Small fragment of a stained glass window.

In archaeology, we often like to describe our finds as providing a ‘window into the past’. Our excavation at the Hamline Church site this week has literally given us a ‘window from the past’ – actually parts of two windows, both found within minutes of each other. The first window came from inside the church. It’s essentially a snarl of lead with a little stained glass. The second window came from the entryway. This one is in better shape, but is only a part of a window. Although much of the glass is missing, there is enough so we can document a bit of the pattern – red next to blue next to green. It’s a very cool find.

Stained glass window in entry (next to the trowel).

Hamline Methodist Church from a 1921 Postcard

I’ve always been fascinated with the church’s Rose windows. In the black and white photographs of the church, the Rose window’s are dramatic architectural features. They must have been beautiful, especially when lit by sunshine. One of the questions I’ve always had was about their colors and patterns, qualities that are difficult to determine from the existing documents. The stained glass shards we found in 2007 and again this year provide some insight about the colors. Finding actual windows, even if only as fragments, offer us an even better understanding of the church. I can’t say for sure that we’ve uncovered parts of a Rose window. Our finds could easily be from another of the church’s stained glass windows. Still, our excavations are slowly bringing color to the black and white photographs. The window fragments are giving us a glimpse of pattern. Even the clear window glass is of value. The ratio of clear to stained glass will help us determine the overall number of stained glass windows – especially for the unphotographed parts of the church.

The stained glass window fragment found inside the church's west entryway.

This year’s excavations have far exceeded my hopes for the class. We’ve battled through week’s of bad weather. We’ve moved several cubic meters of sand and gravel. We’ve answered questions about Old Main and neighborhood backyards. And now we’re digging through a rich layer of burned building. Each day we make new discoveries. Each day we find bits and pieces of the church from 85 years ago. Unfortunately we’re running out of time. I’ve never dug in December before, so I feel like our fieldwork could be brought to a halt at any moment now. We worked Saturday to try to get a bit more done. Few students joined me (Adam, Serri, Matt, and Forest) which meant that I actually dug and screened instead of supervising. I had a blast. I love doing fieldwork. I really love excavating. Even screening was fun. Every bucket of dirt was filled with dozens of colorful shards of stained glass. I found so much window glass on Saturday that when I went to sleep that night my dreams were filled with bright colors – bits of treasure seemingly without end. They were good dreams.

Cat displaying the result of screening the burned layer.

Lauren excavating the first window we found.

Josh holding the first window

Gao and Shakira excavating the second window - the lead strips are barely visible inside the entryway.

Stained Glass Shards

Three Scissors from Inside the Church

We’re finally excavating the burn debris layer inside the church and it’s proving to be a fascinating deposit. The highlight of Tuesday’s work was the recovery of three pair of children’s scissors in the debris next to the wall. These finds suggest we may be in the church’s Sunday School room, or perhaps where they stored their school supplies. We at least now know that the church interior was not cleaned of all the burned remains. It looks to me like we could have two or three feet of wood, ash, and artifacts inside the church. I expect we’ll start finding a lot of stuff during tomorrow’s dig. My only worry now is the snow that’s forecast for early next week. Will we be able to completely excavate the church interior or will winter force an end to our fieldwork?

Gao excavating on top of the foundation and Josh excavating the burned layer inside the church. Josh is digging where we found the three scissors.

Lauren, Josh, and Jamie excavating the burned layer underneath the limestone rubble. It looks like we could have a lot of digging left to do.

Cassie excavating inside the church entryway

We’re finally nearing the end of our fall excavations. The units at both Old Main and the Levin Backyard site are into what appears to be undisturbed, natural soils. Assuming we find nothing in our next levels, we’ll just need to profile these units on Tuesday and then backfill our dirt.

Levin Unit 1 at 90 cm below surface

Josh Ready to Move Some Limestone

We’re still in the thick of it at the church site. On Thursday we started removing the limestone rubble inside the church basement. We’re finding some artifacts – broken glass, rusted metal, and burned wood, but it’s not clear whether there will be a substantial fire deposit underneath the rubble. I expect it will take all of next week to get through the limestone, but we should at least know what’s left inside the church very soon – our last unanswered question from this season.

