91制片厂

Archaelogy Dig Yields Glimpse of the Past

The Pettee House site will be available for public viewing this Saturday, April 28 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
The site is located next to Garrison Avenue parking lot (across from Stoke Hall). Students will be there to share their findings. Come experience the unearthing of 91制片厂鈥檚 history first hand. (Note, children are most welcome but must be accompanied by parents.)

To most passersby, the small, grassy lot catty-corner from Stoke Hall looks like nothing special.

But 91制片厂 students in Anthropology 444 know that it holds clues to 91制片厂鈥檚 past 鈥� and they鈥檝e been working to uncover them this spring by conducting an archeological dig at the now-vacant site that once was home to the late Charles Holmes Pettee, a longtime 91制片厂 professor and dean. They will share what they鈥檝e learned this Saturday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., when the public is invited to visit the dig across from the intersection of Garrison Avenue and Brook Way.

The students are enrolled in The Lost Campus: The Archeology of 91制片厂, which introduces them to archeology not only through readings and lectures, but also through fieldwork. Taught by Meghan Howey, an assistant professor of anthropology, this Discovery Program Inquiry course marks the first time anyone has conducted an excavation on the 91制片厂 campus. It gives the students 鈥� most of whom have no experience in the field 鈥� a taste of what it鈥檚 like to be an archeologist.

鈥淭hey can actually get their hands dirty and experience it for themselves,鈥� said Kerissa Paquette, a senior anthropology major whom Howey hired to assist with the excavation. 鈥淚 want them to feel that excitement and that rush of picking up stuff that maybe hasn鈥檛 been touched in a hundred years. It鈥檚 powerful to think that something was used when there weren鈥檛 computers or cell phones. It helps bring you back to that time and realize that life was a lot different even just a hundred years ago.鈥�

The fieldwork is teaching the students about campus life during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when most faculty members 鈥� including Pettee 鈥� lived on campus. A professor, dean, and three-time interim president, the Manchester native served the college from 1876 until his death in 1938. His home, which later became the 91制片厂 Department of Housing, was demolished in 2007.

Jillian Price, the course鈥檚 teaching assistant, said we tend to take for granted the alterations that have occurred on campus. 鈥淎s soon as buildings are gone, people seem to forget them,鈥� said Price, a junior anthropology and history major. 鈥淒igging gives you an idea of how students, faculty and staff have shaped their surroundings.鈥�

Finding Lost Fragments

On a recent chilly Monday, the students 鈥� mostly freshmen and sophomores from a variety of majors 鈥� worked in teams to dig pits in a grid-like pattern. Using a trowel, Megan Roed scraped away earth to reveal a jagged fragment of white ceramic, roughly the size of a key. She switched to a brush to sweep dirt from around the fragment before gently removing it. 鈥淚t鈥檚 mind boggling to think that this ceramic piece belonged to someone else and that we鈥檙e finding it and learning about it today,鈥� said Roed, a first-year neuroscience and behavior major who was participating in a dig for the first time. 鈥淵ou don鈥檛 think that there鈥檚 going to be ceramics and old household items under the ground. You don鈥檛 think about it when you walk by.鈥�

The site was discovered by class member Josh Beaucher, who was walking home from campus when he noticed an overgrown walkway that abruptly ended. 鈥淚t led to nowhere,鈥� said the junior anthropology major. 鈥淭hat led me to start asking questions about what was here before.鈥� Beaucher learned from the University Archives that Pettee had lived on the site. Working in groups, students identified 14 other potential locations by conducting archival research in 91制片厂鈥檚 Special Collections, including reading newspaper articles, examining photos, and scrutinizing maps. The class chose the Pettee House site after its test excavations in late March yielded a promising mix of artifacts: pearlware (early ceramic), a large brick, nails, glass, and a 1918 penny.

The following week, their first full afternoon of digging revealed part of the foundation of the Pettee House. 鈥淚t鈥檚 beautiful,鈥� Howey told the students as she examined the feature. 鈥淭his is some kind of retaining wall.鈥�

There鈥檚 a lot more to archeology than digging, though. At the site, students drew scale-maps of their pits, showing where they found artifacts, and took photos. They also kept careful records of the objects they unearthed.

Beaucher emptied a pail of dirt onto a screen and sifted through it to capture small artifacts his team had missed. He鈥檚 wanted to be an archeologist since he was 12 and sees the work as a quest to rediscover the past. 鈥淓ven something as simple as a foundation can tell you how they built houses back then,鈥� he said. 鈥淎rcheologists get excited about the littlest things.鈥� Added Price: 鈥淵ou can feel a connection to the people who were here. It鈥檚 not just some house that had no impact at all.鈥�

Read more about the project on the classes鈥� 听and 听pages.