Garden Archaeology (for Fun and Profit)

Not everyone has the opportunity to work on a professional dig, but this weekend I was fortunate to receive clear instructions from my wife that she wanted me to "dig out that wall and fix it pronto" so that she could plant the berry bushes next to it. So I went down to the shed, gathered my professional excavation tools (spade, trowel, sieve), and set to work.

Wikipedia defines archaeology as the science that “studies human cultures through the recovery, documentation, analysis, and interpretation of material remains and environmental data, including architecture, artifacts, features, biofacts, and landscapes.”

Very grand, but I think it misses the point, and the point is this: digging up stuff is a heck of a lot of fun!

I cut through and removed the top layer of turf. Within a few short minutes, the bare earth against the wall is revealed. Now I begin carefully to sieve each shovelful of soil to capture every significant artifact of Nordic life circa 1962. It’s not always easy to date an archaeological site, but in my case there was no problem. Our garden wall was built on 5th April 1962. I know that because that is the date its builder scratched in his still-wet concrete. The soil behind the wall is obviously of the same date, so anything in it is going to be at least 45 years old. Previous experience has taught me that there will be things in the backfill. Not long after we moved into the house, I dug a deep trench and discovered a complete men’s bicycle at the bottom of it. So clearly there was stuff to be found!

I’m sure it’s a lot of fun excavating tombs in the Valley of Kings, uncovering a Roman mosaics in Chester, and exploring the remains of Viking settlements on the Newfoundland coast. But we do not all have such sites within a stone’s throw, or be invited to work at them, and we must make the best of what we have. My dig site is a suburban back garden, in the pretty village of Duvbo, on the outskirts of Stockholm, Sweden.

One thing you learn early on at a dig is that you have to keep your mind focused. Shovelful after shovelful of nothing but dirt can be hypnotic. Soon your mind starts wandering away and thinking non-archaeological thoughts – because let’s face it, those moments of pure pleasure when you find something significant are interspersed with long stretches of boredom. If you don’t have your archaeologists brain turned on, you can throw away something you should keep. Early on in the dig, for example, I come across a small piece of insulated wire that I thoughtlessly cast aside. It is several minutes before I realized I should have kept it and added it to the other major finds of the day.

Another thing you learn at a site is that, in between discovering stuff, there is a lot of digging to be done, and that digging is hard work. I’m fortunate, however, in having two curious young boys who have not yet reached the age of thinking everything their father does is just plain weird, and who are more than happy to help out with the spade work.

Soon all sorts of treasures were turning up: the remains of an old light globe and wire from a lampshade; a plastic bag with something melted and smelly in it; various shards of terracotta from a flower pot; pieces of white plastic, brittle from immersion in the soil but still several centuries from breaking down completely. That is another thing about archaeology: it reminds you at every turn just how long it is going to be before all that rubbish we human beings have dumped breaks down and becomes unrecognizable.

When we get down a couple of feet, my spade strikes something that goes “boing”, just like in one of those movies when the shovel hits the treasure chest.

Now things are starting to get really interesting!

Carefully we clear away the soil around a large piece of metal, and soon our excitement mounts further as nearby a green plastic hoop became visible in the soil. The metal object turns out to be a sheet of roofing tin folded over many times, while the plastic hoop is soon revealed to be the edge of a bucket.

The bucket contains a rusty metal tool and some sheets of fine sandpaper. Even after more than forty-five years you can still read the maker’s name on the back of the sandpaper, and see its grade. I resolve to later check out if the maker is still in business. Unfortunately, the sandpaper turns out to be far more fragile than I thought and it turns to dust when some other stuff gets thrown on top of it in the bucket! Argh! Always secure and protect your finds before continuing!

Beneath the bucket is one of the most exciting of the day’s finds. My trowel snags on a lump of orange plastic. With a little wriggling it comes loose, and after cleaning up it is revealed as a children’s toy. Other significant objects were starting to turn up in other parts of the dig site too.

The major finds of the day were as follows (from left to right).

