Day 3- Summary

Today was a very good day! Plantation Patterns met all of out expectations which was to find good artifacts. Today was filled with working together and finding good artifacts. We found a lot of things today and we are very proud of that. Our findings consist of pottery, pieces of plates, and nails. Tomorrow we expect to find bigger and better.

Dig Day 3

Digging today was really. Soon as we got to the dig site we went straight to work. At first everyone digged in there assigned area. I think pretty much everybody found something today. We had high expectations today. It was to get to the dig site and find interesting things and we met those expectations.

 Today we found more nails than yesterday. Then our teacher moved all of the diggers in one area because the one group that was in a area kept finding stuff. We all began to dig and we found pieces of plates and pots pieces.  Everyone was helping eachother out a lot today. We worked together and got alone with one another.

 My group found several things in our area. We came together and we was trying to figure out what each item was. T'co asked " Hey can yall help me find something." Then our group replied "yeah sure."  I think we all learned a lot these past few days. I really enjoy going on this dig everyday and learning something new.

Dig Day 3

            Today we got straight to work. I began the day digging in site A, the site of the pit. In the pit we found so many things. We found a bottle that dated back to 1801! I thought that was quite a discovery. We also found nails, stove pieces, hedges, knives, and a lot of cool tools.
            We discovered a rock on top of a rock in Site A to the left of the pit. Mr. Terri identified it to be a corner of the foundation, and that is what it signifies. Sifting dirt was a big part of the day. Tori stated, "I am sure we have sifted at least 400 buckets of dirt." We found a lot of similar items while sifting. Diamond said, "A lot of it looks the same, but it really isn't."
            A majority of our day included some really cool animals. We found lots of worms while we were digging. When we started digging through some holes, we spotted 2 scorpions the length of my finger, yikes! Michael was digging in the pit when he saw a rainbow colored lizard, and he said, "I'm pretty sure the dirt is getting to me." Addie, Tori, and Terri found a spider that was the size of my thumb. Addie stated, "yep, who's ready to do something away from here?"
          I got to work a lot with Donnie and Steve, considering it was there last day. Me and Steve had some really interesting conversations about archeology and his line of work. Tori and I's favorite part of today was when we found a really hard piece and asked Mr. Donnie what it was. Mr. Donnie presumed it to be a very thick walnut. While he was examining it he said, "Well, it looks like a nut but it's not acting like a nut." It was very humorous. This concludes Day Three's report.

Day 2- Summary

Today was a great day for Plantation Patterns! We got there, got the equipment, and got straight to work. The most important was an old smoke pipe that could tell the time period which was very big!! We found lots of pottery. We also went in today with positive mindsets and came out lucky.

Day Two: And It Begins...

Today was much different from yesterday. Fortunately, the cleaning up turned into squaring off sections. Our instructor, Dana, showed us how to plot rocks in the quadrants. Mallory, Lewis, Jacob and I worked together to plot rocks for the Tallapoosa Timberwolves.  First, we measured how far the rock lays on the north-south line. Then, we ran a tape measure east-west. While speaking at lunch, we all decided that today was an eventful day, but it was a successful beginning. 

Dig Day 2

Our dig today was really interesting and our expectations was better than yesterday . We learned how to use the tools and the correct way to dig.  Also that the area where we was digging the house always faced the direction where it wasn’t cold. The house was slanted like and going down a hill. It had like a trailway in front where they could walk back and forth.

We was at the dig site  and did what we had to do. Today we found a lot of things that had been left there from years ago . Our job today was to find where the house that slaves lived in was built. So we found them and we knew that because there was rocks in a straight line everywhere. When we found them we made a big square of how the house would be. After we did that Jared went around in the square with a metal detector scanning the ground.

We came upon a lot of things. The things we found was nails, old pottery, and something that could've been a shovel. After we found those things we bagged them up and but labels on them. Tco asked “have yall ever just wanted to go back in time  to see what they went through”. Whitney replied “ yeah, I really want”. I replied  “ I always wished we could that”. The Jared said “ They really had a lot of work to do and it was half the time.” Jaxon replied “ Sure was. They only had breaks when their owners told them to.
I think our team works well together. We all cooperate and help each other out if we need help.  We depend on each other to help do things all the time so we can get our job done.

