QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS:
The First Season of Archaeology at Indiana...Part 2

Excavation in the East Field [Image 5]

The East Field [Image 5]: Three excavation units in this area resulted in the recovery of hundreds of 19th century artifacts - providing comparative material for the analysis of two more house lots in the town. A wide range of ceramic decorative types along with container glass, smoking pipes, architectural items, and personal objects (glass marbles and a moulded glass dog’s head, for example) were some of the more interesting finds recovered.

At the mill looking down from the top of the second highest storey to the millrace below [Image 6]

The Grist Mill: A primary objective of the work this summer was to investigate one of the industrial buildings that was central to the town’s economy. The location of David Thompson’s grist mill, completed in 1835, was determined by scaling off the 1844 plan of the town upon which this structure was depicted. As a testament to the skill of the 19th century cartographer, the accuracy of the plan was confirmed when the modern positioning corresponded precisely with a cut in the hillside [Image 6] (where the slope had been terraced for the second storey), remnants of a masonry wall, and a scatter of loose limestone rubble on the ground surface. Subsequent excavation in this area revealed the presence of two interior walls and the recovery of mostly architectural debris and several large pieces of hardware and machinery components. These artifacts require further analysis but it is clear at this point that additional excavation in the mill will provide information on the technology employed and, perhaps more importantly, changes in mill technology through time.

Rockfall in the millrace from the wheelpit and west foundation [Image 7]

Another excavation trench, positioned to crosscut the millrace, revealed a layer of rockfall, presumably from the millrace walls and the west foundation of the building [Image 7]. This rockfall was buried below a metre of modern flood deposits which had probably accumulated since 1975 when a significant flooding episode occurred along the Grand River. Some idea of the scale of flooding in the past was witnessed during the field school as, over a single weekend, the one metre deep trench (1 x 8 metres long) was completely filled with water as the river level rose almost 1.6 metres, completely inundating the trench and filling the adjacent canal and millrace! [IMAGE 8] Further excavation in two year’s time will be conducted in an attempt to define the original wheelpit and possibly the pit for the ‘Leffel’ or ‘Vulcan’ turbine thought to have been put into the mill in 1883 by David Thompson.

Bailing the millrace trench after the deluge [Image 8]

Continued