alabamadigs.com

Archaeology volunteers return to Brierfield Ironworks Historical State Park to investigate the remains of a domestic structure on Furnace Branch about 400 meters upstream from the blast furnaces. These are probably the remains of house where a furnace worker and his family lived.

Tying the dig site to the archaeological grid of the park.

Kaylee Vernon worked the total station as we staked out the one meter squares that volunteers will be digging.

Opening the first two excavation units.

UAB student Brian Nichols (front) and Forester Carl Vernon dig the first level of the first two units we will be excavating. Carl's square contains bricks that were part of a worker house.

It’s too soon to tell how much survives of the worker house but our first day of digging suggests that we may be able to learn a great deal over the next week.  We have already identified two other houses in the immediate vicinity. One of these was a pyramidal hipped roof duplex. Also nearby was a church which is shown on a 1908 U.S. Geological Survey topographic map.

Here is a short video discussing the brick remains.

Video of brick remains of worker house.

AAS members and guests shovel tested the Mill Pond Site (1-Tu-504) at Tannehill.

Steve Meredith, AAS President explains what has been found in a shovel test.

The volunteers completed forty shovel tests which revealed a scatter of flakes and small pot sherds.  This was the first step in developing a comprehensive inventory of the prehistory of the park property. The Alabama Historic Ironworks Commission has limited resources to devote to this important phase of our archaeological management program so the work of the AAS is greatly appreciated.

The shovel test locations were tied into the archaeological grid for the 1200 acre park.

Amanda Finley, archaeologist and opera singer from St. Louis is a natural on the total station.

Lab rats clean artifacts.

Gregory Hicks and Daniel Lowrey screening.

Kelly and John Hoomes' shovel was so productive that we decided to expand it into a 1-meter square.

Daughter, father team, Amy and Richard Kilborn spent some time in the 1-meter square. Steve Meredith (with trowel) checks out cluster of rocks in southwest corner.

A small cluster of burned sandstone rocks embedded in a lightly stained matrix may be a hearth.

The 1-meter square

Mary Spanos taking pictures for our web site.

The AAS Volunteer day has been rescheduled for this Saturday 4 April 2009. The 8:00AM meeting time is the same, but the place where we will assemble before moving to the dig site has been changed. Below is an up dated park map showing the new rendevous point. For a map to the park please see the 10 March 2009 blog post.  If you plan to be here contact Steve Meredith or email me at jackbergstresser@aol.com so that we will know how much gear to have ready. For more information see the new Alabama Archaeological Society web page: http://www.aas.mspanos.com/index.shtml Mary Spanos has done a fantastic job!

Updated Map/ New Rendevous Point

After you cross the bridge at the Grist Mill, drive another 300 meters then turn right and go another 250 meters across a bridge over a dry wash and up a rise to the overflow parking area to the rendevous point.

One reason we rescheduled the dig

Everytime it rained last week the ford at the Grist Mill, visible here only as a line of whitewater, became impassable.

A good reason to test the Mill Pond Site

Chert is abundant in the vicinity of the Mill Pond Site.

The Mill Pond Site is located on a beautiful little a bend in Mill Creek. Last week, with the creek as high as I have ever seen it in my three years at the park, the site was still a comfortable eight to ten feet above the water level.

It's back.

Late  at night when you’re sleeping, poision ivy comes a creeping……….

For years we’ve known of the existence of the Williams and Owen Forge down Roupes Creek from the blast furnaces at Tannehill, but recent discoveries suggest that the site was more substantial than just a simple catalan forge operation.  The remains of a crib dam on the creek and possible stone foundations are visible near the water’s edge but a new survey has revealed two stone foundations, a stone lined well and brick scattered over an area well back from the creek.

Remains of crib dam on creek bank

The log was notched and thick wooden pins were attached at regular intervals.

Possible stone wall extending back into creek bank.

Located about 100 feet down stream of the crib dam, these stones may have been part of the wheel house where a water wheel that turned the cam shaft that drove the forge hammer was located.

An solid iron bar eight inches in diameter and eighteen inches long was the first discovery of a very informative walkover of the site.

Close up view of the iron object. Does anyone know what it is?

One of two stone piles discovered over two hundred feet from the banks of Roupes Creek.

Anna provides scale showing this stone pile to be almost three feet high and around eight feet square. Made of cut stone, the remains were so covered with humus and leaves that their exact shape and dimensions were not readily visible.

Stone lined well.

The well and the two stone piles are located in a large flat area that was spacious enough to have accommodated multiple structures.  Scattered pieces of brick in the vicinity suggest that some of these potential structures were buildings or dwellings. We are hoping that our preliminary archaeological testing this weekend will begin to tell us more about the nature and extent of this important site. One thing is already clear, the site is much larger than we originally suspected.

We did a quick video scan of the terrain where the two stone piles and well were located. Check it out by clicking on the link below.

A quick viedo scan of the stone pile, well area of the forge site.

Members of the Alabama Archaeological Society will assemble for a voulnteer dig at the Tannehill Ironworks Historical State Park on Saturday 28 March 2009.  We will be testing a Woodland period site located on a terrace above a bend in Mill Creek. Below are maps to the park and to the assembly area where we will meet at 8:00AM.

Map to the Park.

Map of the Park showing assembly area and dig site.

When you enter the park, turn left and drive to the eastern end of the park. We will assemble at the Overflow Parking Area shown on map above at 8:00AM.  Check out this blog after the dig on 4 April for a report of our findings.  If you are late and have to walk to the site on your own, the Grist Mill Trail begins right next to the Grist Mill. You will have to walk to the trailhead from the overflow parking area.

Seventeen volunteers arrived ready to dig!

So many volunteers arrived that we were able to finish the Fork Units around the trash pile and move on to the units to the southwest where we suspect we will find evidence of a structure.

A final animal bone fragment from the trash pile.

Dr. Sharyn Jones, UAB Anthropologist, removes a final, large bone fragment from the trash pile. Over seven hundred pieces of animal bone were recovered from around the fireplace at House 1 and the trash pile in the Fork Units. Catherine Wright, a graduate student working with Dr. Jones and recipient of the Garnet M. Garvin Internship in Historical Archaeology next semester, will do a study of this important collection.

An abundance of iron cookware fragments.

Part of the handle, one leg and three fragments from the lid of a Dutch Oven found in a single 1-meter square.  Two other units contained multiple pieces of iron pots while other units yielded single fragments.  This seems like a high concentration of ironware that may indicate a kitchen.

The site had visitors much earlier in history.

Two stone arrow tips and a piece of chert, not native to the area and showing signs of having been modified by humans, indicate that this area, which may have been a kitchen during the Civil War, may also have served as a small hunting camp during prehistoric times.

Heading home.

A light rain brought an end to a very productive day. The crew passes the blast furnaces after returning from the dig along the same trail that slave ironworkers traveled daily between 1858 and 1865.