Explore Philadelphia's Buried Past, 2012!

October is Pennsylvania Archaeology Month!  To celebrate the Philadelphia Archaeological Forum is hosting two great events that are free and open to the public.  The first event, Part 1: Life in the City and Beyond, will be held Saturday, October 13th at the National Constitution Center, Kirby Auditorium.  The second event, Part 2: Life Along the River, will be held Saturday, October 20th at Independence Seaport Museum.  Both events promise to be exciting and informative! Be sure to stop by to learn about Philadelphia's buried past!

I will be presenting at the first event on October 13th.  My presentation is scheduled for 1:45pm and will focus on research I conducted as a Pennypacker Fellow this past spring.  Though my talk will not directly cover material from Elfreth's Alley, the research I will be discussing largely informs and contextualizes the finds from the Alley.  Below is the title and presentation.  I hope to see you there!

 Marbles, Buttons, & Pipes: Objects of Identity

Small personal items–marbles, buttons and tobacco pipes– possess great power in archaeology due to their direct connection to persons living in the past. Individuals consciously purchased, used, and discarded these objects and, as a result, they can reflect elements of their owners’ identity. Drawing upon artifact collections recovered from three Philadelphia archaeological sites, this talk demonstrates how such small everyday items reveal bigger personal histories.

Artifact Processing Begins!

This past Friday marked the beginning of artifact processing!  We spent the morning organizing the artifacts bags by provenience, then got to work washing and dry brushing the artifacts.  We will be cleaning artifacts at Temple University's Anthropology Lab every other Friday throughout the fall.  If you are interested in volunteering to work with the artifacts, check out the Volunteer Opportunities section. 

Volunteers hard at work washing artifacts

Thanks to all the volunteers who came out to help on Friday!

Week 7 Recap

The final week of official excavation at 124 and 126 Elfreth's Alley wrapped up on Saturday!  The week flew by and a lot of work was completed.  

First we finished digging Unit 8 behind 126 Elfreth’s Alley for the season.  Excavation in Unit 8 exposed the continuation of the brick foundation wall unearthed during testing in Unit 2 last sumer.  Based on historic maps, the location of the brick wall appears to correspond to the north-south wall of the tenement structure built in the 19^th century.  The extant wall, however, is not completely intact.  At some point in history, either when the structure was being torn down or thereafter, sections of the foundation wall were destroyed.

Foundation wall unearthed in Unit 8.  Notice the bricks missing in left of picture.

Also of note is the fact that there appears to be a portion of the foundation wall extending to the west behind 126 Elfreth’s Alley.  This extension does not appear on the historic maps we have consulted.   Continuing archival research, as well as additional excavation at a later date, will help us understand this extension better. 

Excavation of Unit 11 and an extension south of Unit 11 were also completed last week.  The Unit and extension were taken down less than a foot to track the alignment of the large stone and mortar wall behind 124 Elfreth’s Alley.  By digging these units, we were able to trace the foundation wall and determine whether it is turning or whether it potentially extends into the adjacent lot to the south.  Our findings indicate the wall turns at the south edge of the lot line, indicating the structure conformed to the later historic lot divisions.  This is an informative and exciting find!

View of Uni 11 and extension facing south.

During Week 7, we started excavation on Unit 12 along the south edge of the lot at 126 Elfreth’s Alley.  Much like Unit 6 behind 124, Unit 12 has a plethora of features.  Right below the ground surface we encountered two courses of bricks that appear to be an extension of the existing garden planting bed the museum maintains.  

Volunteer working on Unit 12.  Note flowerbed wall in unit.

We also found five other features at various depths in Unit 12.  One of the features turned out to be another foundation wall!  This wall is brick and mortar and is likely the south wall of the 19^th century tenement structure.  A little more excavation needs to be completed in Unit 12, before we backfill the site.

Unit 12 including foundation wall and features.

The next two weeks will be dedicated to wrapping things up at the Alley, mapping the site, taking photographs, and closing the excavation units.  During the fall and spring, the artifacts recovered from the dig will be washed, cataloged, and analyzed.  Next summer, we hope to return to the Alley for another season of excavation and to continue to explore the lots and the people who inhabited them.  It has been a pleasure working with all the volunteers this summer.  We couldn’t have do it with out your help!  Thank you again!!

This blog will be updated periodically over the next year with information about the project and upcoming events, lectures, and papers.  

Volunteer Spotlight

One of the best parts of the dig this summer has been working with the diverse group of volunteers who have come out to assist with excavation! The dedication of our volunteers has not faltered even when working through pouring rain and record breaking heat! The excavation at Elfreth’s Alley would not have been as successful (or as enjoyable) without the help of this truly devoted group of people.