Dig Day 2

          Today we met our dig instructor Mr. Terri Chandler. He really is an interesting, fun, and outgoing person. He gave us all nicknames, and each name seemed to suit us well. We really enjoyed meeting him and getting to know him. After surveying the area, we found three main areas we believe to be something interesting.
           The first site was a giant hole with rocks built around it. Mr. Terri and a couple of other men identified it to be a pit. They instructed us to clean around it and inside of it to see what we might discover. The pit seemed to go on forever, leading us to believe it could have also been a well. While digging in the pit, we found a numerous amount of objects such as: horseshoes, tools, nails, and much more.
         The second site was an area right below the pit. It was a center of something, possibly a chimney. It had a lot of fire rock and bricks. We were instructed to dig on the inside of the pit to see what we might find. During our digging, we found glass, pieces of tin, pieces of pottery, and glass bottle tops.
          The third site still remains a mystery. Along the lines of the first sight to the left is a lot of rocks piled up. We believe their could be something here, or it could be a rock pile that the slaves would have done. Along the road, we got traces of metal and tomorrow we are going to dig around to see what we may find.
          Tori stated that her hands would probably be stained after sifting so much. I asked Will, "What do you think is different from the dig last year?" Will exclaimed, "Well, I feel like this work is more difficult because of the trees and roots we have to encounter while digging." I asked Jakob, "What is your favorite part of the dig so far?" Jakob said, "I really like to dig. It makes me feel like I am actually doing something." I asked Addie the exact same question. She stated, "Definitely getting to work with Terri again." This concludes Dig Day Two's report.

Dig Day 1

        Today was a pretty interesting day. The weather was colder than we all thought it would be. Early this morning, we all boarded the buses and headed to start our first of the dig. When we got there, we received instructions from Mr. Dana, and we also met a few new people. We all loaded trucks and went to our first dig site.
        Our first dig site was the cemetery. When we got there, it didn't look like much. Our first job was to clear all the brush and limbs. As everyone began grabbing tools, we started clearing the site. While we were clearing up everything, we noticed peculiar rocks. Mr. Dana identified them to be the marking of graves. Katlyn stated that she did not want to step onto one because she did not want to be haunted by anyone deceased from the graves.
        I don't think we realized how much work this was going to call for. We had to cut down trees in our way, deal with tons of cow manure, and put some physical, manual labor into our work. Tori exclaims that she did not realize what working really was until she had to dig up a root herself. We also found cow bones. It was pretty exciting. We learned to use new tools that a few of us were not familiar with such as: pick axe, miniature axe, and clippers.
      Our second dig site to clean up was a little path believed to be where the slave houses or plantations were to be. The math team had to calculate the measurements for this job. We found a lot of things at this dig site such as: a snake, a baby turtle, and a lot of bugs. A few students went through the path with medal detectors flagging what ever spot they picked up. By the end of this, there were tons of flags.
     I asked Addie, "What do you think of the dig so far, and is there anything different from the previous dig you attended?" Addie stated, "This year is different because we are having to clean up every site, not just our own. As for last year, we went straight to our assigned sites, cleaned up, and went to digging. Plus, there's a lot more cow manure this year." Katlyn mentioned, "The dig is a lot more interesting that I thought it was going to be, and it's just day one!!" That concludes Day One's  report.

     

Day 1- Summary

Day 1:

Today was a very easy day after thinking all night about nothing but hard work.

We cleaned up areas such as the grave site and the digging site. We cleaned up leaves and cut trees. We all worked together to complete these task that went by really fast. We found grave stones, pottery, we even toured slave cabins, and much more.  Some of us even found little creatures such as turtles and a baby snake. Today was a very good day!

Community Studies Dig Day 1: Summary

As we was at the digging site today, we was cleaning up the grave site area where would be digging. While we was raking up leaves and cutting down trees we seen a lot of gravestones of some of the African slaves where they was buried. The stones was marked with a headstone and footstone so you would know where they was located and where it stopped. The stones was white and flat. They was sticking out of the ground and it was a lot of the graves out there. Today was pretty easy for us and everyone else

Day One: Clean Up

Today, groups of students from community studies formed to begin an archaeological dig. I guess you could say that today was basically a clean-up day. Students started their week off by chopping down trees, uprooting stumps, and clearing the undergrowth. Mallory Mitchell, leader of "The Denominators", reported the group findings of pottery and grave markings on the surface. The students ran into multiple animals such as a grub worm, turtle, and even a snake! Don't worry, the snake was taken care of, and no one was injured during this activity.