More Than Just a Hole in the Ground
•
There's more to dirt than meets the eye.
As the cold began to bite down hard earlier this month, the students of Anthropology 1130: "Archaeology of Harvard Yard" (taught by archaeology professor William L. Fash), closed up their hole in the Yard and went home. Their biggest discovery? A wall.
The main clue was the way the dirt in one part of the excavated site abruptly changed color. Sandwiched between two strips of dark red-orange dirt was an unexpected layer of gray. This, the class concluded, could be none other than evidence for one wall of the Indian College, a school Harvard had established in 1655 for the education and Christianization of Native Americans. The building is believed to have been located perpendicular to the edge of what is now Matthews.
The dig site, which consisted of 10 adjacent 1 meter by 1 meter units, was started in late September and revisited at least once a week. Students divided into teams and dug about 10 centimeters at a time, taking pictures and recording what they found (or didn't find).
Among the more interesting discoveries were pipe stems, ceramics with hand-painted designs, and glass bottles. The students who originally owned these objects didn't know it back then, but these will now be used by archaeologists to learn about life at this 17th century college. (Makes us think twice about throwing that empty Cape Cod chips bag on the ground.) These recovered artifacts have been donated to the Peabody Museum, where Fash serves as the director.
In mid-October, Daniel Balmori '11, a Government concentrator, found a slate pencil while casually digging through the dirt. He said that slate pencils, which were used to draft messages before transferring them to ink and paper, were the only academic artifacts uncovered at the site. What else was found? Evidence of other, less admirable activities.
"The focus of the class has really been on historical archaeology, because it tries to combine both written record and material culture," Balmori said. "What you have often are contradictions. Where the rules say you will be punished if you smoke or drink, you find pipes and glass bottles."
Guess 17th century college students did more than just study.