Badger Bart
Sr. Member
- Mar 24, 2005
- 301
- 18
http://www.macon.com/mld/macon/13154413.htm
Archaeologists unearthing the secrets of Fort Hawkins
By Liz Fabian
TELEGRAPH STAFF WRITER
In a matter of hours, a team of archaeologists changed the face of Macon's history.
Secrets, long buried after the demise of Fort Hawkins in the 1820s, are surfacing with the excavation of mountains of dirt at the historic site in the Fort Hill neighborhood in east Macon.
Historians, studying what the U.S. Army southern headquarters looked like, relied on an oral history collected 50 years after the fort closed and information gathered in two smaller excavations in 1936 and 1971.
Saturday, archaeologist Dan Elliott of the Lamar Institute and a team of about a dozen volunteers uncovered a different picture of the fort's layout.
"It obviously doesn't look like its drawing, does it?" Elliott asked his colleague, Dan Battle.
"No," replied Battle, as he stood on top of a large brick floor still buried under about a foot of rich clay.
"I think it looks like the Fort Smith (Ark.) drawing," Elliott said.
The Lamar Institute began digging Wednesday, and by Saturday afternoon had skimmed off enough of the surface to determine that what was believed to be two buildings was actually one long building along the fort's front stockade.
The dig, which is designed to ultimately lead to an accurate restoration of the fort, combines modern technology with mechanical manpower and simple hand tools.
A trackhoe gradually scrapes away about four feet of the top layers of dirt, giving way to a metal detector that's followed by trowels and trench diggers to unearth artifacts.
When something is located, red flags go in the ground for further delicate discovery. "This stuff is so much fun," Alex Sanders, a volunteer from Augusta, said as he watched the claw of the trackhoe gently pull away the red dirt. "Every time you scrape, all of a sudden a piece of 18th century pottery, a button or a buckle pops up."
Shards of English stone ware in brilliant blue patterns can help pinpoint the exact era. The glaze on a piece of pottery can disclose whether it was made in South Carolina or Georgia, experts say.
The ground has already yielded a small metal ring, a Civil War-era bullet most likely from a later skirmish, what appears to be a finial off a fireplace tool and a cockade, which is an ornament from a military helmet.
Battle, whose archaeological firm, Cypress Cultural Consulting, specializes in uncovering artifacts and researching history, skimmed the soil with a "relic hunter" metal detector.
"He was raised by metal looters," Elliott said, jokingly.
"Ever since high school, I guess, I've had a metal detector in my hands," Battle said. "We've been able to locate things that the traditional archaeological survey method misses."
Battle said he can learn a lot from the ground by looking at the layers of different-colored dirt, which is known as a soil profile, he said.
"We live and die by those profiles," Battle said. "We remove what isn't from the fort period. We stop when we find cultural pieces and then take over by hand."
Frank Valcarcel, 75, traveled from Florida to assist with the dig. Saturday, he was sifting mounds of dirt trying to locate other pieces of the history puzzle. Archaeology has been his hobby for 40 years and he's searched for civilizations' buried treasure in England and Germany.
Betsy Shirk of the Society for Georgia archaeologists is usually buried in a book unlocking the cultural mysteries of man, but Saturday she traveled from Atlanta for the dig. "It's wonderful. I'm usually in the office reading about archaeology, but I've been in the dirt," Shirk said, displaying her red clay-stained hands.
The Fort Hawkins archaeological project excavations will continue through Nov. 23. Tours will be offered daily to the public at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., but school groups are asked to contact Elliott in advance at (706) 269-2857 or [email protected].
A second excavation is planned for June 2006, with the project set to wrap up in October, in time for the 200th anniversary of the fort, which played a major role in American Indian trade and ultimately led to the founding of Macon.
Updates on the dig will be posted at http:// lamarinstitute.org, Elliott said.
Saturday's unearthing of the larger building means more work for the excavators who are already operating on a limited budget.
"Basically, a million-dollar dig we're trying to do with $100,000," Elliott said. "If someone wants to give us the other $900,000, we'll put it to good use."
