Southeastern NEWS

                                                       Southeastern Louisiana University
                                           Public Information Office
                                           publicinfo@selu.edu
                                           SLU 10880, Hammond, LA 70402
                                           504/549-2341/fax 504-549-2061
    Date: 11/11/99
      Contact:                           Carol Dotson   5

SLAVE QUARTERS ARCHAEOLOGY PROJECT WRAPPING UP
     HAMMOND -- Southeastern Louisiana University's African-American Archaeology
Research Program at Evergreen Plantation will soon come to a close. But according to
coordinator and Southeastern professor Scott Simmons, the real work is just beginning. 
     The project, which ends November 15, has excavated the slave quarters area of the
plantation located near Edgard. The public was invited to participate in the dig which began in
October and, according to Simmons, the response has been good. 
     "We average 15-20 volunteers on the weekends and hundreds of school children during
the week," he said. Staff and volunteers efforts have been productive and several artifacts have
been uncovered.
     "We have been concentrating our efforts in the rear (east side) of Cabin 4E, and have been
successful in identifying dense midden deposits (concentrated refuse) associated with the
occupation of that cabin," Simmons said. He said the intact and undisturbed archaeological
deposits in that area have great potential for yielding important information on antebellum and
postbellum African-American life in the Quarters Area at Evergreen.
     Simmons and his crews have found dense accumulations of metal artifacts near the
northern half of Cabin 4E.  According to Simmons, the presence of this material, along with
several pieces of slag (a by-product of metal manufacturing) suggests that some small-scale
metalworking may have taken place in this area.
     "We have recovered a great deal of artifacts relating to domestic life in the Quarters Area
at Evergreen including a variety of ceramic, glass, and metal artifacts.  Bone preservation appears
to be fairly good, as we have also recovered a variety of bone fragments, teeth and what appears
to be an animal claw.  Alligator gar as well as turtle seem to be well-represented in the faunal
assemblage," Simmons said.               

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Evergreen/ADD ONE

     "While excavations at other slave and freed African-American quarters areas have yielded
a variety of buttons, I am still somewhat astounded at the number and variety of buttons we have
recovered both from within Cabin 4E, at the base of the fireplace and outside the building.  We've
recovered bone, milk glass, handmade oyster shell and metal buttons in various sizes," Simmons
said. "We also have found a variety of marbles, doll parts and small, polished stones whose
function is unknown at this time."
     For Simmons, perhaps one of the most intriguing finds thus far has been two very dark
colored, round-shaped soil stains and one linear light-colored stain that were identified in Unit 6.
"We don't know what these are yet, since it looks like more areas around these features have to
be excavated to expose fully these stains. Its possible they may represent pits of some kind, but
more work needs to be done to confirm this," he explained. 
     Friday, November 19 is the final day of field work and volunteers are still welcome. But
the work won't be completely over then. Simmons still needs volunteers to help process the
artifacts. Processing tasks include sorting by material types (ceramics, glass, metal, bone, etc.),
and getting total counts of each of these types, and washing the artifacts. All of that work will be
done at Evergreen between Thanksgiving and Christmas, generally on Saturdays, he said.  
     Those interested in participating in the Evergreen Project can contact Simmons at
504-497-3231 or by email at simmonsse@compsurf.com
                             -SLU-
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