Archaeology update Mar-Apr 99 - Friends of the Virgin Islands National Park

UPDATE

THE LAST TWO WEEKS
March 23-April 3, 1999

Two weeks ago volunteers Irene Patton, Joy Stillman, Paula Savel and intern Linda Longoria tested the "Cortney Site". The site area found eroding into the sea by the seven-year-old girl from Seattle. This new site is approximately 150 to 200 meters west of the present excavation area. Last week John and Ila Gardner screened the clayey soils. Large charcoal samples, almost half a ceramic bowl, and a tiny pink shell bead of the type used in making the ancestral zemi dolls were recovered. This weeks tiny zemi doll bead was found by Kim Wood, a volunteer who has helped almost every week since the project started. Kim's help was especially vital in preparing for hurricane Georges. Thank You Kim!

BEAD RECOVERED BY
ILA AND JOHN GARDNER

Within the last two weeks Linda Palmer has organized a group to give tours of the site which discuss the science behind the dig, artifacts, and information about educational opportunities are highlighted. Tours are now available to the public Tuesday, Thursday and Saturdays at 1:00 PM.

The brochures have arrived! The brochure invites the public into the Virgin Islands National Park to experience the past by volunteering in archeological field research and promoting educational opportunities. The brochures have been distributed throughout the island with limited distribution on St. Thomas.

The last two weeks on site have been both productive and educational. Over 60, 6th grade students from St. Thomas's Ulla Mullar public school participated in the dig. One of these students, Samara Anselm on March 30, 1999 uncovered in situ, in Unit 4, a pottery rim sherd with an attached face.

BROCHURE COVER

On the 26th of March twenty high school students and teachers from St. Croix's Good Hope School volunteered all day. These students not only participated in the usually washing, sorting, digging, screening etc. but also completed a systematic underwater survey along the beach. Teacher assistant, Mr. Beach, discovered, in situ, a stone bead in Unit 4. On St. Croix, Historian William Cissel prepared the class before coming on site with a two-hour lecture.

	Throughout the day twenty additional volunteers from the community as well as island visitors helped in the work activities.
	During the morning, thirty middle school students of USVI Senator Roosevelt David's youth group visited the site. They were given an extensive talk about the investigation, art and mythology of the Taino Culture, and the threatened historic resources.
	Linda Palmer's afternoon tour had well over fifty listeners.
	Approximately two hundred people experienced the past through archeology this day.
	This month, an average day on site usually involved interaction with 100 to 150 people. Over the last two weeks 620 volunteer hours were logged by 198 volunteers.
	For the last month and half intern Karl Brunner has provided the Wednesday night Maho Bay Campground lecture. Between 70 and 125 island visitors, per lecture, learn about the Virgin Islands National Park, archeology, and Heritage Center goals.
	The community and visitors to the site have contributed to the project in many ways including financially. Thanks to Irene Patton keeping up with the pendant demand and the new T-shirt design, visitors and island residents have been able to support this research effort and have something to take with to remind them of their archeological experience. This month about four thousand dollars was raised for research expenses.

April 3rd was a memorable day. Both Linda Palmer & Paula Savel worked the tour. Kent Savel found his second zemi face of the week. Linda Longoria uncovered her first zemi face and then decides for the third time to extend her stay, this time for six more days. Linda is a great intern and she wants to stay longer but she knows her daughter will never forgive her if she does not go back for the birth of her first grandchild.

Face Uncovered by
Linda Longoria in Unit 3,
Level 3

Linda Longoria and her find!

1 stone face carving, 3,472 grams of faunal remains, and a wide variety of other artifacts types were processed. Processing all these materials involves washing, drying, identifying, sorting, counting, weighing, cataloging, and preparing them for long-term storage.

It is through Linda Longoria's efforts with volunteers that we are up to date with cataloging procedures. What was processed over the last two weeks? Answer- Field Specimen (FS) #15 which is Unit-3,Level-2, 10-20 centimeters below surface (cmbs) and FS#31 which is Unit-4 Level-3, 20-30 cmbs. A total of 8, 818 shells, 3,053 pottery sherds, 134 stone tools, 19 shell pendants, 8 conch tools, 5 clay adorno (zemi faces),

Island resident and avid volunteer Bill Stelzer, captured on digital camera, the moments when Linda found her first carved face. Bill bought this camera so he could produce a documentary about the dig for PBS. Bill has also developed a poster and a T-shirt that features one of the zemis.

