William Byrd, Colonial Williamsburg, Yorktown....

More to come later.

Saturday heading south.....

Saturday I went to Richmond, VA with my new-found-friend, Gary. He's a teacher at University of Mary Washington, who just moved here, who I met in a bar, and who is very nice. He hasn't chopped me up into little pieces yet, so keep your fingers crossed.

We visited the Virginia capitol, a building designed by Thomas Jefferson. It was home to many famous things, including the acceptance of Robert E Lee to lead the Confederate Army, and the treason trial of Aaron Burr. Then we visited the Virginia Historical Society, where I got to see a painting of William Byrd II, my favorite Virginian. After that we ate burritos and drove back to Fredericksburg. Below are some pictures. It's 6:45pm and the rest of my evening will be spent with laundry!



Here is an excerpt from St. Paul's Episcopal Church's website:

(http://www.stpauls-episcopal.org/index.php/who/history_architecture/)
With the selection of Richmond as the capitol of the Confederacy in 1861, St. Paul's would become forever identified with the Civil War. General Robert E. Lee and his wife were lent a pew and attended services at St. Paul's whenever possible throughout the war. In 1862, Confederate President Jefferson Davis was confirmed as a member of the parish. Many male parishioners gave their lives in battle. The church undercroft was used as a hospital for wounded soldiers. While attending service on Sunday, April 2, 1865, President Davis was delivered a message from General Lee stating that Lee had to withdraw from Petersburg, and thus could no longer defend Richmond. Davis quietly left the church, and evacuated the Confederate government and army from the city that afternoon. Fires broke out that evening, destroying the downtown and spreading dangerously close to St. Paul's. General Lee surrendered his army at Appomattox the following Sunday.



The house where Robert E Lee lived in Richmond

The Virginia Capitol, which also served as the Capitol of the Confederate States of America


William Byrd, my favorite Virginian


Statue of George Washington in the Capitol rotunda


St. Paul's Episcopal Church


Where Jefferson Davis was sitting when he received news of the fall of the Confederacy.

Friday in NoVa (that's Northern Virginia for those who don't know)

Friday was spent in Alexandria, VA. As much as I hate to do it, go here to read the Wikipedia entry on Alexandria's history. The George Washington Masonic Memorial was first on our stop. It was built by Free Masons in the early 1900's as a tribute to their numero uno Mason, George Washington. It's really a giant tool to show the public the merits of Free Masonry, and how the father of our country, George Washington, became the man he was because of Free Masonry. Here are some highlights:

This building is on top of a 200 foot hill, and it stands 300 feet tall.....so it stands about 500 feet in the air. A fitting tribute to GW!


The view from the top.


It might be difficult to read, but this is a 1904 commemorative coin from the "Braden Town" Masonic Lodge.

The rest of the afternoon, after a nice lunch at a fish & chips place in Alexandria, we visited the Weems-Botts Museum in Dumfries. Parson Weems was the man who wrote the Washington biography that started the cherry-tree and coin-across-the-Rappahannock myths. It was interesting because the town is kind of run down and forgotten, and it seemed like the house-museum was a major effort to bring the town back to importance.

Countdown.....

7 days till I'm officially done with field school
8 days till Mark flys up
9 days till we start driving home
10 days till I get back home!!!!!!!!

An Update, Finally

Update: Photos have been added, now that Blogger is cooperating.

It's been 10 days since an entry. Here's what's been happening:

Last week, we went to St. Mary's City. This was Maryland's first capital. After it was abandoned when the colonial government moved to Annapolis, the archaeological evidence sat buried until the 1970's. Based on excavations, many of the period buildings have been reconstructed.


A small house, probably owned by a tenant farmer.


Chickens.


A larger house owned by a small plantation owner.


A Jesuit church, home to the first major Catholic congregation in North America.


A barn.


The printer's house.

The Maryland Dove.

The weekend was nice. My mom & sister came to DC for a vacation and I stayed with them Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. The only new touristy things I did since the last time I was in DC were the Smithsonian's Museum of Natural History and Arlington Cemetery.

The tomb of the unknown soldier, the changing of the guard, and some graves. I have to say that I was impressed by the cemetery as a whole, but the tomb of the unknown was kind of a let-down.

