Hi I'm Tracy V. Wilson.
And I'm Holly Frey, and we're standing here in front of Harvard's Peabody Museum of Archeology
and Ethnology.
The Peabody Museum of Archeology and Ethnology at Harvard University is one of the oldest
anthropology museums in the world.
It was founded by George Peabody in 1866 and it's collection of artifacts of human cultural
history is really, really impressive.
We got to tag along with these fantastic, smart women, Trish Capone and Diana Loren.
Diana is Director of Academic Partnerships and they're both museum curators.
And one of the really incredible things they do is offer a class to Harvard undergrads
to learn about archeology by excavating live sites on the Harvard campus.
So the program started in 2005.
The museum was contacted by Massachusetts Hall because they were doing some mitigation
on campus.
They wanted to make sure they weren't coming across any cultural remains.
They contacted the museum and asked us to do a little excavation, just to make sure
that they weren't damaging any cultural resources.
And that coincided with the 2005 commemoration of the Harvard Indian College, that was put
together by Harvard University Native American Program.
So we saw this as an opportunity to bring students out to the field, and of course excavate
and look at early Harvard history, particularly 17th century history and the history of Native
and English students on campus.
Can you tell us about some of the artifacts that students have found, both on previous
digs and this one?
Yeah, great.
So printing type is always a highlight.
Printing type relating to America's first printing press at the Indian College.
Some clay tobacco pipes, which are a strong dating indicator for us.
Additionally, the architectural debris from each of these buildings is super interesting.
And so this is roof tile that was used for the buildings in the 17th century - You have
3 huge pieces!
So when the building Old College was torn down sometime at the end of the 17th century,
some debris they would just leave in place, including roof tiles, so it's really significant
to find this.
Also it tells us a bit about what the building looked like on the landscape, you know.
We imagine the past in a certain way, we know it was a wooden framed structure, but we don't
have any pictures or drawings and so this kind of gives us a sense of the character
of place that was here.
I think what's really interesting is you have the college laws that are produced over a
series of years dictating the behavior and activities of the students.
And the material culture that we find speaks to what they were doing in relationship to
those laws.
And that's one of the most interesting things.
You know, the historical record provides details on what the overseers wanted or the tutors
wanted for the students, but how the students lived their lives in relationship to those
laws and in the building of the Harvard identity at the time is different than what you would
expect from the archival record.
So when you start a dig, do you ever have like a secret wishlist in your head of what
you hope you find?
Yes!
So this salt glaze stoneware, 17th and early 18th century.
And it's called Bellarmine.
It's produced in Germany?
Mm hm.
And what you can see right here, they're kind of vessels that have stylized faces on them.
They're really distinctive.
And what you see here is the eye and part of the nose and the mouth - it's pretty cool.
We haven't come across one in this part of the excavation, and it's like a real marker
for 17th, early 18th century.
It's exciting to find.
So how many students are normally in this class?
Usually about 24.
So we lottery the class.
There's definitely interest amongst the undergrads to take the class.
You know they live in the yard, they start their freshman year in the yard, and so they
want to see what lies beneath.
They're familiar with the excavations, so we have a number of students come out and
want to participate, but we lottery it to about 24 students so that we can keep a manageable
excavation going during the course of the semester.
So when students find things in the course of the class, do they usually know they have
something, or are they ever oblivious to what they find?
Mostly yes.
Although, things like an architectural feature, you know, after 300 plus years sometimes an
alignment of stones that might represent something like a foundation can be a jumble.
Yeah ok.
So we have a variety of architectural materials here, all in close association with each other.
Handmade brick, foundation type stone, and roof tile fragment down here, which we talked
about being from the 17th century, probably the Old College had a roof of clay.
And sometimes we find these with the nail holes in them, indicating that they were used
as roof tiles.
And there is a big bone piece, piece of animal bone which Nicky just excavated from here.
And a lot of charcoal.
Yeah, I guess part of what we're teaching is interpreting those features which are maybe
less obvious and that part of their training is to be able to identify and document these
relationships of soil and other items with respect to each other
beyond the individual item.
So, yeah.
I think students here at Harvard have this unbelievable opportunity to be stake-holders
in their past by excavating in the yard.
And then really seeing the process of taking material out of they yard, excavating it and
then bringing it to the museum, cataloging it and inventorying it and making an archive
for future generations.
That is an experience I think that is unique to here.
And that kind of hands on experiential learning is something that takes them out of the classroom
and they're able to engage with history in just this visceral way that really has an
impact on their learning.
The educational goal of the museum to be integrated with the curriculum on campus is definitely
part of this project, an important part of this project.
And students come to the museum, not only as part of this class but other courses as
well to engage with the collections as part of learning and as part of experiential learning,
hands on learning on campus.
We have about 3,000 students that come over the course of every academic year to view the
collections and to engage with learning at the museum.
We had the incredible experience of actually getting to be part of the dig at Harvard Yard.
We got to shake some of the debris that was carefully collected by the students in special
screens.
As the dirt falls through this fine mesh, the remaining material is collected to see
if any of it is perhaps some sort of artifact.
The collected artifacts will be cleaned and catalogued next semester and they'll go into
the Peabody collection.
And we owe such a debt of gratitude to Diana and Trish as well as communications coordinator
Faith Sutter who helped set this whole shoot up.
And of course the really fantastic Harvard students who shared their afternoon and their
class time with us.
This program is so special and so unique and we're really honored to have been welcomed
by everyone involved and to get the privilege and delight of seeing it first hand.