Digging History Project

-Summary by Mae Gant, Sociology & Anthropology student, Stockton University

Stockton University students, Alex Rivera and KT Muller, Screen for Artifacts. Photo: Mark Melhorn/Stockton University, 2023

What is the Digging History Project?

The Digging History Project is an archaeological investigation into the history of the grounds beneath The Museum of Cape May County. Vice President of CMCHGS Dr. Bobbi Hornbeck, who is also an archaeologist and a professor at Stockton University, has been working with students since 2022 to bring us a fuller understanding of the history of the property. She hosted Archaeological Field Methods course students here in the spring of 2023 from Stockton University and the summer of 2023 from Rowan University. In between semesters, student volunteers assist her as the project is ongoing.

The Cresse section of the building that houses the museum we know today was built in 1704 and the Holmes section was built in 1830. This means that part of the museum structure has been in use for more than 320 years. While the CMCHGS already has detailed information about home ownership along with archival maps that indicate previous structures on the property, there are still many questions to be answered about what has occurred on the land beneath our museum since its first building was erected 70+ years before our country’s founding.

The research questions identified by Vice President Hornbeck and the team include: How has the property use changed over time? What was the extent of John Holmes’s role in the Revolutionary War? Where on the property did the people enslaved by John Holmes live? 

Stockton University student, Sage Rosenberg, Screening for Artifacts. Photo: Susan Allen/Stockton University, 2025

What kind of fieldwork has been done?

The team began in 2022 with survey, or surface analysis, as well as shovel test pits (STPs) (small preliminary holes) around the property. In this pilot study, some artifacts that were found and collected include a cattle bone from food waste that was sent out for radiocarbon dating (unfortunately it did not contain enough collagen to have confident results), charcoal, nails, a clay pipe, historic cement, historic glass, lead, mica, glazed earthenware, glazed ceramic, and woven fiber. Sun bleaching seen on the cut cattle bone indicates that it had been exposed to the sun for a prolonged period of time. This suggests that what was found in the crawl space below the 1704 section of the house had been uncovered for some time, which may mean that this section of the house was moved at some point from another area on the property to where it stands today.

Then, in the spring of 2023, Stockton University students continued with survey and shovel test pits on the west side of Route 9, as there are oral histories which tell us that John Holmes built, and lived in, a house on that side of the road. Surface finds included a wooden fence post, metal wires, whelk shells, clam shells, and brick. In places where there seemed to be a greater occurrence of cultural materials on the surface, the team performed an STP there. Other STPs were placed in areas identified as significant on LiDAR imagery. STPs yielded shells, historic nails, iron, and a couple pieces of earthenware and glazed ceramic. Based on the STP results concurrent with LiDAR, the team was able to identify two locations that warrant further testing in the future.

The Stockton students then returned to the east side of Route 9, where the Museum currently stands, and completed additional STPs. One was done north of the 1704 section of the building in an area chosen via metal detector, and another was done behind the 1704 building, in an area where previous homeowners found a Civil War era belt buckle. These two STPs produced more cultural artifacts than those on the west side of Route 9, as expected. These included glazed earthenware, glazed ceramic, brick, tile, charcoal, historic and modern nails, historic glass, a porcelain shard, a marble, and fiber. 

After the small-scale testing of the property was completed, the team began the formal excavation of 1 meter by 1 meter units. They placed the first five units north of the parking lot, where STPs from the 2022 pilot study were conducted and a significant amount of artifacts were collected. This is in an area where an 1841 property division map showed an unlabeled structure. These units produced a significant amount of cultural material including examples of all of the previously mentioned materials except for porcelain and fiber. Additionally, small pieces of copper in different shapes (some hammered), a colonial period nail, extensive anthracite, and stoneware were found. The work done in this section of the property confirmed the presence of a structure nearby. Though, additional research is needed to determine the purpose of the building due to the degree of variety represented by the recovered artifacts.

After these units were backfilled, the class opened two new units in front of the 1704 Cresse section of the Museum, as guided by the metal detection and STP completed earlier in the semester. Rowan University students took over the excavation of these units, which were expanded into one larger unit at the end of the summer. After a seasonal break, Stockton University student volunteers rejoined Dr. Hornbeck in the excavation of this large unit throughout the spring and fall of 2024. Cultural materials collected from this area included brick, charcoal, ceramic, redware, iron, glass, shells, plastic, fabric, textile, marl, cement with lime mortar, a piece of a shoe, a marble, and lead. This unit turned out to be a highly disturbed area above an old septic tank from around the 1950s. 

19th centuy hand-forged nail. Photo: Mark Melhorn/Stockton University, 2023

What has the project learned?

The definitive information produced from the 2022-2024 seasons of the Digging History is limited. What can be said is that there is historic cultural material on the west side of Route 9 that clearly indicates human occupation. It can also be confidently stated that there was a building north of where the Museum stands today in the location marked on the 1841 property division map. And, the location of a 1950s-era septic tank that is no longer in use is known.

The three initial research questions are still guiding the Digging History Project. Something particularly interesting about this archaeological study is that much of the soil is highly disturbed, meaning that, when digging, the team has found modern materials in the same level as colonial material, or any time in between. This creates difficulty in temporally analyzing the soil’s stratigraphy. Though, it has given the students that have been part of the project insight into what archaeology looks like when faced with highly disturbed contexts, which is valuable experience.

Click here to see images of a small selection of the hundreds of artifacts that have been found so far by the Digging History Project.

To stay updated on the findings of the Digging History Project, look out for features in our seasonal Newsletters!