We just helped Dr. Laura Scheiber and her summer archaeology field school pack up their tents and load their supplies. This year Dr. Scheiber’s crew conducted more excavations on the Nostrum stage station. The big surprise was located in an area just west of the station that “hit big” with the metal detectors. Opening 1 meter squares, they uncovered a large cache of old horeshoes, wagon parts, and springs, along with butchered bone.
The elusive outhouse, however, remains elusive. Archaeologists love digging out the pits under outhouses. We find all the things people didn’t want discovered down there. In one instance, at Fort Union, in New Mexico, Mike’s old business partner, Brian Aivazian found an Officer’s Model Springfield rifle. Since it was in the “enlisted men’s” latrine, one can only wonder. Normally recovered items include whiskey bottles that were ditched intentionally, but sometimes it will be a watch or coins that fell out of pants pockets. Things people really hated to lose, but, well, didn’t want back after they’d fallen.
The only casualty, which is oddly related, was the one student who managed to fall through the seat of the modern outhouse. Who’d ever have thought you could find an archaeology student down there?
One thought on “Digging Archaeology”
June 29, 2011 at 4:41 pm
Hahaha about the outhouses……I have another book series that I really enjoy reading and there is one scene where it starts in the morning the man of the house finding a rattlesnake in the privy and it then manages to fall down the hole but later that day the family has visitors and the the family’s nephew shows a younger visitor the snake down there and the vistor proceeds to get a pistol and try to shoot the snake and poke it with a stick but the snake climbs up the stick and the gun and boy go down the hole…..its really a funny scene but your blurb above brought that to mind :D