Removing Limestone Rubble - Action Shot with Flying Dirt (Photo by Rachelle)

Sheet Metal in Rubble (Photo by Rachelle)

The mystery of the second foundation has been solved – at least to my satisfaction. Our excavations on Tuesday uncovered a connecting section linking all our walls. The second foundation is an “L” shaped extension off the main building. I believe this extension was a part of a covered back entryway. Hamline University archivist, Candy Hart, sent me a photo of the church’s south wall that shows a similar back entryway. Our excavations tell us that there were at least two back entryways – one on the south wall (shown in the photo) and one on the east wall. This east side entryway would have been close to the parsonage, and very likely a regularly used route for the pastor as he went to and from church and home. We’re finding a lot of burned debris – wood, glass, nails, and even some fabric inside the entryway. We’ll have to slow down our digging, but maybe we’ll find something inside the entryway to make the extra time worth while.  My biggest concern right now is the oncoming winter. The forecast for next week only has rain on two days. Of course those two days are Tuesday and Thursday when we’re suppose to be digging. Sounds like there’s more mud in our future.

Overhead shot showing the east wall entryway. Josh is mapping the rubble inside the church basement.

South side of Hamline Church from a 1911 photograph. Notice the entryway near the street. I believe we are excavating a similar entryway on the church's east wall. (Photo from Hamline University Archives)

KARE 11 news reporter, Kyle Porter, is doing a story on our church dig. I had a few students volunteer to come out earlier today so he could talk them and video the archaeology in action. Unless there is a major story breaking somewhere, we should be on the 5 PM broadcast (and possibly the 6 PM as well – 11/12). I’m really glad the church site is getting some attention. It’s such a cool pile of limestone.

Kyle filming my students at work

Update: Here’s the link to our story on the KARE 11 website.

Start of Saturday's Dig - Opening up units on the outside of the church wall.

A few of my students and I, along with some of my archaeologists friends, worked at the Hamline Methodist Church site on Saturday. I was hoping to get a couple of units excavated outside of the east wall before winter shuts down the dig. Our earlier work led me to expect a fairly easy day of digging – a burned layer with shattered glass and other artifacts from the church at about 40 cm below the ground. We found the burned layer just as I expected, but we also found a surprise – a second stone foundation.

Stacy cleaning up the second foundation.

This second foundation is a mystery. All the photographs I’ve seen of the church are from the front and provide no indication of what we’d find in the back of the building. The second foundation was built of small limestone blocks so it clearly was not a ‘load-bearing’ foundation. It could have been built to support a relatively modest building like a shed or other small outbuilding. On the other hand, the foundation could be part of the church – perhaps from a back doorway. The second foundation runs parallel to the church’s east wall, about 70 cm away. We have not completely exposed the portion of the foundation that lies within our excavation units. Once we finish clearing away the dirt, I should be able to determine whether it connects to the church or is part of a stand alone structure. I would really like to dig more if it turns out to be separate from the church, but I’m convinced our Minnesota winter is not going to wait that long.

Second foundation, main foundation, and limestone rubble in church basement.

No matter what happens with the weather, we’ve made amazing progress. This week we’ll concentrate on removing the rest of the burn layer outside the church (and in the process possibly answer my questions about the second foundation). We’ll also map the rubble inside the church, then see what is left underneath. With a little luck, we may not have any mysteries left to solve by the end of this week.

Photographs do not do the site justice. It’s really worth seeing in person. Anyone interest can join a tour I’m offering on Tuesday (Nov. 10th) of this fall’s excavation sites – starting at our Old Main dig at 2:45 PM.

Glass and other artifacts recovered from burned layer outside the church foundation.

Some of Saturday's Volunteers

Dave screening

Look for more photos of Saturday’s dig on my Flickr page (see link on side bar).

Miles, Gao, and Shakira excavating the limestone rubble layer at the Hamline Methodist Church site

After what seemed like weeks of digging sand and gravel fill at the church site, we finally uncovered the remains of the church interior on Thursday. We found a pretty impressive layer of limestone rubble at about 140 cm below the ground surface. I assume this rubble layer is the limestone knocked off the foundation during the demolition of the church after the fire in 1925. Our plan is to finish cleaning the limestone layer, map and photograph it, then see what’s underneath. Presumably we’ll find anything that was left in the church after the fire. It could be interesting.

More photographs below

Lauren, Ashley, and Josh trowling the mud off the rubble layer.

Half way there - Photo from earlier in the dig when we still had a ways to go.

Hamline Methodist Church - Old and New (Alisha brushing the foundation)

Today was gorgeous – lots of sunshine, beautiful fall colors, and great stratigraphy. My Excavating Hamline History class is continuing to work three sites – the Methodist Church, the Levin Backyard site, and Hamline’s Old Main. All three sites are producing interesting results. In our backyard dig were finding complicated deposits with layers of ash, trash, and sand. We’re at 70 cm below the ground surface with no sign of an end to our finds.