Archaeologists unearthing the secrets of Fort Hawkins
By Liz Fabian
TELEGRAPH STAFF WRITER
In a matter of hours, a team of archaeologists changed the face of Macon's history.
Secrets, long buried after the demise of Fort Hawkins in the 1820s, are surfacing with the excavation of mountains of dirt at the historic site in the Fort Hill neighborhood in east Macon.
Historians, studying what the U.S. Army southern headquarters looked like, relied on an oral history collected 50 years after the fort closed and information gathered in two smaller excavations in 1936 and 1971.
Saturday, archaeologist Dan Elliott of the Lamar Institute and a team of about a dozen volunteers uncovered a different picture of the fort's layout.
"It obviously doesn't look like its drawing, does it?" Elliott asked his colleague, Dan Battle.
"No," replied Battle, as he stood on top of a large brick floor still buried under about a foot of rich clay.
"I think it looks like the Fort Smith (Ark.) drawing," Elliott said.
The Lamar Institute began digging Wednesday, and by Saturday afternoon had skimmed off enough of the surface to determine that what was believed to be two buildings was actually one long building along the fort's front stockade.
The dig, which is designed to ultimately lead to an accurate restoration of the fort, combines modern technology with mechanical manpower and simple hand tools.
A trackhoe gradually scrapes away about four feet of the top layers of dirt, giving way to a metal detector that's followed by trowels and trench diggers to unearth artifacts.
When something is located, red flags go in the ground for further delicate discovery. "This stuff is so much fun," Alex Sanders, a volunteer from Augusta, said as he watched the claw of the trackhoe gently pull away the red dirt. "Every time you scrape, all of a sudden a piece of 18th century pottery, a button or a buckle pops up."
Shards of English stone ware in brilliant blue patterns can help pinpoint the exact era. The glaze on a piece of pottery can disclose whether it was made in South Carolina or Georgia, experts say.
The ground has already yielded a small metal ring, a Civil War-era bullet most likely from a later skirmish, what appears to be a finial off a fireplace tool and a cockade, which is an ornament from a military helmet.
Battle, whose archaeological firm, Cypress Cultural Consulting, specializes in uncovering artifacts and researching history, skimmed the soil with a "relic hunter" metal detector.
"He was raised by metal looters," Elliott said, jokingly.
"Ever since high school, I guess, I've had a metal detector in my hands," Battle said. "We've been able to locate things that the traditional archaeological survey method misses."
Battle said he can learn a lot from the ground by looking at the layers of different-colored dirt, which is known as a soil profile, he said.
"We live and die by those profiles," Battle said. "We remove what isn't from the fort period. We stop when we find cultural pieces and then take over by hand."
Frank Valcarcel, 75, traveled from Florida to assist with the dig. Saturday, he was sifting mounds of dirt trying to locate other pieces of the history puzzle. Archaeology has been his hobby for 40 years and he's searched for civilizations' buried treasure in England and Germany.
Betsy Shirk of the Society for Georgia archaeologists is usually buried in a book unlocking the cultural mysteries of man, but Saturday she traveled from Atlanta for the dig. "It's wonderful. I'm usually in the office reading about archaeology, but I've been in the dirt," Shirk said, displaying her red clay-stained hands.
The Fort Hawkins archaeological project excavations will continue through Nov. 23. Tours will be offered daily to the public at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., but school groups are asked to contact Elliott in advance at (706) 269-2857 or [email protected].
A second excavation is planned for June 2006, with the project set to wrap up in October, in time for the 200th anniversary of the fort, which played a major role in American Indian trade and ultimately led to the founding of Macon.
Updates on the dig will be posted at http:// lamarinstitute.org, Elliott said.
Saturday's unearthing of the larger building means more work for the excavators who are already operating on a limited budget.
"Basically, a million-dollar dig we're trying to do with $100,000," Elliott said. "If someone wants to give us the other $900,000, we'll put it to good use."
