Stone wall, with a twist...

On a recent archaeological project in upstate NY, I ran into an interesting 20th century stone wall on a farm that was embedded with a variety of objects. I have seen these types of walls before (usually decorated with glass), but not with such a diversity of items. Unfortunately most of the glass bottles seem to have been broken by passing pedestrians (I witnessed some homeless guy from the area throwing debris towards the wall while I was there)...














farm implements?















stoneware crocks and bottles:















architectural tile:















terra cotta drainage pipe:















iron grate:















and an old metal wagon wheel:

Phase III excavation, Hale Eddy, NY

Opening three 1x1m units as part of a block excavation:

















Just a little bit rocky:

Phase I survey, Chester, NY

This last parcel of farmland is soon going the way of the bulldozer to make way for development, like everything that is around it:
















Matt contemplates the wisdom of having to dig in obvious wetlands:
















More photos from this project to come - I need to scan 'em in!

Phase I survey, Cohocton, NY

Digging shovel tests in a field high on a mountain:

















Enjoying October autumn weather, while it still lasted:


















Strange advertisement painted on the wall of a general store
for sandwiches in town:

Archaeological monitoring project, Mt Morris, NY

These are photos from an archaeological monitoring project in Mount Morris, NY. I'm used to projects where we are digging on the side of the road, but in this case, we were actually looking for features under the road.














Mapping a feature, and preparing to bisect it:













Excavation two 1x1m units in proximity of a prehistoric Archaic fire pit feature:

Phase II excavation, Verona, NY

Here are pics from a Phase II excavation I was recently on near Verona, NY. We were working on the grounds of a 19th century farmhouse:













Working alongside the "corn house":














Some of the units were placed in between the old smokehouse and privy:

Random archaeology photos

I was recently cleaning files off my computer's hard drive and decided to publish a random mix of archaeology photos from the last 10-12 years of my career. There are currently almost 100 photos online, and more to come. These projects span many locations from New York to Florida to Arizona and many places in between.

http://photos.yahoo.com/jpalmer_archaeologyfieldwork

Archaeologist Tired Of Unearthing Unspeakable Ancient Evils

What does an archaeologist do on their vacation? Volunteer on someone else's archaeological excavation! On Sunday I drove to the Watchung Reservation in New Jersey to help out with the ongoing Feltville Archaeology Project. Excavations have been undertaken here for several years as part of a university field school and public archaeology project. This site lies within the Deserted Village of Feltville/Glenside Park, a National Register district.

This particular site had a foundation of a structure dating back to the 1700s. Other extant buildings within the park include other residences, a general store/post office, church, and barn. This area has been inhabited for over 300 years and had served as a farming community, a quasi-utopian mill town, and a summer resort. Today the village is protected as part of Union County's 2,000 acre Watchung Reservation.

What may be the foundation for an "el" addition is exposed in the middle of the photo, and what is likely a retaining wall lies in the foreground. These shallow units will remain open for a time so the public can witness the ongoing archaeological excavations. 

These excavated units show two courses of cut sandstone (likely quarried locally), which served as the foundation of the original part of the house. 

Our neighbor's son (and his friend) took me on an adventure this weekend to find a site that is locally known as "Indian Chair" (Bryan poses here in one of at least 4 "chairs"). This site is an extensive outcrop of chert that was prehistorically used by Native Americans for the making of tools. The surface here is still littered with evidence of quarrying activities. I didn't know that that there were so many archaeological sites so close to home!

The darker spots represent high-quality chert

Bands of dark gray/black chert quarried out of the hillside...

View across the valley, looking south 

Earlier this week, we recorded a historic fire lookout tower. This was a lot of fun! 

This was initially constructed as a 60' tower in 1921, extended to 86' in 1933, and served as the primary fire lookout tower for the region.

It's difficult to see the tower from the road, as some of the trees have grown up around it. 

 

A closer look at some of the structural elements