In Saginaw's Cathedral District, a bag of Cheetos can make history make sense. When Cheetos pop up at Jeff Sommer's dig sites, they sometimes tell him stories that other artifacts can't. Sommer is the curator of archaeology at the Castle Museum of Saginaw County History.
Last week, two bags of the snack -- with sell-by dates from 1993 -- were discovered in the same dig pile with 19th-Century brick, glass and nails at an archaeological effort that Sommer hopes will paint a better portrait of life in the average Saginaw family, circa 1893.
The junk food wasn't a part of the diet of the McMasters -- the family who lived in a home at the site before Saginaw's Great Fire of 1893 burned the place to the ground -- but the presence of both bags, along with evidence of a nearby ground hog tunnel, clued in Sommer that this dig hasn't remained entirely untouched over the decades.
"That makes me feel better," he said. "That explains why there's other stuff mixed in (with the older artifacts.) That makes sense."
In archaeology, as Sommer will tell you, details are important.
Sommer and a group of Central Michigan University interns and other volunteers have been shoveling out such details this summer from the old McMaster residence, now buried in the soil of an otherwise-normal Cathedral District neighborhood.
Neighborhood Renewal Services owns the land and granted Sommer and his team permission to explore.
According to city directories from 1893-94, the McMasters were a family of six: Anna, Allen D., Allen D. Jr., James F., Lizzie and Solomon. Allen D. McMaster Jr., was a letter carrier, and James F. McMaster was a janitor.
Other items recovered at their former residence so far: burned glass, burned wood, burned nails, burned brick. Evidence of the fire that swallowed more than 257 Saginaw buildings -- a blaze that stretched from Ojibway Island northeast to this neighborhood -- is at Sommer's feet.
All he has to do is dig.
"We're hoping this is going to tell us about the everyday lives of the ordinary family back then," he said, "rather than the extraordinary events we know about."
The most interesting item, Sommer said, was a clay marble child's toy that may have belonged to a distant ancestor of some modern Saginaw resident.
He's hoping for more evidence. And he's inviting the public to join the discovery.
Through September, Sommer plans to tend to the dig 10 a.m.-2 p.m. every Tuesday and Thursday and has invited residents to stop by and watch.
So far, he and his crew have shoveled about 6 feet down into the dirt, working in a 10-by-15-foot rectangle of earth.
Segmenting sections that are 1 meter square, Sommer and his group carefully brush, dig and polish away soil from their findings before moving on to the next space.
When they're finished, Sommer hopes to collect the most significant findings and begin work on a new Castle Museum exhibit that tells the McMasters' story.
"Every day, we're learning a bit more," he said. "It's going to be interesting what we find."
Author: Justin L. Engel | Source: Detroit Free Press [September 04, 2011]
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| Volunteer Mike Mauer of Flint, Castle Museum archaeologist Jeff Sommer and Justin Burnham of Fowler, a Central Michigan University student, dig for artifacts where a house once stood in Saginaw [Credit: Jeff Schrier/Associated Press] |
The junk food wasn't a part of the diet of the McMasters -- the family who lived in a home at the site before Saginaw's Great Fire of 1893 burned the place to the ground -- but the presence of both bags, along with evidence of a nearby ground hog tunnel, clued in Sommer that this dig hasn't remained entirely untouched over the decades.
"That makes me feel better," he said. "That explains why there's other stuff mixed in (with the older artifacts.) That makes sense."
In archaeology, as Sommer will tell you, details are important.
Sommer and a group of Central Michigan University interns and other volunteers have been shoveling out such details this summer from the old McMaster residence, now buried in the soil of an otherwise-normal Cathedral District neighborhood.
Neighborhood Renewal Services owns the land and granted Sommer and his team permission to explore.
According to city directories from 1893-94, the McMasters were a family of six: Anna, Allen D., Allen D. Jr., James F., Lizzie and Solomon. Allen D. McMaster Jr., was a letter carrier, and James F. McMaster was a janitor.
Other items recovered at their former residence so far: burned glass, burned wood, burned nails, burned brick. Evidence of the fire that swallowed more than 257 Saginaw buildings -- a blaze that stretched from Ojibway Island northeast to this neighborhood -- is at Sommer's feet.
All he has to do is dig.
"We're hoping this is going to tell us about the everyday lives of the ordinary family back then," he said, "rather than the extraordinary events we know about."
The most interesting item, Sommer said, was a clay marble child's toy that may have belonged to a distant ancestor of some modern Saginaw resident.
He's hoping for more evidence. And he's inviting the public to join the discovery.
Through September, Sommer plans to tend to the dig 10 a.m.-2 p.m. every Tuesday and Thursday and has invited residents to stop by and watch.
So far, he and his crew have shoveled about 6 feet down into the dirt, working in a 10-by-15-foot rectangle of earth.
Segmenting sections that are 1 meter square, Sommer and his group carefully brush, dig and polish away soil from their findings before moving on to the next space.
When they're finished, Sommer hopes to collect the most significant findings and begin work on a new Castle Museum exhibit that tells the McMasters' story.
"Every day, we're learning a bit more," he said. "It's going to be interesting what we find."
Author: Justin L. Engel | Source: Detroit Free Press [September 04, 2011]