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Old City 2
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Old City 2
| Site Name | Old City 2 |
| PASS# | 36PH0229 |
| Image | 1 image site overview |
| Dates of Excavation | 2016-2017 |
| Phase of Excavation | Monitoring |
| Number of Units | N/A |
| Approximate Number of Features Identified | 19 |
| Associated Periods | Late eighteenth to early twentieth century |
| Site Acreage | 0.65 |
The principal areas of ground disturbance for this project took place within the former shoulder and shallow green space embankment along the north side of Race Street, between Second Street and the existing on-ramp to I-95.
Within this study area, monitoring was only undertaken in locations where the depth of impact was to exceed 2 feet below ground surface. This monitoring revealed a series of historic foundations and shaft features associated with the houses on the north side of the former alignment of the 200 block of Race Street. Nineteen features were encountered during monitoring: four foundations, five brick-lined shafts, one yard midden, a basement staircase, and eight small sections of wall.
Because the bulk of these features were only first observed at the maximum depth of impact for the undertaking, monitoring focused primarily on delineation of features. With few exceptions, deep features like shafts were delineated but not excavated, as the depth of disturbance for the undertaking was not sufficiently deep to impact the cultural deposits within the feature fill. Instead, such features were preserved in place under the cap of the new sidewalk.
In some locations where a feature was to be more substantially impacted, a bisect sample of feature fill was excavated in order to collect and assess the informational potential of the feature and prevent the information from being lost. Features 1, 3, 7, and 15 were all dealt with in this way, with bisect samples being collected for the impacted portion of the feature, leaving the rest of the feature preserved in place. This sampling strategy yielded a collection of 965 artifacts.
The stratigraphy of the site was varied, given its urban context. The eastern portion of the site contained no surviving Ab horizon, as the area had been truncated historically to accommodate the road. Nonetheless, the natural B and C horizons remained intact and held the remains of deep shaft features. In the western end of the site, moving toward the intersection with Second Street, the truncation became less acute. In some locations, historic yard surfaces did survive in between the foundations of historic buildings, suggesting a high degree of depositional integrity in this location.
The features encountered during this excavation largely dated to the nineteenth-century occupation of Race Street. High-precision global-positioning system (GPS) and total station equipment were used to capture the spatial locations of the encountered features; this data was brought into a geographic information system (GIS). Historic maps spanning the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were georeferenced and similarly brought into GIS as part of a palimpsest analysis of the project area.
The archaeologically encountered features were then imposed on top of the historic maps to examine the correlation between the archaeological reality and the mapped historic neighborhood. This effort revealed a high degree of correlation between the archaeologically observed features and historic maps. Given the integrity of the observed features, it was determined likely that further components and features related to these occupations also survived in the adjacent areas. The site boundary therefore includes the full extent of historic property boundaries associated with the identified archaeological features.
Site Page
Old City 2
| Site Name | Old City 2 |
| PASS# | 36PH0229 |
| Image | 1 image site overview |
| Dates of Excavation | 2016-2017 |
| Phase of Excavation | Monitoring |
| Number of Units | N/A |
| Approximate Number of Features Identified | 19 |
| Associated Periods | Late eighteenth to early twentieth century |
| Site Acreage | 0.65 |
The principal areas of ground disturbance for this project took place within the former shoulder and shallow green space embankment along the north side of Race Street, between Second Street and the existing on-ramp to I-95.
Within this study area, monitoring was only undertaken in locations where the depth of impact was to exceed 2 feet below ground surface. This monitoring revealed a series of historic foundations and shaft features associated with the houses on the north side of the former alignment of the 200 block of Race Street. Nineteen features were encountered during monitoring: four foundations, five brick-lined shafts, one yard midden, a basement staircase, and eight small sections of wall.
Because the bulk of these features were only first observed at the maximum depth of impact for the undertaking, monitoring focused primarily on delineation of features. With few exceptions, deep features like shafts were delineated but not excavated, as the depth of disturbance for the undertaking was not sufficiently deep to impact the cultural deposits within the feature fill. Instead, such features were preserved in place under the cap of the new sidewalk.
In some locations where a feature was to be more substantially impacted, a bisect sample of feature fill was excavated in order to collect and assess the informational potential of the feature and prevent the information from being lost. Features 1, 3, 7, and 15 were all dealt with in this way, with bisect samples being collected for the impacted portion of the feature, leaving the rest of the feature preserved in place. This sampling strategy yielded a collection of 965 artifacts.
The stratigraphy of the site was varied, given its urban context. The eastern portion of the site contained no surviving Ab horizon, as the area had been truncated historically to accommodate the road. Nonetheless, the natural B and C horizons remained intact and held the remains of deep shaft features. In the western end of the site, moving toward the intersection with Second Street, the truncation became less acute. In some locations, historic yard surfaces did survive in between the foundations of historic buildings, suggesting a high degree of depositional integrity in this location.
The features encountered during this excavation largely dated to the nineteenth-century occupation of Race Street. High-precision global-positioning system (GPS) and total station equipment were used to capture the spatial locations of the encountered features; this data was brought into a geographic information system (GIS). Historic maps spanning the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were georeferenced and similarly brought into GIS as part of a palimpsest analysis of the project area.
The archaeologically encountered features were then imposed on top of the historic maps to examine the correlation between the archaeological reality and the mapped historic neighborhood. This effort revealed a high degree of correlation between the archaeologically observed features and historic maps. Given the integrity of the observed features, it was determined likely that further components and features related to these occupations also survived in the adjacent areas. The site boundary therefore includes the full extent of historic property boundaries associated with the identified archaeological features.