Top row:

1. Grey stone handle – granite, marble? – from 1960’s Swedish “osthyvel” (cheese slicer). Valueless without its blade and a good plate of “herrgårdsost” to slice.
2. The top of a tin of paint thinner or similar, badly rusted.
3. A green Coca Cola™ bottle, Swedish, in perfect condition. On its base has “flaskan är reg. varumark” (“bottle is a reg. trademark”) along with the runes:

       *
   * H *
     59
       3

   A collector’s item surely!

4. A rusty paint scraper, no handle, found in green plastic bucket (squashed, not shown) along with the sandpaper (destroyed, not shown).

Second row:

1. Lump of white marble, obviously broken off from the plinth of a valuable sculpture.
2. A mysterious rubber disk with a hole in it. Of possible astronomical significance? Toilet plumbing?
3. Square of plastic with the number “6” etched on it and plastic tabs, bottom and right (displayed here on a piece of darker background material). This is a very interesting find for me because I immediately recognize it as a part of one of my favourite childhood toys: that tile game where you had to slide the little pieces around inside a frame and get them in the right order. What fun we had in the days before the advent of Grand Theft Auto!

Third row:

1. Terracotta pottery shards – ubiquitous at every dig site. A material, however, that is no match for severity of Swedish winter frosts.
2. Rusty nails, several of.
3. Section of a metal grating, quite possibly from a Viking era longboat bearing plunder from English soils; alternatively, a bit of floor grate from a 1960’s bathroom. I suspect the former.
4. Children’s Disney toy found beneath the green plastic bucket. The character (Mini Mouse?) has a peculiar pose: it is wearing a roll-neck sweater (very 60’s!) which it has pulled down over its genitalia. (That’s rather coy for Sweden in that era; according to everyone who experienced the sixties, everyone was walking around naked back then much to scandle of the rest of Europe. The toy is made from vinyl (a rubbery-plastic) and has the words “Combex Made in England” and “4220” embossed on the bottom, providing incontrovertible proof of inter-European trade in the 1960’s. The toy is filled with a liquid; it sloshes around inside. Water? Bath oil? One understands the excitement of colleagues who discover roman flasks still filled with sweet wine. This item is clearly yet another valuable collector’s item, and will soon be appearing on an eBay site near you. (Combex collector: kichigai

Bottom row:

1. Clothes peg, plastic. (Did you know that the clothes peg was invented by David M. Smith of Springfield, Vermont, in 1853?)
2. Short length of copper pipe. This is a significant find as copper prices are at an all-time high. Weight 28g. Current value: around 2 krona ($0.16). I’m going to hold on to this as I expect copper to rise further.
3. Spendrups Lättöl bottletop. Inadvertent site contaminant (see beer, going off to get, above).
4. Small glass bulb, perhaps from an old radio set used to listen the precursors of Abba whilst lounging around naked?
5. Piece of wire (rescued from the tailings after a brief search). Later confirmed by the local electrician (who seemed somewhat bemused) as being the neutral line from an old-style electrical cable.

Not a bad haul for just two hours digging and sifting!

Archaeologists, Wikipedia says, “are concerned with the study of methods used in the discipline, and the theoretical and philosophical underpinnings underlying the questions archaeologists ask of the past.” But that sounds high-falutin’ to me. At the heart of archaeology is the buzz of discovery. That’s what turns people on.

To lead a rich and fulfilling life you need to develop a childish fascination with the mundane and trivial – you need to find the fun in everything you do, even if it is only in your own back garden. Forget those theoretical and philosophical underpinnings: get digging!

*   *   *

Here are a few of my favourite archaeology books:

	The Oxford Companion to Archaeology (Oxford Companions) is the must-have book for anyone who is interested in archaeology. Hundreds of entries by respected authorities in encyclopedia/dictionary format.
Archaeology: Theories, Methods and Practice is probably the best introduction to archaeology you can find. Filled with wonderful examples from different places and times.
	The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal (P.S.) One of my all-time favourite author's best books. A beautifully written exposition of human evolution.