(Click here to see the earlier excavations mapped onto the Jamestown Island landscape:
http://www.preservationvirginia.org/rediscovery/page.php?page_id=18)
CRM is also of huge importance to us as future archaeologists, as odds are good that at some point most of us will work for a CRM agency. CRM is sometimes called "salvage" or "rescue" archaeology, as it is these agencies who are called in ahead of the bulldozers on a construction project (or sometimes - unfortunately - because of the bulldozers on a construction project.) CRM agencies are contracted to come onto a site and survey it for possible archaeological significance. This begins with a Phase I survey, which includes documentary research on the area of potential effect (if any information can be found) and pedestrian survey (literally walking around picking things up from off the ground). If it seems the site might have archaeological value, the CRM agency would move into Phase II to determine the site's eligibility. This might include shovel test pits (digging a series of holes laid out on a grid system and screening for artifacts) and/or some test units. Based on the findings from these initial surveys, a decision will be made on whether the site has archaeological value and should be excavated and mitigated before the continuation of the project, or whether the project can continue without any further excavation and salvage of the site. In rare cases, if a site has huge potential signifigance, a project might be stopped outright.
CRM agencies are largely contracted by federal agencies, as the National Historic Preservation Act (1966) made it law that any federal project first requires a survey of the area of potential effect in consideration for the National Register of Historic Landmarks. Unfortunately, it does not apply to private landowners, who can build at will in most areas. Some states and/or counties - James City County, home to Jamestown, for example - have a strong sense of their local history and have laws in place for private land as well, but in many other places construction projects can take place at the landowner's whim, regardless of what might be destroyed in the process. When I volunteered in Maryland, I created a predictive model of 18th- and 19th-century sites along the Chester River, and when we field tested the model we found most waterfront sites with brand-spanking-new houses sitting right on top of what might have been an archaeological treasure . . .
To be fair, if the site is not registered, the landowner can not possibly know there is anything of archaeological value on their property. And even if the site is registered, the information is not likely to be made public for fear that pothunters will come along to take whatever they can find that looks valuable and saleable (or, I suppose, that the property owner might do the same). It's a fine line to walk. (Click here for an article from British Columbia, Canada, where they have a Heritage Conservation Act in place affecting private landowners, but also charging them for the archaeological survey: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2010/04/19/bc-diggingbill.html. I would recommend you read with a grain of salt, as I'm not sure I trust the CBC's statement that "We hold the powers that be accountable." The article may be fairly biased against the BC government, and certainly sounds terrifically biased against the archaeologists involved!)
Of course, many Nationally Registered Historic Landmarks - managed by the federal government or local non-profit agencies - are falling into disrepair or are on the brink of financial ruin, especially in our current economy. Several have been sold to private owners or closed for lack of funding. Many others struggle to pay the salaries of their employees, who research and interpret for the public the history and importance of the site. It is unfortunate that our history as a nation is slipping away unremarked and unlamented.
(http://www.historicjamestowne.org/donate/)
After the lecture, we went back to the field. As you may recall, at the end of Thursday we had discovered a subsoil ledge on the east side of the feature and a dark soil layer covering the rest of
it (giving it similar dimensions to the feature a few feet to the north.) Dr. Kelso and Dave are now guessing (given that dark layer that looks for all the world like a layer of decomposed organic material) that this may be a saw pit, used by the early colonists to cut lumber.
The colonists would have been using a two-person saw. One person (the "top dog" would stand above the log, and the other (you guessed it - the "underdog") stood in the pit below. The underdog had the lousier job, as all the sawdust would fall down into his face.
We also had a very obvious posthole, with a dark postmold right in the center. It looks as though that postmold is actually charcoal - as if the post had burnt in place. Dr. Kelso pointed out that there is some documentary evidence to support the idea that the colonists might have burnt the end of the post in an effort to retard decay.
Just like the earlier hole I excavated mid-week, this posthole seems full of artifacts. Earlier in the day I found a turquoise-blue trade bead that was sort of kidney- or half-moon-shaped. I also found a few escutcheons for brigandine armor (below). Escutcheons were decorative items - in this case, they were used to decorate the rivets holding the metal plates to fabric or leather. Unfortunately they are very fragile, and the first one broke as we examined it.
As I cleaned up the posthole a bit for our last walkabout, I hit an interesting metal item. It is impossible to tell for sure what it might be, as it is still largely buried, but Dave guessed that it might be part of a sword or other weapon - perhaps the trigger guard or snaphaunce from a gun?
We cleaned up the site and closed right after walkabout - with me waist-deep in the feature and still not down to subsoil. :D
I miss my family tremendously, but I am also grateful to the them and to the Jamestown staff for giving me an extra week to dig, learn, and with any luck get to the bottom of this feature - literally!
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