This week we'll be going to the Masonic Memorial in Alexandria, VA and back to Mt. Vernon to visit the museums that we didn't get to see when the power was out the last time we were there.

This is my second to last week and I'm really anxious to come home. Mark is going to fly up on July 4th, and we're probably driving home July 5th & 6th.

Straw, day 2

We finished with the straw today. We pulled back the tarps, and uncovered some of the plywood structure that was built to protect the excavated cellars. They are in good shape, which was a relief to some who were concerned about their condition.

Now it's Friday, and I'm going to relax.

Straw

There's a large portion of the site that was previously excavated, over the past 3 or 4 years. It's the area where the 18th century stone foundations and cellars were found. This hasn't been confirmed as Washington's house, but it could be. So, this portion of the site has been covered with straw for 8 months, since the end of the last field season. This is to protect it from damage. We started taking it all off today. Pitching straw can be really difficult and dirty work!

"Field Trip" Day

On Wednesday we took a Civil War walking tour with John Hennessy, who is the Chief Historian at the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Battlefield Park. It was good. He is a very smart guy who knows so much about the area's history, civil war and otherwise. We got to talk about the way that the war affected the region, and how people are still affected by it today. Here is a picture of a house that sat right in the middle of Federal and Confederate sides. You can see the damage done. This wasn't very much worse than how the rest of Fredericcksburg fared during the Union siege.








Later in the afternoon, our group went to Mary Washington's house. Mary was the mother of George Washington. She is referred to as "Mary, Mother of Washington." It sounds almost like a Hail Mary. They're not sure, but they think this might be a portrait of her. I think she looks a lot like George!



But the highlight of the day was eating at Mr. D's, a tiny little fish and sandwich place. There was just one woman working, the Asian owner. I think she was Korean, but I wasn't 100% sure. It was an experience! I had a hamburger, but a lot of people had some type of fish sandwich. I might return.

The Site

Here's what the site looks like. This is just the part we've started working on this season. Each square is a 5'x5' square. Those aren't regular feet, but they're something called metric feet (I think, but I could be wrong). Basically, it's 10", so for example, a standard 12" is what we would call "1.2 feet."




And here is what my newly finished unit looks like. It was pretty uneventful. There were just two "features," probably post holes. and some big rocks. We reached the subsoil and didn't find anything of any significance, so we are moving on.

Heate wave.....

The temperature right now is 90 degrees, but the "feels like" is 100 degrees. And it's going to get to 100 degrees later today, which means that the feel like will probably be 110 degrees!!!!!

Today at the site.....

I didn't do any archeology today. Instead, I spent the whole 8 hours shoveling mulch. We mulched a 1/4 mile path 3 inches thick with steaming hot mulch. And the temperature was nearly 100 degrees. I was planning to take pictures to show you all what kind of work that I've been doing. Maybe Monday!

Mt. Vernon

Today we went on a "field trip" to Mt. Vernon. However, there were some bad storms last night and the power was out at the General's estate. So, we saw the house and the reconstructed grist mill and distillery, but not the museum. I guess the museum is important because it will help us as field school students understand the Mt. Vernon interpretation of George Washington. This is important because the archaeological work we are doing will contribute towards the Ferry Farm interpretation of George Washington.

But, all of that academic stuff aside, Mt. Vernon is a nice place. The views of the Potomac are amazing.





That's me at Mt. Vernon


This is the General and the Mrs., and her grand kids.


Fellow archaeologist Heidi, who used to work at Ferry Farm and now works at Mt. Vernon


That's me in front of half of Mt. Vernon

That's all of Mt. Vernon from the front, which is really the back


The General's grist mill (it's a reconstruction)

A note about photographs from the site.....

I hope to post more pictures from the work site, but I haven't quite figured out what I'm allowed to take pictures of, or how to do it without neglecting the work (yes, they make us work!). I'll figure it out soon so you can all see what the work looks like.

San Francisco

I took a quick trip to San Francisco this past weekend. I met up with Mark, Jeff, and Darren in Atlanta and we flew out together. I was there Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and flew back late Monday night. I rode a cable car, went to Alcatraz, saw the row of houses featured on the opening to "Full House," went to Napa valley and visited a winery, and a variety of other touristy stuff. And I got to see Pankaj, Kim, and Crasynthia, and meet Tara (Mark's friend from college).

Here are some pictures: