Today, I got to do something that a lot of people would probably love to do: dig in an archaeological survey in downtown Boston. I’ve been talking with the city archaeologist of Boston for quite some time now and was invited to help dig up the front courtyard of Old City Hall.

Old City Hall is located on School Street and has been reused a number of times. In 1635, it was the site of the first public school: Boston Latin. This school is the oldest in the US and is still a public school today. After time, the site also hosted the school master’s house, a barrister’s office, city hall, and now a Ruth Chris Steak House. Yum. It smelt so good while we were there today 🙂

We were digging a trench over what would have been the 1810 Barrister’s, or lawyer’s, office today and found some interesting features including a possible deposit left by a tree, a hole about a foot deep, electrical conduits from the 1800/early 1900s, and some artifacts. In my square of the trench, we had a lot of nails (that is the fat thing at the end of my hand in the picture below), glass, brick brick and more brick, and some cool bones. The one in my palm is possibly a rat or cat bone. No bigger than the first knuckle of my pinky.

While I was a little shy to go over, it was really nice. The last time I was digging was about 12 years ago in New York and then I fell out of that life due to some circumstances. While my shoulder and knees are angry at me right now, I’m going to try and go back on Monday or Tuesday to help with the other trenches and hopefully find more cool stuff.

Now, not every city has an archaeologist on staff…Boston is unique in that it has that position. However, given the fact that there are sites and remains all over our city, it makes complete sense. This is a city office of 1 person and most of the grunt work comes from volunteers like me. Are you local and want to learn more? Check out this page and see how you can volunteer or help support this important city office!

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