DAY 4

Our field crew has not let the New England heat wave deter us from continuing our investigation!

As a result, we have exposed the full extent of the south privy pit wall, comprised of 2 courses of brick. It appears that the south wall may have had two episodes of construction. The brick masonry of the east half of the south wall reveals an alternating pattern of stretchers and headers, while bricks of the west half of the south wall are all stretchers. A field stone wall appears to separate these sections. We wonder if a larger privy pit was needed as more residents were added to the Chase household?

We also opened additional excavation units in order to explore and determine the full extent of: 1) the field stone privy base under the brick footing, 2) the field stone walls extending east and north of the privy pit, and 3) the stone slab paving (root cellar floor?) found approximately one meter below datum.

Many questions remain! Do the exposed field stone walls represent an earlier privy pit? Or the footprint of the privy building or barn? Who smoked the clay pipes we found? Who played with the doll associated with the porcelain doll head fragment with a painted face and eyebrows? What food was prepared using the lead glazed red earthenware kitchen vessel?