Historic household items uncovered on post office property

Archaeologists have uncovered a brick foundation from a 100-year-old house just outside the main post office in Carson City.

A week of digging through discarded dirt piles also revealed hundreds of nails - square and round headed - clear and purple glass fragments, butchered cow bone fragments, plate fragments, a ceramic marble and a toy tractor.

A 1907 fire insurance map showed a dozen buildings in the area and two of these buildings stood on or near the site until the post office was built in 1970.

"For this (foundation) to show up just 8 inches below the surface is surprising," archaeologist Rob McQueen said.

What's even more surprising is McQueen and fellow archaeologist Oliver Patsch had to wander only a block from their Summit Envirosolutions office to carry out a historic urban dig.

"Backdoor archaeology," Patsch said as he chiseled dirt.

Archaeology came into play Aug. 29 when a State Historic Preservation Office employee on a stamp-buying mission noticed possible historic artifacts in holes being dug for 52 light standards that will surround the Federal Building.

McQueen and Patsch started monitoring the dig about a week and a half ago. They watched construction crews dig about 15 or 20 holes.

"Several holes had one or two artifacts but not enough to warrant any attention," he said.

Two trenches, however, so far have yielded some 300 to 500 artifacts each and McQueen figures that number could easily double as they continue digging. Through last week, they had sifted through the piles created by light post digging.

The duo on Monday started addressing the site with archaeological techniques. This involved stringing off a one-meter square probe area and digging down in 10-centimeter increments. Day One cleared the first increment.

"Right now we're probing," McQueen said. "If probing proves productive, we may move into excavation. These two are the hot spots."

A light post trench strafes the brick foundation. As of Monday, the archaeologists had not determined if the trench was inside or outside the former house. The probe area is on the other side of the foundation.

The federal General Services Administration did not consult with the State Historic Preservation Office prior to construction. But it quickly hired Summit Envirosolutions when the state informed them of the historic artifacts, said Rebecca Palmer, a state historic preservation specialist.

"What they found is probably the foundation for one of the residences," Palmer said. "It's unusual that they didn't bring in any fill (when the post office was built). They just leveled."

Summit Envirosolutions moved to Carson City from Reno in April. The firm's emphasis is archaeological research and cultural resources management.

The archaeologists will clean, catalog and inventory their findings and then likely hand them over to the Nevada State Museum, which sits within sight of the dig.

"You don't get a lot of urban archaeology in Nevada (other than Virginia City)," McQueen said. "It's a rare opportunity to come into a downtown area."