After the Revolutionary War, white settlers began moving into the area in the 1790s, building farmsteads. The site is near the Mad River in what is now southwestern Clark County, just northeast of Wright State.<\/p>\n
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<\/a>Students in Wright State’s Field School in Archaeology investigated a limestone foundation of a structure occupied by frontier settlers outside of Springfield, Ohio. (Video by Kris Sproles\/Photos by Erin Pence)<\/p><\/div>\n
\u201cThe fight for the Northwest Territory happened right here. This was the heart of it,\u201d said Greene. \u201cBut equally as important, after 1780 this was sort of the frontier for a long time. There was a lot of danger. To be able to construct a place like this and live here and survive and be successful sort of represents that move westward by white settlers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ground-penetrating radar was used to locate the buried stone foundation, which appears to be that of a house about 18 feet long and 12 feet wide.<\/p>\n
In an excavation that began in late May, the foundation began to emerge in several of five angular plots cut into the landscape. The students used skim shovels, metal trowels, brushes and even spoons to remove the soil, which was transferred to wood-framed sifters and hand-shaken through a screen, leaving artifacts and fragments behind.<\/p>\n
In one plot, a tumble of stones veined with the roots of a locust tree could perhaps be a fallen chimney. The recovery of animal bones and pieces of ceramics, dishware and glassware suggests the structure may have been used as a kitchen.<\/p>\n
Tracey Steele, associate professor and chair of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology<\/a>, was at the site to observe the excavation and noted the enthusiasm of the students and their breadth of knowledge.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think there is anything that matches the personal experience of getting your hands dirty,\u201d she said. \u201cThey get so excited.\u201d<\/p>\n Steele said anthropology gives students an understanding of the interaction of people, the environment and history.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen they go out, they see the world in a very, very unique multidimensional way,\u201d she said. \u201cI don\u2019t think most disciplines really train people to wear so many conceptual hats.\u201d<\/p>\n The students come from a variety of majors, including anthropology, biology, history and geology.<\/p>\n Anthropology student Cullen Dunajski sifts soil at the excavation site.<\/p><\/div>\n Jordan Buffington, a biological sciences major from Beavercreek, said taking part in the dig is exciting and has taught her things she couldn\u2019t have learned in a textbook.<\/p>\n \u201cI found a prehistoric piece of pottery. I thought it was a rock and then it was not a rock,\u201d she said. \u201cIt made Dr. Greene very excited. And I started jumping up and down like I\u2019d won a car on ‘The Price Is Right.’ There is nothing that compares to that.\u201d<\/p>\n Buffington\u2019s career goal is to go to medical school and become a physician. She said the excavation has taught her how to work with people under sometimes tough conditions and how to handle pressure, lessons she can use in the medical field.<\/p>\n Cullen Dunajski, an anthropology major from Springboro, wants to become a physician\u2019s assistant. He said anthropology has given him a greater understanding of the human aspect of medicine and that the excavation has enabled him to step outside of his comfort zone.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve done study-abroad programs, but this is a whole new experience you can take away a lot from,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Greene, who has bachelor\u2019s and master\u2019s degrees from the University of Tennessee and a doctorate from the University of North Carolina, joined the faculty at Wright State in 2015. He focuses on U.S. historical archaeology, mostly on Native American groups in the Southeast and Great Lakes regions.<\/p>\n At Wright State, Greene created the Field School to investigate the archaeology and history of Shawnee settlements in Ohio<\/a>.<\/p>\n Piqua, also known as Peckuwe or Picawey, was a Shawnee village of about 3,000 established in the mid-1700s near where the students are digging. The village and British-style stockade were attacked by a Kentucky militia of 1,100 led by George Rogers Clark on Aug. 8, 1780.<\/p>\n The militia reported killing about 40 Shawnee, burning all of the houses to the ground and destroying 800 acres of corn. The heart of the battlefield is a grassy, 30-acre meadow.<\/p>\n Greene said perhaps the most interesting artifact that was uncovered is a lockspring, which was used to fire muzzle-loading rifles. If it was made in the 1780s, it could be a clue to the exact location of Fort Shawnee.<\/p>\n The main goal of the Field School is to identify parts of the Shawnee village and the battlefield, but the excavators are also interested in the later white settlements.<\/p>\n The Field School teaches students how to excavate, identify artifacts and record information.<\/p><\/div>\n The students excavated about 10 percent of the foundation in two weeks during their six-week dig. Next year\u2019s Field School will return to the site to get a better idea of exactly how old the structure is and what activities occurred there.<\/p>\n For the students interested in archaeology<\/a>, the Field School teaches them how to excavate, identify artifacts and record information. They also learn about soils and geology.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you are interested in a job in archaeology, this is really critical,\u201d Greene said.<\/p>\n Alyssa Stark, an anthropology major from Dayton, wants to get an advanced degree in public history and pursue a career in museum studies and education.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can sit in a museum collection all day and look at objects and think about the culture where they came from,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen you actually see them in the ground and the process of digging them up and thinking about what it could mean, it\u2019s a much different process. I think that will be something that I take with me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" During a six-week dig, students in Wright State’s Field School in Archaeology uncovered a limestone foundation of a structure occupied by frontier settlers outside of Springfield, Ohio. Continue reading ![\"\"](\"http:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/files\/2017\/06\/piqua-dig-foundation-19091_007-508x388.jpg\")
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