the site was tested on a 2 meter grid, as opposed to a 1 meter grid? Would you locate as many structures using the 2 meter grid? What have you missed? What structures are missed testing on a 1 meter grid? Remember our test holes are only at the grid intersections. How might this bias our insight when it comes to yard organization?

Test units

Test units vary in size according to the testing strategy. Some are 1 x 1 meter trowel dug units, most are holes dug with either shovel or post hole digger. We will be using a gasoline powered auger, because it is fast and digs the same sized hole every time. This way the test units are all comparable. We use these small test units to find the areas in a yard that are likely to yield more information (i.e. a structural remains or a feature), and so are worth the time and effort to open up larger excavation units.

What are we looking for?

• Artifacts, especially diagnostic artifacts. These will help us date the site.
• Structural remains, like evidence of laid bricks
• Features like post holes, ash pits, trash dumps, etc.
• Stratigraphy – this will be the changes in soil color and texture that signify a change in cultural deposits or area use. This could be the evidence for several historic periods or the difference between historic and prehistoric occupations. (see photocopy examples of stratigraphy)
• Depth of deposits – how deep are the deposits before we hit sterile clay. Sterile clay has no artifacts and denotes the bottom of the site in archaeological terms.
• Artifact density – a high density of artifacts can denote a structure or activity area

Stratigraphy

One of the things archaeologists learn to do is "read the soil". We look for changes in color, texture, and composition. Each layer or "lens" is caused by either some geologic or natural difference (like a change in vegetation or flooding) or by some human activity (like putting up a fence or building a structure). Every time you put a shovel in the ground you change how that dirt looks, both in color and texture. Wood post holes leave a dark round stain where the wood has rotted, a firepit for prehistoric cooking will cook the clay leaving a hard, bowl shape impression. The soil in an area where human activity has occurred over a period of time will usually be dark from organic material we drop or purposely deposit. This is called a midden.

One of the things we will be looking at in our test units is the stratigraphy or layers in the soil. Some of these layers may be gravel or a layer of coal and cinders. These layers may denote a pathway or activity area. At Waterwild Farm we expect to find a fairly simple stratigraphy like the examples shown in Figure 4. The other stratigraphy handout, Figure 5, shows a deeper, more complicated site. The bottom left figure is an excellent example of how stratigraphy ties into various time periods.

Screening

The dirt from each test unit will be screened through ¼ inch hardware cloth. So we are taking a sample of artifacts, those that are over a ¼ inch in size. Smaller artifacts will fall through the screen and are lost. Each archaeologist has to decide before a project starts what their sampling strategy is going to be, because it is impossible to take a 100% sample of the site. We are looking for artifacts that allow us to make comparisons across the site, not for total recovery. Time and cost are real world factors that archaeologists must take into account when planning sampling strategies.

Recording bag

The artifacts from each test unit are placed into a bag marked with all the provenience information (site name, grid number and depth of unit). After the bag is complete, it will be turned into a central point where the bag will be recorded on an inventory list.

Finishing up

After the dirt from each unit is screened, it will be placed back in the hole and the grass plug placed on top. This way, we don’t leave any dangerous holes in the yard.

Archaeological Terms

Archaeology: the scientific study of the past human cultures by analyzing the material remains (sites and artifacts) that people left behind

Archaeological site: a place where human activity occurred and material remains were deposited.

Artifact: any object made, modified, or used by people.

Assemblage: artifacts that are found together and that presumably were used at the same time for similar or related tasks.

Attribute: characteristic or property of an artifact, such as weight, size, or color.

Classification: a systematic arrangement in groups or categories according to criteria.

Context: the relationship of artifacts and other cultural remains to each other and the situation in which they are found.

Culture: a set of learned beliefs, values and behaviors – the way of life- shared by the members of a society.

Datum: a fixed point from which a grad is established

Diagnostic artifact: an item that is indicative of a particular time and/or cultural group.

Excavation: the systematic digging and recording of a site.

Feature: permanent fixtures of a site, such as a roasting pit, hearth or post hole.

Grid: a network of uniformly spaced squares that divides a site into units; used to locate artifacts, buildings, etc. on a map

In situ: in the original place.

Level: an excavation layer, which may correspond to strata. Levels are numbered from the top to the bottom of the excavation unit, with the uppermost being Level 1.

Lithic: made of stone

Midden: an area use for trash disposal

Prehistoric: the period of time before written records.

Projectile point: a general term for stone points that were hafted to darts, spears, or arrows; often called "arrowheads"

Provenience: the information that describes the location of an artifact; i.e., site name or number, the north coordinate number, west coordinate number, and depth.

Site: a place where human activity occurred and material remains were deposited

Strata: many layers of earth or levels in an archaeological site

Stratigraphy: the layering of deposits in archaeological sites. Cultural remains and natural sediments become buried over time forming strata.

Survey: the systematic examination of the ground surface in the search of archaeological sites

Test pit: a small excavation unit dug to learn what the depth and character of the soil might be.