Artifact-rich site
‘Treasure hunting for grown-ups’ in museum dig
When people signed up to participate in an archaeological dig at the Museum of Industry earlier this month, they were told they might not find anything of interest.
Fortunately for them, that wasn’t the case. In fact, the amateur archaeologists started finding items on the historical iron foundry site within minutes.
“It’s an extremely artifactrich site. I’ve never seen this many iron objects come out of the same area,” said lead archaeologist Laura de Boer.
“It’s amazing because we tell people when they come to dig that they’ll learn how archaeology is done, but there’s no guarantee they’ll find something,” said museum director Debra McNabb.
De Boer said the number of items found during the dig, held Sept. 10 and 11, was one of the largest ever found in a public dig in Nova Scotia in a single year.
Objects discovered include a padlock, a nickel from 1928, a brick from Scotland and the “star attraction” – a piece of iron, fish belly rail. All four groups that participated in the dig helped to uncover the 74-inch-long rail – a slow process of removing the soil in an organized fashion.
“We feel we can tie it very directly to the earliest phase of locomotives and railroads, possibly the actual Samson and Albion travelled on that rail, but we can’t say for sure,” said McNabb.
Samson and Albion are two of Canada’s oldest surviving locomotives, which transported coal from Albion Mines, now Stellarton, to the mouth of the East River where it was loaded onto ships for market. The locomotives operated in the 1800s, and are on display at the museum.
While they’re unsure of exactly how many artifacts were found, nine boxes are filled with the items, which will be cleaned, photographed and catalogued, a process that will take several months. The most interesting objects will be preserved by a conservator, and may get displayed at the museum.
“We didn’t think there would be this much worth conserving, so this is nice,” said de Boer.
McNabb said a lot of the pieces haven’t been identified yet. “We may find some other gems in there.”
Appeal of archaeology
The level of interest in the archaeological dig was higher than expected, with the 24 spots in each of the four sessions almost reaching capacity in the first day. “We were shocked at how fast it filled up,” said Denise Taylor, the museum’s marketing services officer.
People from various places participated, including Cape Breton, the South Shore and Moncton. McNabb said she believes so many people were attracted to the event because they’re fascinated by archaeology.
“It’s treasure hunting for grown-ups – you just can’t keep it,” said de Boer. “It’s the joy of discovery and learning about pieces of our past.”
Along with de Boer, six other professional archaeologists participated, who supervised the members of the public doing the digging. “They need to supervise and help people figure out what they’re finding, what they’re seeing and keeping records.”
More digging may occur
The area where the dig took place just behind the museum has been “prepped to return” – covered in plastic and backfilled to stabilize it for the winter, and sod placed on top.
De Boer said they’d like to excavate farther down, but whether that will be done by professionals only or with the help of the public hasn’t been determined yet.
McNabb said the work already done “shows us a lot of potential here. There’s a lot more we can find out about the site. That’s the big take-away from the event.”
Three previous digs were conducted at the site back in the 1980s and 1990s, leading to the discovery of the walls of the foundry.
The renewed interest in the site came after the success of another dig at the Shubenacadie Canal organized by Industrial Heritage Nova Scotia, which was also a partner in the museum excavation.
“They asked where would be a good spot in Pictou County,” said McNabb. “We know the general area where it (the foundry) was, and we wanted to start to look for more – see what else might be there.”
The location of the museum is a national historic site, recognized by the federal government because of the importance of Nova Scotia’s coal mining industry to the development of Canada. The first coal pits were located behind where the museum now sits.
The foundry was built to support the mine established by the General Mining Association in 1827, and while some early attempts at mining took place in other areas of the province, the local site was the first organized mining in Nova Scotia using machines, skilled miners and technology to go deep down into the ground to extract coal.
“We’ve been interested in knowing what technology came from England during the British Industrial Revolution. This English company came over – what did they bring and how did they use it,” said McNabb.