Old Main Dig (left side is at the top of the 1880s surface)

At Old Main we’re excavating what I believe is the 1880s ground surface. It is a thick deposit of brick, morter, and limestone all jumbled together. There’s been no sign of fire, though, so perhaps we’re digging construction debris from Old Main and not yet finding the demolition debris from the original University Hall.

Expanding the Methodist Church Excavation (note the foundation in the lower left)

Our excavation at the Hamline Methodist Church site is the largest of our digs. Last week we found the limestone foundation marking the church’s eastern wall. Now we’re excavating a 2×2 meter square just inside the wall. The 2×2 is still going through the sand and gravel fill – we probably need to dig another 2 or 3 feet before we get down to the burned church deposit. Our finds right now are coming from a small area we’re digging just the outside of the wall. This ‘outside wall’ excavation has hit the 1925 fire remains. We’re finding a lot of burned glass, charred wood, and other signs of fire. The richness of this deposit makes me want to expand the outside units. I’m sure we’d find a lot of interesting artifacts. The problem is that we’re running out of time. In the past, my class has never dug much beyond the first week of November. I’m not sure whether we can afford to expand our church dig. On-the-other-hand, this year may be my last at this site. The current congregation is considering building an addition to their church. The new addition would destroy the 1925 church archaeology site (or at least destroy the portion available for me to dig). The possible loss of this fascinating site makes me want to dig as much as we can this year – even if I need to keep my class digging later into November than we’d originally planned.

Glass from Outside the Church Wall

Methodist Church Site - First View of the Wall

I was starting to worry. After digging four units in our trench, we still had not found the east wall of the church. Saturday, with the help of neighborhood volunteers and a girl scout troop, we expanded our trench one meter further east. There was still no sign of the wall by the end of our Saturday dig. As it turned out, though, our last level on Saturday was just a trowel scrape from the top of the wall. My students quickly started uncovering large limestone blocks and chunks of burned wood when we returned to the church site on Tuesday. What a relief. We can expand our excavation inside the church now that we have a wall to guide us.

(More on Saturday’s neighborhood archaeology open dig below)

Neighborhood Archaeology - Saturday, October 17th

Saturday’s dig was one of our best days this year, despite not hitting the wall. The sun was bright and the volunteers were dedicated. We moved a lot of dirt – which made it possible for us to find the wall so quickly when my class started digging again.

The kids provided the day’s highlight. The older kids were really hard workers. I was amazed at how tough they were as I watched them dig, screen, and hauling dirt. The younger kids kept us all entertained with their enthusiasm for every pretty rock they found. What a fun day.

Father, Son, and Someone's Boot

Screening with Adam

Another Pretty Rock

Gail Nosek, in Hamline’s public relations office, has made a great video on my archaeology class. The video starts with the sound of dirt being screened, perhaps the quintessential noise of archaeology. Hearing that swish of gravel rolling around screen always makes my heart happy. My students are the real stars – explaining the class with such enthusiasm. They made what we’re doing sound meaningful and interesting. The only problem is the video was taken on a beautiful, sunny fall day. Few people will appreciate that we actually spent most of this fall digging in the mud.

Backyard Archaeology at the Levin's site

The wet weather on Wednesday and Thursday continued to challenge us. Instead of returning to our saturated church site, we decided to start our backyard archaeology. The Levin’s have offered us their backyard. They have found a lot of domestic trash while digging their garden plots. So it’s not surprising that we are finding a lot of artifacts. Our research goal is to determine whether the finds are from a pit feature or from a sheet midden. We also want to be able to understand the time period represented by the refuse. How long did people living in the Hamline neighborhood continue to discard trash in their backyards? Does the condition or type of trash change over time?

Based on what the Levin’s found earlier and what we’ve seen so far, it looks like the trash is at least from the mid 19th century and includes a massive amount of what looks like hardened fire ash or other burned residue. From my conversations with Hamline neighborhood residents, it sounds as if people may have had burn barrels until relatively recently (1970s?). The residents were apparently responsible for disposing the residue in their burn barrels. It seems possible that what we’re finding in the upper 20 cms of our backyard dig is a lot of burn barrel residuals and a little bit of other garbage (including large mammal bone). I’m eager to get back to this dig and see what the next levels produce.

A hanger and a large animal bone (in the lower left). The bone, most likely from a cow, is part of a pelvis (hip joint). Makes me wonder what someone was doing with this part of a cow's rump?