Morning Mullings

When stuck between a football game (Louisiana State University) and a Force 3 hurricane (Gustav), it's great to have a laptop with backup project files and a good internet connection. As Bonnie and I prepare to make our way back home from southern Louisiana, I've had some down-time to peruse digital maps and think about some of the recently completed fieldwork at Port Tobacco.

The northernmost historic site in the plowed fields south of town is undoubtedly 18th century, probably late 18th century. When I reexamined our drawings and digitally eliminated the symbols for all artifacts except bricks and window glass, it became apparent that the site contains very little brick. That suggests an earthfast building.

About 50 ft to the east is an area that yielded few artifacts but a cluster of brick fragments (I don't have my usual access for graphics production, so you'll have to use your imagination or refer back to earlier blogs for the North field.) It maybe that we have yet another site of uncertain date east of North Field I. As always, gathering more data in the field will help, or perhaps just revisiting what we have already done.

One of the things that I'd like us to do this week is to reexamine the data for the Compton field just east of the cemetery that we discovered. I hope that by focusing on just those shovel test pits we might be able to suggest a location for the earliest Anglican church in town and, thereby, focus testing in that area.

I'll be back tomorrow, forces of nature and the NCAA permitting.

Jim