To showcase our great volunteers and their tremendous work, this blog post highlights their experiences participating in the excavation. The volunteers were given the opportunity to share a bit about their time at the Alley - Here is what they had to say:

Working on the excavations at Elfreth's Alley has been a wonderfully fun and educational experience. There have been so many interesting parts of this dig but what stands out as the best has been to listen in while Deirdre and Matt discuss whether or not a new feature or strata has been found in a unit. It's fascinating listening to each of them justify their reasoning while pointing things out in the dirt and checking their paperwork. This has been such an incredible opportunity for volunteers and I'm very grateful to have been part of this project!  

Wendy Miervaldis 

Adjunct Professor, Math Department 

Seton Hall University 

The dig on Elfreth’s Alley has been a wonderful experience. Deirdre is a true teacher. Not only does she share the history of the area of the dig but she also allows the volunteers to enjoy the discoveries of fieldwork. It is like a treasure hunt: scrapping through the strata, loading the fill into buckets then piling a mound of dirt onto the screen. As we push the dirt through the screen allsorts of objects appear: window pane glass, nails, glazed brick, bottle glass of various colors, pottery shards and other unknown bits and pieces. Sometimes, while scrapping through the strata whole objects appear. It is fun to guess what objects could be and then to learn what they actually are. We look forward to unearthing more buried treasure in the coming weeks.

Gail Lovett

Elfreth’s Alley was my first excavation in the USA—I’m originally from Greater Manchester, in the northwest of England. However, I had been on several archaeological excavations before. While doing grad work in classical archaeology (Greek and Roman), I worked on Mediterranean digs in my summers and, way back in the 1990s, I dug for a couple of field units in the UK

Wherever they’re from, archaeologists tend to record the same kinds of information, but the ways in which they record the information can vary dramatically. Thinking that I knew the “correct” way to describe something had the potential to cause even more confusion for the dig director than if I’d never been on a dig before, so I had to be careful to check that I was following the proper protocols.

Elfreth’s Alley was also my first real experience of historical urban archaeology. As I’d been warned, the stratigraphy could be quite complicated, with a lot of changes taking place in a relatively small area. Interesting and fun but, on more than one occasion, I ended up squinting at the layers and scratching my head, as I tried to figure out exactly what was going on.

I was delighted to be able to work in my adopted home city. My first experience digging in the USA was a very positive one (even with the 100 degree heat, at the end of my first week!) and I enjoyed my time working with Deirdre and her colleagues from Temple. I’d love to come back, next year (if they’ll have me).

David Platt
Library Services Assistant
Penn Libraries

Elfreth’s Alley has been an incredible experience. Having a degree in anthropology myself, I learned new techniques in archaeology that will help me excel in my career. My favorite thing about working on the site was meeting new people and hearing their experiences in archaeology. Finding new artifacts was a great bonus! I am so glad I was able to have this experience. Thank you for allowing me to participate on this excavation.

Alexa Rose


Being a part of the Alley over the last 7 years has been great. Meeting people and sitting on the Museum and Educational Committee has given me a greater understanding of this diversity of people that have come and gone on the years.

Volunteering at the dig, allows me to get a deeper and richer picture of the people and how they lived. Presently I am researching the Alley and by doing so I will be able to include the valuable information I have obtained at the dig.

Carol Haughey


A few years ago, my uncle Bill Clampffer discovered that we are direct descendants of Adam Klampfer, one of the original property owners of Elfreth's Alley. He also found sources that confirmed our Clampffer ancestors knew both George Washington and Benjamin Franklin! Since my uncle Bill died this spring, I've picked up the genealogy trail, and tried to learn more about the long history of my ancestors here in Philadelphia. When I heard about the dig at the Alley this summer, I immediately wanted to get involved. Although the focus of the dig is on more contemporary generations of Alley residents, it's been fun to get my hands dirty on the same street where my 6th great grandfather walked over 250 years ago. 

I expected to unearth a lot of artifacts, but I've learned that a dig like this one isn't just about buttons and nails. On the days when I've volunteered, I've mostly been tasked with excavating "features," which I'll admit were hard to see with an untrained eye at first. Essentially, I've been excavating around areas where the soil color suggests something foreign once existed, such as a fence post. This past week, I worked in Unit 8, much of which is a jumble of loose bricks sticking out at all angles. Little by little, we worked our way down until things started to make sense, and we could determine which bricks were part of a foundation, and which seemed to be discarded construction debris.