Project Poster

Many St. Johnian parents have visited the dig as a result of the educational program. On the 3rd, Mr. Matthias, whose family's heritage spans many generations back into St. John history, came out to the site. He said that Coral Bay students who have worked on the project inspired him. His visit provided many insights into the shellfish remains being uncovered in the prehistoric record. He remembered which had been harvested in the past, how they were eaten, and in what environments they were found. One of the shells he noted could be used to produce a blue dye.

Last week, an old time resident of St. Thomas and a chaperone with the Ulla Mullar class discussed how she prepared a chiton soup. Chitons are those trilobite-looking creatures that live on rocks just below the ocean surface. We find them in every level of the prehistoric record

Chiton (taken from Peterson Field Guides Shells)

This week, Project Historian David Knight completed the first draft booklet covering the 18th Century at the Cinnamon Bay Plantation. The booklet discusses the development of the estate, and the owners. Much attention is paid to those individuals who worked the estate and their skills. The estate inventories are especially interesting. They provide names for genealogical research, building dates, and identify many artifacts recovered archeologically and date the exact year the items were purchased for the plantation.

The ethnographer arrived this week. Karen Hjerpe a Doctoral Candidate at the University of Florida is assessing community attitude a variety of cultural issues associated with the archeological research and Heritage Center. Karen is also interested in the possibility of the existence of an Underground Railroad system in the Virgin Islands. The National Park Service's Regional Ethnographer, Anthony Paredes found funding for this research through the Georgia Trust and contracted Karen for this three-month study.

The last couple of weeks saw a number of visiting scientists volunteer their time. Archeologists from New Mexico and Arizona were out, as well as a soil scientist, Russ Losco. While here Russ decided to also volunteered his services and expenses at home, in his laboratory, by completing element analysis of soils excavated from Cinnamon Bay.

Dr. Wing and Irv Quitmyer will do faunal research! A few days ago, a contract between the Friends and the Florida Museum of Natural History was finalized. Dr. E. Wing and Dr. Irv Quitmyer will conduct the faunal research for Cinnamon Bay. Dr. Wing is the founder of this field of study, Zooarchaeology. The project is extremely fortunate to have these researchers on board. They have one of the most complete comparative collections of Caribbean animal remains in the world and have conducted analysis and studies of sites all over the Caribbean. They are particularly interested in comparing Cinnamon Bay findings to the Tutu site on St. Thomas and the Trunk Bay data. Irv Quitmyer will be visiting the site within the next few months. We hope to organize a lecture while he is here. He has a wealth of knowledge on creatures from the sea and how they were utilized.

UPDATE, March 17, 1999

Last week student intern Karl Brunner uncovered a face, carved into stone. The object was found face up at exactly 20 centimeters below the surface in Unit 3. Excavation efforts are presently underway in Unit 2, Level 7 where a complete turtle carapace is exposed. In Unit 3, we are beginning level 3. Surface appearance suggests that this level maybe the densest concentration of remains yet encountered.

Over the last three weeks project interns Elizabeth Kellar and Sheila Aird, both Doctoral students from the University of Syracuse, completed preliminary testing of the historic Cinnamon Bay Plantation Site. Investigations were conducted along the beach where historic structures have been eroding out for 30 years and in the sugar factory area.

Over the past month education programs for St. John Island schools have included twenty-five 1st graders from Sprauve, and 14 1st graders from Guy Benjamin. St. Thomas students involved in the project over the past month have include twenty-three 5th graders from Sibily School, thirty-one 3rd and 4th graders from Montessori, and thirty 6th graders from Ulla Muller. Other schools that actively participate in the project include Pine Peace of St. John, and St. Thomas schools Bertha Boschulte, Peace Corps, and J. Gomez.

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