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We’re continuing to come down on this strange stone feature, at this point unsure of what it may be. Things are definitely coming together, though, as more stone and clay are emerging. A bit of bousillage came out yesterday and the other diagnostic artefacts found to date (Saintonge coarse earthenware, Staffordshire slipware and flacon glass) have all been consistent with an Acadian occupation. But what this feature is remains to be seen.

Digging under the dome.

 

More stone showing up in the expansion unit.

 

As we dig, we begin to notice distinctions showing up in the soil.

The soil is definitely showing a darker trend around the stones and paler closer to the north wall.

We’ve been very fortunate that the inventor of the EM-38B, Duncan McNeil, has been very interested and helpful to us in the application of geophysical information to archaeology. Now that we’ve dug into the anomaly a bit, we were able to once again use the EM-38 (which measures electric conductivity and magnetic susceptibility underground) to see whether the anomaly is still as strong now as it was before we dug.

Rob carries the EM-38 over the stone feature to see if the magnetic readings remain as high now as they did during initial testing.

Rob is barefoot so that steel toe boots won’t interfere with the readings (and also because he likes to be barefoot, I suppose). The results indicate that the magnetic readings aren’t as high as they were (perhaps due to the removal of some stone and some metal artefacts) but are still high, so it seems the basalt stones are what are giving off the high reading. We also find in taking readings in the area that the feature seems to continue to the south of our unit, so if we end up expanding, that’s where we’ll do it.

In the 2008 unit, a timber was found running across the edge of the stone feature. We’re starting to see some wood come up in our expansion as well as a significant amount of charcoal, so there’s a bit more evidence of a structure having been here.

Some wood begins to show up in the northwestern corner of our excavation.

As we continue to dig, the faint trace of the limits of our feature seem to show up, as darker soil with clay content is concentrated where the stones are found, and a pale, sandy soil is found around the exterior of the feature.

Distinctions between the feature and the outside of the feature start to become clear.

The most promising discovery, however, came toward the end of the day. In the mid-afternoon, Becki came across what seemed at first to be a piece of slate, but as she looked at it more closely, markings could be seen.

The obverse of a coin. Look carefully to see the markings. Click to see a larger version.

 

The coin, reverse.

It doesn’t look like much, I suppose. Archaeologists hardly ever find coins that a coin collector would envy. But for our purposes, it’s perfect, since there are just enough markings on it to figure out that the coin is a doublestruck silver billon French sol, which were minted from 1692-1705, and shipped off to the colonies.

In its day, the obverse would have looked more like this:

Obverse.

And the reverse:

Reverse.

Can you see how the markings match up?

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