Deck the Alley

Elfreth’s Alley’s annual event Deck the Alley is slated to take place on December 7th from 3 – 7pm.  Each year the private residents of Alley kindly open up the first floor of their homes for visitors to explore.  Other activities include story telling, refreshments, and book signings.  Like past years, I will be on hand to discuss the archaeological investigations completed at the Alley. This a really fun event with lots of holiday cheer.  For more information about the event and to buy tickets check out the Ticket Leap Even Page. 

Story Telling at Deck the Alley, 2012

Closing Up the Site

A few weekends ago, we finished exploration of Unit 14. After excavation to sterile soil, we spent the rest of the day documenting the unit prior to backfilling the area. We took closing measurements, photographed each wall, and drew profiles to record the layering of soils. After the paperwork was in order, we got to work backfilling. A big thank you to Katie and Dick for all their help and hard work backfilling! 

Excavation of Unit 14 In-Progress

Backfilling In-Progress (Katie & Dick working hard)

Backfilling Complete!

Council for Northeast Historical Archaeology Annual Conference

The annual conference for the Council for Northeast Historical Archaeology (CNEHA) will be held in Newark, Delaware this weekend (Nov. 8 -10).  It is always a great conference with lots of interesting and informative papers about archaeology being conducted throughout the region. The conference  is also a great opportunity to meet and mingle with other archaeologists involved in research in the northeast.  Online registration is closed, but if you are interested in attending, you can register on site.  More details about registration and cost is available on the CNEHA website.

I am co-chair of a paper session dedicated to the great archaeology being conducted by Temple University graduate students.   Our session is from 8:30am-12pm on Saturday, November 9th.   I will also be presenting the first paper of the session at 8:30am.  My paper is entitled “Memory, Meaning, and Urban Archaeology at Elfreth’s Alley, Philadelphia."  A full schedule of conference papers is available here.