East Maiden Street excavation project uncovers plenty of artifacts on first try
Harry Funk/Observer-Reporter
Patterns on pieces of pottery indicate that they may date to the mid-19th century.
Harry Funk/Observer-Reporter
A Spanish cob represents the first item found during Saturday’s dig.
Harry Funk/Observer-Reporter
Flat buttons as worn on militia coats became popular in the early 19th century.
Harry Funk/Observer-Reporter
A bottle found at the site probably dates from the early 20th century.
At first, the diminutive sphere looked as if it could be an old musket ball.
But it proved not to be made of metal, and the second guess was a marble, perhaps.
“They also used these things as digestives,” Bryan Cunning said. “Now, what it did, I don’t know. But they would swallow little clay marbles.”
Harry Funk/Observer-Reporter
Harry Funk/Observer-Reporter
This item may or may not be a marble.
An archaeologist by profession, Cunning joined fellow Washington County Historical Society members on Saturday in launching an excavation project on the property of an East Maiden Street house built in 1826.
Assisted by volunteers from Mon-Yough Chapter 3 of the Society for Pennsylvania Archaeology, they uncovered plenty of materials besides a marble that may have doubled as medicine.
“The first two holes we put in, we found coins in them,” Cunning reported. “We’re pretty sure they’re what they would call a Spanish cob, or a Spanish copper coin.”
A check by historical society member Rich Baker showed that they probably date from the late 1600s, during a period when Spain was minting crudely shaped but accurately weighed coins as easily portable products to use in overseas trade.
That type of practice continued in North America for a couple of centuries, even after the United States’ founding.
“Keep in mind that all the way to around the Civil War, there was multiple currency being used,” Cunning explained.
Other items that turned up on the initial day of digging included buttons, pieces of pottery and a small intact bottle.
“Because it has a seam all the way to the top,” Cunning said about the bottle, “this is more into the early 20th century.”
He and his colleagues plan to return to the site Nov. 13 to dig what are called test units, measuring about three feet by three feet.
“But archaeologists work in meters. So it will be about one meter by one meter,” he said. “It will be a lot more of a controlled excavation. We’ll separate the layers out. We’ll know exactly where the artifacts are coming out of from different layers.”
Also, they plan to pump the water out of a brick cistern to see what may be located there.
Harry Funk/Observer-Reporter
Harry Funk/Observer-Reporter
Clay Kilgore sets up a camera to record “Laid Back History.”
The East Maiden Street property originally served as the residence of Dr. John Julius LeMoyne (1760-1847) and is across the street from a house he built in 1812. Living there later was his son, Dr. Francis Julius LeMoyne (1798-1879), and the older building now serves as a museum and headquarters for the Washington County Historical Society.
Nearly 15 years ago, the historical society purchased the newer home “with the idea that we would develop it as part of our museum,” executive director Clay Kilgore explained.
“We did selective demolition off the back of the house. All the additions that were done in the 19th and early 20th centuries, we took down,” he said. “We’re restoring the original 1826 portion, and then putting in a big addition off the back, which is going to be our new research and education center.”
Featured at the center will be artifacts that the excavations produce, according to Kilgore, who will feature Saturday’s activities on the next episode of “Laid Back History,” the online series he hosts at 7 p.m. Tuesdays.
For more information, visit www.wchspa.org and myarcheology.org.
Harry Funk/Observer-Reporter
Bryan, Rich and Clay
Harry Funk/Observer-Reporter
From left, Bryan Cunning, Rich Baker and Clay Kilgore film the latest episode of “Laid Back History” in back of the home of Dr. John Julius LeMoyne beginning in 1826. At right, across East Maiden Street, is the LeMoyne House, headquarters of the Washington County Historical Society.