Returning to the Mystery Feature

 Hello everyone,

As you may know, our goal in excavation this summer is to learn more about the boundary of Fort St. Joseph. We’ve found structures, houses, fireplaces and plenty of artifacts as signs of life throughout our excavated areas on the Fort, but we still have not established the exact borders. Much to my excitement, the Dream Team (my incredible group of three) was assigned to work on the furthest west unit on site, which is directly next to the previously discovered mystery feature–feature 31. Currently, we’re excavating unit S8 W20 in hopes of understanding more about the feature itself and what it means for the Fort boundaries.

When we first started excavating S8W20 this season, we weren’t sure if there would be anything in our unit. It lands right between one excavated unit with a mysterious feature and another excavated unit that was almost void of artifacts. Thankfully, we found cultural remains in the plow zone as we went down. We uncovered artifacts including bone fragments, lead shots, daub–as well as our personal favorite–a piece of a stone pipe bowl! While not nearly as much as the other units of the season, these are still signs of life. And, as we say repeatedly, it’s not about what you find, but what you find out. What could the lack of artifacts mean, especially when so close to a feature?

Continuing on, our team was very excited as we excavated into the lower levels (35 cm bd and below) to see a large amount of small rocks (6 cm width or less) appearing in a cluster. It was our sign that not only was our unit not completely empty, but we were also seeing the continuation of Feature 31! We continued excavating, though slower and more carefully, and have been revealing more and more stones–along with more and more questions.

Our feature, while thrilling to excavate, is no less mysterious now than it was at the start. There is the cluster of stones taking up a larger portion of the unit than expected (currently more than half, though still only smaller stones), there are curious circular marks in the soil (the surrounding matrix is a more orange-y sand material, while these circular regions are darker and less grainy–making them potential post holes), there’s reddish colored baked clay smears, and still so few artifacts. Currently, the feature does not really match others uncovered at the site.

Hopefully as we continue going deeper we can make more sense of the stone clusters and soil discolorations. For now, we will continue our slow excavation process and watchful screening to see what else we can find out! And, of course, have more to show off at our open house weekend. Be sure to stop by S8 W20 (the best unit)!

~ Dante