I've volunteered on all kinds of field research projects before, from sea turtle tagging projects to rainforest mapping. What I've come to realize about archaeology is that as a science, it's not as easy as data in, data out. It takes a lot of time to measure and map each soil layer, and in the end, there's no easy way to punch data in a computer and produce an answer to the research question. I'll be very interested to read what's been learned from this dig in the end, and how the foundations, features, and artifacts we've unearthed this summer have added to our knowledge about immigrant life during the time period in question.

Debbie Hadley 

WILD Jersey

The volunteers' responses underscore the diverse nature of archaeology and highlight the breadth of people who have come out to help.  It has been great working with everyone and we look forward to working with you all in the future!

Week Six Recap

Week Six started and ended on a wet note. We spent the morning of our first day bailing out the water from the rain storms over the weekend. We finished up the week on Thursday by prepping the site for the impending storm and were rained out on Friday.

This week a lot of time was spent cleaning units for photographs and mapping the wall profiles of a few of the units. 

Profile picture of east wall of Units 3 and 5.

We also excavated the first of two units laid out to chase the alignment of the large stone and mortar wall. Unit 10 was placed to the north of Unit 1 which was opened during testing last year, while Unit 11 was placed to the south of Unit 4. We have reached the level of the wall in Unit 10, however there is no indication that the wall turns. Rather the stone wall appears to continue straight towards the original 2 ½ story house at 124 Elfreth’s Alley. Unit 11 will be excavated next week.

View of Unit 11 opened to follow the foundation wall.

Remnants of earlier brick patio encountered in Unit 8.

 We also continued work on Unit 8 behind 126 Elfreth’s Alley. Unit 8 was laid to the north of Unit 2 which was opened last summer.  Unit 2 contains the remains of a brick and mortar wall thought to be the foundation of the tenement structure that stood in that location in the 19th century. Upon starting excavation of Unit 8, we encountered what appeared to be remnants of an earlier brick patio. After documenting the brick pavers through photography and scale drawings, the bricks were removed and excavation continued. During excavation, the continuation of the brick wall found in Unit 2 was encountered. The wall, however, is not entirely intact. Many of the bricks and much of the mortar is missing and/or crumbling. Specifically, a lot of brick debris and fall in was encountered in the northwest corner of Unit 8.

Next week is our last week of excavation and we have a lot to accomplish. The plan is to finish work on Units 8 and 11, as well as open up a new unit behind 126. Hopefully the weather cooperates for our last few days!

Update - 19 July 2012

Wednesday after lunch we took a brief field trip to the West Shipyard Archaeological site. The site is located a quick walk from the Alley, just north of the Ben Franklin Bridge on Columbus Boulevard. This summer John Milner Associates is conducting archaeological testing on the southern portion of the site in hopes of locating the remains of the West Shipyard that dates back to the 17th century as well as potentially unearthing evidence of the Penny Pot Tavern. The northern portion of the lot was previously excavated in the 1980s and was then referred to as the Hertz Lot. The full report of the earlier excavation is available on the Philadelphia Archaeological Forum’s website. It was really neat and informative to have the chance to visit another project so close to the Alley.
 
There are a few more public archaeology days coming up at the West Shipyard site. Additional information about visiting the site and the project are available at their blog. If you look closely at the picture on the July 18th blog post, you may be able to pick out a couple of us from Elfreth’s Alley.

A full recap of digging this week at the Alley will be posted over the weekend!

Week Five Recap

This past week flew by, but we have continued our progress and finished excavating Units 5 and 6.  We had a brief reprieve from the heat, but got rained out on Friday.  Looks like it is going to be another hot week coming up.

Over the next couple of weeks, we will be wrapping up work for the summer.  Matt Kalos, fellow graduate student, offers a summary of our plan for the rest of the summer.

As we reached the end of Week Five, we are coming down the home stretch with only two weeks  of digging left for the summer.  With limited time remaining, we are aiming to continue our broad overview of the site.  Specifically, we are going to be opening several units in the coming weeks.  As opposed to digging until we reach "sterile" soil, as we discussed in our Week Four Recap, we are going to attempt to understand the formation of the walls that we have exposed.  The units that we open are going to be excavated to the level of the walls, and not any deeper (at this time).  This methodology provides us with the ability to see where the walls "turn;" therefore, gaining insight into the extent of the structures that once occupied the back lots.  

As we have discussed with many of the visitors and volunteers, maps are a great aid to historical archaeology.  By examining a Historic American Building Survey (HABS) map that was drawn in the 1930s, we were able to pinpoint the location of the foundation walls.  However, maps can be misleading.  Often they are biased or only speak to the structures that stood at the time of the survey.  Archaeology provides a tool for "truthing" maps and uncovering more details about building techniques.  Our goals in the coming weeks is to determine what information we can glean about the structures.  In doing so, we will be able to plan for future excavations.

The crew hard at work.