My regular posts updating you on our progress this season are forthcoming, but I wanted to step out of sequence a moment to say a heartfelt thank you to all of our participants in the public programme this season and last.
I’ve been working in the lab over the past week or so, cleaning, sorting, bagging, labeling, and cataloguing our finds from the past two seasons’ Public Archaeology programmes. In doing so, I’ve watched our catalogue of found artefact types swell by nearly a thousand entries and our total individual artefact count rise by 4251 objects.
I often write on here that it’s not all about artefacts, as archaeology isn’t treasure-hunting, and that’s quite true. But what I really like about these stats is that they offer a physical representation of the new bits of information we’ve acquired in doing the public programme. So much academic research is airy and intangible, and one reason I love archaeology is that it involves both the quiet, cerebral reflection of historical and humanistic inquiry but along with a very physical enaction of the act of research: digging in the dirt and literally discovering new (well, old) things.
Anyway, my points are these, in no specific order:
We’ve had two wonderfully successful seasons of productive research at Grand-Pré conducted in large part by enthusiastic, friendly, thoughtful members of the public. I’ve enjoyed it more than I can say. All of the participants were wonderful and we loved having you out with us. Not only that, but you’ve helped us make spectacular headway in research over just six weeks of work spread across two seasons. Thank you all so much for your interest and your help.
Miriam L. C. Fry
Jonathan Fowler
Sarah-Marie McDonald
Stéphane Noël
I found your work here very interesting. I am from Washington state and visited Nova Scotia this fall. While on southern Cape Sable Island, a local fisherman took me to see the drowned forest at low tide and a “fence” which is occasionally exposed after storms. It is a row of 2″ to 4″ posts – say 250′ long. The fisherman pulled a post out to expose a sharp bevel cut at it’s base. Many of the posts have rotted, leaving a series of holes in the mud. The fisherman is in his 70′s and was told by his father that this feature had always been at this beach. I asked him to contact a local school, but I doubt that he has. The question is how long the feature will last as it was exposed. We guessed at the reason for the “fence” – a fish trap or pen, and since it was in the area of the “drowned forest” – whether the fence had been on dry land and for some reason subsided below sea level. If you or someone in your department is interested, I have some pictures.
Richard Watts
By: Richard Watts on November 7, 2011
at 3:34 pm