Monticello archeological happenings

This weekend, instead of driving up to Little Rock to participate in an archeological dig, I dug in the Monticello area. Some weeks ago Hope had found out that the city was planning to spruce up the square in downtown Monticello. This area, which is a small park with a fountain and benches, is technically owned by Drew County, and was the site of a courthouse built in 1870 and torn down in the early 1930s. We (myself and the Arkansas Archeological Survey archeologists from Monticello) were curious to determine what (if anything) remained of this courthouse. We secured permission from the city and county to excavate a small area on the town square, and on Friday after I returned from my North Carolina business trip, we set about excavating. Below, Kenny and Arkansas Archeological Survey archeologist Jessica Howe consider the 2 meter by 2 meter (roughly 6 foot by 6 foot) excavation unit that has been staked out:

In the picture above, Kenny is "screening" the dirt we have dug out of the excavation unit, looking for artifacts. Kenny has done this several times, and is getting pretty good at finding objects of interest that don't pass through the 1/4" wire screen. Below, Kenny, Beth, and Jessica pose in front of the Arkansas Archeological Society's Tunican Chapter (our local chapter) banner:

We really didn't expect to find much, but we did very well for only a couple days of digging. Not surprisingly, we found a bunch of material related to the 1870 courthouse, including old bricks, mortar, nails (including many old cut and hand-forged nails), broken glass and tile, wire, and a few other interesting objects. Most importantly, we found what we believe is the floor of the old clock tower and part of its footing:

It may be hard to see in this picture, but the floor and footing are made of red bricks that have been mortared together. We believe we have found a corner of this clock tower (note the pick-ax next to the pit, a classical precision archeological tool):

This is important, because it tells us that there remains considerable evidence of the old courthouse, and we can use this outline to look for other features on the town square at some future date. Perhaps the biggest value of this effort is the PR it generated for our local chapter of the archeological society--in a high profile location like the downtown square, a lot of people were very interested in what we were doing, and stopped by to ask questions. We also got a nice write-up in the local online newspaper (http://mymonticellonews.net/articles/2010/05/29/news/local_news/doc4c0015d5709ac564912534.txt)
Watch the pictures that change along the side--it shifts between our work and a picture of the old courthouse. Hopefully, all of this interest will help boost our membership, and lead to more local archeological activities.

Starting next weekend, the Arkansas Archeological Society's big summer dig will start up at Toltec Mounds State Park, and we're planning on being involved with this excavation over a couple weeks. Let's just hope it's not too brutally hot this summer!