This week marks the start of CAP’s 2021 summer field season; we have completed trainings, designed survey and outreach projects, and finished our academic year. This all means we can now get out into in the field! Over the next few months, we will be …
While the ground may be covered with inches of snow, CAP is looking ahead to plan for summer construction, in addition to our undergraduate archaeological field school. As you would have read in a previous blog post, the field school will be taking place near …
For the past two weeks, we have been surveying in Munn Field prior to the installation of new astroturf. Last week, a test pit on the western side of the field caused some excitement! It revealed a puzzling amount of iron wire. The wire didn’t start appearing until about 50cm down and increased in frequency until about 60-70cm where what looked like a floor of wire was revealed. We opened up the pit a little more to investigate further and found even more wire as we dug. The “floor” was still covering the bottom of the pit so we decided to open it up even more by setting up a 1-meter by 1-meter excavation unit. As we dug this out, we were finding even more wire, some nails, glass, and other metal bits and upon reaching the wire “floor” we realized it wasn’t actually a floor at all but rather clusters of bundled wire. Some of the wire was braided together, other pieces were looped together, but most of it came out in bundles consisting of numerous strands of wire bound together by several other pieces wrapped around the rest.
Bundles of wire found at Munn Field
Upon removal of these bundles we found pockets of ashy, burnt soil mixed in with this layer of wire. Slag and charcoal were also found throughout this layer in the unit. Underneath the wire, we found several horseshoes, including one fused one, remnants of what appears to have once been a metal box, a Benzedrine inhaler, a math compass, an iron clip, a milk bottle base from a Lansing creamery, more nails, more wire, and a portion of a doll’s face! As can be seen, the unit proved to be very puzzling. Nothing quite seemed to go together and there was really no discernible strata or profile at this layer. Our research at the archives revealed that Munn Field used to be home to several barns, a horse track, and also served as the ROTC drill field for a time. However, what we were finding didn’t really fit into any of those scenarios, or at least not obviously.
One of our team members suggested that it might have something to do with a blacksmith servicing the horses kept on the field. There was some evidence to suggest this, namely the staggering amounts of wire, chunks of metal resembling iron ingots, the horseshoes, and some tools including the compass and the clip. After some research around the internet, I think it is possible that some of these things were used in blacksmithing or in MSU’s machine shop. Based on the Benzedrine inhaler and prior archival research, we are pretty sure that this find would have been from the 1930s-40s. From that time period, the iron we were finding would have likely been wrought iron. After smelting, wrought iron is turned into one of several forms of bar iron for transport and turning into finished materials. One of those forms, rod iron, is used as the raw material for nails and those who read our blog regularly should know that nails are no small part of our finds here on campus! However, the size of the wire we found is a little on the small side for it to be rod iron kept around for working later on. That doesn’t completely eliminate the possibility if blacksmith activity though.
Braided wire found at Munn FieldPossible draw plate found at Munn Field
When smithing wire, the iron is pulled through increasingly smaller draw plates, usually made of wrought iron during this period. We found a piece of metal that we had initially thought was part of a door hinge, but it very well might be a draw plate used for smithing wire.
What I think is most likely is that we found a trash pit used during Munn Field’s occupation by the ROTC program. The overall structure of the feature and the artifacts we recovered suggest that this was all trash. The wire was disposed of is loose bundles which would make transporting large amounts of wire easy. The fact that some of the wire was braided and looped makes me think they were meant to be discarded even more. Braiding wires is a method of creating wire rope, which before the widespread availability of steel, was usually made form wrought iron. Some of the wire we recovered was half braided, and some of it was braided and looped at the end, a form of terminating wire rope that we know today as a Flemish Eye. All of this, the braids, the loops, and the straight wire, was all bundled together loosely in several large bundles. The range of materials we recovered, from wire to milk bottles, inhalers to doll parts, makes me increasingly confident that what we found was a discard pile.
What do you think? Evidence of blacksmithing or a trash pit?
It’s week three of our summer CAP work, and we’ve spent it digging test pits at Munn Field. I’ll admit, I was a little jealous that I missed out on the cool Vet Lab find two weeks ago, but now I’m finally back working with …
On April 12th to 13th, Campus Archaeology is going to be doing an archaeological survey within the Sacred Space. We will be digging East of Cowles House and the Music Practice building, and West of Beaumont Tower. As many of you know, there is extensive …
Today, Thursday and Friday the Campus Archaeology team will be doing archaeological survey at Walter Adams Field on MSU’s campus. The project was set in motion when the physical plant and landscape services decided to replace, add and renovate the irrigation system at Adam’s field.
Adams Filed has long been a central point of campus for student life. It is a large open field, dedicated to providing space for activities and general campus beatification. Its namesake Walter Adams, was a distinguished economics professor at MSU from 1947, and served as president from April 1, 1969 to January 1, 1970. He was also an honorary member of the Spartan Marching Band, and frequently led the band from this field to Spartan Stadium (Stanford and Dewhurst 2002). In 1999, this field was rededicated as Walter Adams Field. Before that, it was informally known as Landon Field, and before that, Old Drill Field (Stanfird and Dewhurst 2002). It has housed various student, athletic, and social and political events, including a rally in 2008 for the election campaign of the current President of the United States, Barack Obama.
The history of Adams Field is a long one, starting with the construction of campus in 1856. At that time, campus was a series of old growth mixed oak and pine forests that shaded the Red Cedar River. The first job for the construction crews (at that time students) was to clear cut areas where building construction was to take place. The primary area that was cleared was for the first and second buildings on campus, College Hall and Saints Rest respectively. This area is now call, the “Sacred Space”. The second area to be cleared was located to the west of College Hall, and is now called Adams Field. In 1959 a map was made through the process of combining sources such as USGS maps, early campus depictions and journal entries that shows what campus would have looked like on opening day, May 13th, 1857. In this map, the two clear cut fields are shown as described above. Also displayed are 4 faculty houses, which would later become Faculty Row, as well as Burcham Cabin, which is located approximately where the music building is today. A second map of early campus comes to us from 1878, and was created by A. Zeese and Company in Chicago. This map displays the area of Adams field as ‘cultivated’ in their key, with a southern slope running to the Red Cedar River. In this map, more faculty houses are displayed in Faculty Row, with Cowles house located in the north east of the Adams Field area. The Burcham cabin is not displayed.
Skipping ahead a few years to 1896, a map of bird nests on campus displays a parade and ball ground directly west of Cowles house and on the eastern side of Adams Field. The western side of Adams field is labeled as ‘hollow’. From the turn of the century on, the area now known as Adams Field was kept an open field, used for various student and athletic events, including the main drill field for the Spartan marching band.
Now that you know the history behind this wonderful part of historic MSU, come out and see what kind of history we are unearthing! Look for the Campus Archaeology flag, and bring questions and hot coffee!
References
Beal, WJ
1915 History of the Michigan Agricultural College and Biographical Sketches of Trustees and Professors. Agricultural College, east Lansing, MI.
Kuhn, M.
1955 Michigan State: The First Hundred Years. The Michigan State University Press, East Lansing, MI.
Stanford, L. and C.K. Dewhurst
2002 MSU Campus: Buildings, Places, Spaces. The Michigan State University Press, East Lansing, MI.
Widder, K.
2005 Michigan Agricultural College: the evolution of a land grant philosophy, 1855-1925. The Michigan State University Press, East Lansing, MI.