4 June 2018

Molly Mesner

Hello and welcome to the Wylie House Field School!

As a part of this archaeological field school, students will receive intensive training in controlled excavation techniques, field survey, instrument mapping, artifact identification, and artifact analysis. In addition to learning these skills, students will be using this blog to document their daily work at the Wylie House site. They will have the opportunity to describe their personal experiences in the field, what they found interesting or exciting about the excavation, and they will be able to document various techniques they learned, equipment they used, and artifacts they collected.

Nine undergraduates and two graduate students from Indiana University have come together to spend four weeks excavating in the front lawn of the Wylie House, the home of Indiana University’s first president, Andrew Wylie, and his family. This field school will focus on uncovering the location and extent of a subterranean greenhouse(s?) used by the family of TheophilusWylie, cousin to Andrew Wylie, to store non-food plants over the winter.

Image of Molly in front of Wylie House — Molly Mesner

My name is Molly Mesner and I am a third year graduate student in the Anthropology Department at Indiana University. While my work mainly focuses on the Middle Woodland Period in Indiana, I am thrilled to have a chance to help excavate a Historic Period site! On our first day at the site, students were given a tour of the Wylie House by Carey Beam, the Director of the Wylie House Museum. Students then prepared their tools for the excavation, including sharpening trowels and shovels, and marked off the areas to be excavated. After peeling off the first layer of grass, students already recovered various historic artifacts, including shards of glass, brick fragments, and a nail! The team is excited to continue with the excavation tomorrow — hopefully with as much enthusiasm as they put into sharpening their shovels!

5 Jun 2018

Heather Altepeter

Hi everyone!

My name is Heather Altepeter and I am a senior at IU majoring in anthropology. I am also on the team for the Wylie House Bicentennial dig. I got involved in this project to gain some hands on experience with archaeology, as this is my first dig! So far we have made. A lot of progress, but still have so much more to do! The first two days have been a blast, and it’s been so nice outside so we have been able to accomplish a lot!

Image of Heather Altepeter at Wylie House — Heather Altepeter

So today we were working on cleaning and up and leveling out the floors of the first level of the 2 units we started yesterday. So far we have found nails, glass, limestone rubble, plastic, and some coal. Throughout the day we have learned more about shovel skimming and using trowels to clean up the walls and floors of our unit. We have also learned how to draw a map that depicts a possible feature we found in Unit 1. I say possible because we are not totally sure what what the discolored dirt may be. We’ve also learned about the extensive paperwork that goes into keeping track of what we are doing, and have taken photos of the possible feature.

6 June 2018

Hannah B.

Hello! My name is Hannah and I am a senior here at IU. I am majoring in anthropology and minoring in art history and archaeology and the Wylie House Bicentennial dig is my first time in the field! I was really excited to get started and so far it has been great.

Image of Hannah crouching at Wylie House — Hannah B.

The third day of the Wylie House field school is another beautiful day with clear, blue sky’s. The two units are coming along nicely: unit 1 is working hard at leveling their second level, and unit 2 finished the leveling of level one and did the plan map and Munsell Soil testing. The Munsell soil testing is done by comparing the soil of the unit to the color swatches provided in the Munsell Soil book. The book provides colors ranging from a reddish to a greenish soil color along with the more typical yellow, brown, and black ranges. Each page is labeled and a very common page for archaeological digs in the Midwest is ‘10YR’ which stands for yellow-red. Along with the color of the soil the texture of it is also tested. This is done by a touch test. The archaeologist feels a chunk of soil to determine if it has silt, sand, clay, or a combination in their unit. Unit 1 has a combination of silt and clay, and as unit 2 digs deeper their soil progresses into clay. The third day is winding to a close and a lot of hard work has been done, so feel free to stop by to see our progress!

7 June 2018

Brenna R.

Hello everyone, my name’s Brenna and I’m a senior here at IU majoring in anthropology and minoring in art history and archaeology.

Image of Brenna with shovel at Wylie House — Brenna R.

Today the weather is fantastic and we’ve made a lot of progress! We’re now digging down to the third level of our units and sifting through the soil for any artifacts that could be there. So far today we’ve found a part of a glass milk bottle, a few piecs of ceramic whiteware and transferware, and some small shards of glass, as well as a large section of what appears to be a brick. In the unit I’m helping excavate we’ve sectioned it off into three separate layers based on the stratigraphy of the soil so we can get a better understanding of what might be a feature and what might not. We’ve got layer one, which is our silty top layer with only a few artifacts being found there, then layer two is our darker soil, with the majority of our artifacts coming from this area, and then layer three is our sub soil, which indicates we’ve reached a section of soil that hasn’t been majorly disturbed and we can expect to find almost no artifacts there. This sub soil layer is very helpful in pinpointing where more features might be and allows us to better plan where else to dig. I’m sure as we go further we’ll find even more interesting artifacts, so make sure to drop by and see!

8 June 2018

Joseph B.

Good afternoon, dear reader. I am Joseph, a student volunteer working on the Wiley House Bicentennial excavations. When I am not doing archaeology, I work in the IU chemistry department.

Joseph squatting at Wylie House — Joseph B.

Today was as dull as our trowels, which is to say it wasn’t. This morning, four intrepid volunteers came to labor beside us: José (who found four nails while screening soil), Catherine (who regaled us with stories of her previous work in Midwest archaeology and education), Suzanne (who helped us screen through the toughest soil we had), and Daisy (who found an honest-to-God ornate handle – see picture). Everyone had a wonderful time working together and getting to know each other and the volunteers helped us accomplish a lot. By lunch time, unit 2 had started a new level of excavations, and unit 1 was getting ready to do the same.

In unit 1, we scraped our way down through about 5-7 cm of soil, to the bottom of our third level of excavations. We leveled our unit out at this depth, and then took photographs of the soil surface. We mapped this surface by hand, using tape measures and a plumb line (see picture), taking special note of roots. Creating maps in this way will help us to determine whether changes in soil color and texture indicate potential features or are the remains of root systems or rodent runs.

Other interesting finds for the day include a metal hook and a ceramic marble, both of which were in unit 2 (see pictures).

We are making good progress, and are starting to see signs of subsoil. Soon, we might get to open another unit. Next week, we invite you to stop by and see!