15
January/February 2019
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THE DAVEY BULLETIN
EXPERTISE
DON'T GIVE UP THE SHIP
While many of us spend our days looking up at or climbing
gigantic trees, the archeologists of Thunderbird Archaeology,
a division of Wetland Studies and Solutions, Inc. a Davey
company, focus their attention lower – much lower. They
search underground to discover the relics of yesteryear.
"Archeology is about digging up the unknown. You can't
predict what survived or what you'll find," said Dan Baicy,
senior associate archeologist and field director.
Imagine Baicy and the team of archeologists' delight when
they recently found not one, not two, but three Colonial
ships from the 1700s.
"This is very exciting, even if it's not the first one for us.
We actually found another ship on an adjacent property
back in 2015," said John Mullen, principal archeologist and
assistant manager.
So far, here's what they know. To make room for new
townhomes and condos, in Alexandria, Virginia, a warehouse
from the mid-20th century was removed. Underneath it,
archeologists found almost an entire city block.
"You could see the outlines of home foundations, shops
and taverns that dated back to the 1780s and 1830s," said
Mullen. "We thought we were done, but as we moved
them out and dug deeper, we found out how they created
this land."
At one point, the land was all part of the river, so the
18th-century residents had to fill in the area using what they
had. In this case, that meant filling their old ships with soil
and sinking them to hold the land in.
Centuries later, the ships are far more than upcycled trash.
They're lauded as a significant piece of Alexandria history
– as are the nearly 100,000 other found artifacts, including
coins, straight pins and even a ship biscuit that was baked
in 1810.
From here, the archeologists will work with the city to
overlay the historic research with the archeology to fully
capture the history of the found items (ships included) –
and how to best preserve them for decades to come.
Above: WSSI archeologists recently unearthed three 18th-century
ships that were buried underground in Alexandria, Virginia.
Below: To remove the ships, the team has taken them apart
timber by timber.
