Digging In To the Remains of a 400-Year-Old Feast

By Jessica Clark
First Coast News

ST. AUGUSTINE, FL -- Archaeologist Carl Halbirt digs in the dirt for a living.

But rarely does he have so many kids around his digs.

This week, he and the City of St. Augustine’s Archaeology Crew are uncovering loads of artifacts from the early 1600's at St. Augustine's Cathedral Parish School.

The students have been allowed to watch science at work in their school’s front yard on St. George Street.

For 12-year-old Shannon Poage, the up-close lesson is thrilling.

“This is amazing,�Poage said. “They found so many artifacts just from digging a couple holes in my school yard!�BR>
There are three archaeological dig sites or holes in front of the school. One is an excavation of a well. Another hole is the location of a trash pit. A third hole has revealed what Halbirt believes is the foundation of a house.

“This is the first time we've actually found a cluster of these features together. It indicates what a 16th century residential lot may have looked like,�Halbirt explained.

Archaeologists have found significant pieces of Native American and European pottery at the site. There may even be an entire Native American bowl that simply needs to be pieced together.

Halbirt said it looks like the Spanish colonists who lived on this site turned the well he discovered into a trash can.

Among many items in it, archaeologists found a well-preserved peach pit, pig and deer bones, and even bones from an entire 400-year-old butchered cow.

“Normally we find maybe just small amounts [of trash in a well], but here, there's something else going on.�BR>
Like the leftovers from a party. No joke. Halbirt said the items could be the remains of a feast.

Poage and her young classmates are getting a 400-year-old invitation to the party. They’re also getting a lesson �that one colonist's trash is another archaeologist's treasure!

“To archaeologists, this is what it's all about,�Halbirt said with excitement about the ancient trash. “This is our window into the past.�/DIV>