The Hole Truth

Not all of the artifacts from Dartmouth's past reside in the Colleges library. Some lie underneath. At least they did until this spring, when construction workers renovating Baker Library unearthed pieces of pottery beneath the library's old microtext room. They halted construction and called in archaeology professors Deborah Nichols and Paul Goldstein.

With shovels, trowels, brushes and sieves, Nichols, Goldstein, colleague Kathryn Keith and students Tyra Olstad '04 and Jackie Lippe '01 excavated a small trench six feet below the surface. A few hours of excavation yielded 112 ceramic shards (including several plates, a salt celler, teapot and serving dish); a two-tined fork; six nails; some goat, sheep and cow bones; seeds and a single human tooth. The archaeologists dated the designs on the pottery back to about 1830. "It's always fun to dig," says Goldstein. "You never know what you might find."

The artifacts wouldn't draw gasps on the Antiques Roadshow, but that doesn't mean the site was worthless. "It's a great teaching tool," says Goldstein. "It's like an unintentional time capsule. Everything was made, used and discarded in a discrete chunk of time."

The archaeologists can only speculate about the pits origins: It might have been a latrine or a household garbage dump. But in a hollow next to the excavation, a discarded Coke bottle, paint can lid and jelly donut suggest that some things never change. "If there's a hole, people will throw things in it," says Nichols.

Contributors: Robert Bauer '82, MorganCain '02,MichaelGlenzer'01,Jennifer Kay'01