Students dig in front of Matthews Hall

If you’ve passed through the Yard lately, you’ll probably have noticed a peculiar site: students digging wayyyy down deep into the earth. Is this even allowed?!

The answer is yes. Why you ask? Well, that’s the best part: all the digging is actually for a class, Anthropology 1130: Archaeology of Harvard Yard. Yes. There is a class at Harvard that allows you to dig in Harvard Yard. How awesome is that?

Today and yesterday, students from Anthropology 1130: Archaeology of Harvard Yard as well as Anthropology 1010: The Fundamentals of Archaeological Methods & Reasoning have been excavatin’ away to find remains of the Indian College at Harvard, one of Harvard’s first buildings, which stood from the 1650′s until 1698. Read more to see what kinds of stuff they found.

Noice went to check out the action and found it to be quite exciting, despite the gloomy weather and soon-to-be muddy earth. Students found things like pieces of brick, old rusty nails, buttons, lots of broken glass, and pieces of ceramic. All of these items will be examined by the students of Anthropology 1130 to further what little knowledge we have of that Indian College which came and went long ago.

Students sift through buckets of dirt to find artifacts that could give us some helpful clues regarding life at the College in the 17th century.

The results of excavations since the project’s first year in 2005 is on exhibit at the Peabody Museum, called Digging Veritas. From the website:

“Student archaeologists unearthed evidence of colonial Harvard as a landscape shaped by social and religious tensions, which affected everything from Native American and English settler relationships to the everyday routines of student life. As the students searched for meaning in the material remains of Harvard students of the past, three themes emerged: literacy and the Indian College; rule (breaking) and religion; and negotiations of social status. Who knew that small fragments buried below ground could reveal so much?”

More information on the current Harvard Yard Archaeology Project can be found here.

Photos by Sasha Mironov ’13.