Cathedral dig yields finds from 1700s New Orleans

[KamaAina]

Reason #81,376 why NOLA's worth saving: How many U.S. cities are old enough that there are archaeological digs in the middle of them? I mean, really, how cool is that?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080716/ap_on_re_us/cathedral_dig

The first archaeological dig at one of the nation's oldest cathedrals has turned up a mix of new finds in the heart of the French Quarter. Discoveries behind St. Louis Cathedral include a small silver crucifix from the 1770s or 1780s and traces of previously unknown buildings dating back to around the city's founding in 1718.

The crucifix might have belonged to Pere Antoine, a Capuchin monk who was rector of the cathedral which dominates Jackson Square, lead archaeologist Shannon Lee Dawdy told The Associated Press on Tuesday....

Dawdy said the most significant find is probably the foundation of a hut where archaeologists uncovered a mixture of French artifacts from the early 1700s and fragments of Native American pottery, some painted red and others tempered with crushed shells....

"This site is by far the richest and most interesting one I have worked on yet in New Orleans and the excellent preservation of the frontier phase of the city's founding makes it the `Jamestown' of the Lower Mississippi Valley," she wrote in her e-mail.

[bluedigger]

1. They had good luck!

I visited their open house and it was a very small project with probably no more than 12 square meters or so investigated. Of course, as you point out, New Orleans and The French Quarter particularly are fertile grounds for archaeology. It helps to find open space that hasn't been developed on for a couple of hundred years, like the St. Louis Cathedral's back yard garden. Most American cities have interesting archaeology, though. I've dug in Philadelphia, Detroit, DC, Houston, Des Moines, and San Juan PR, and enjoyed the work in each!

[Auggie]

2. Did they find anything belonging to John McCain?

[KamaAina]

3. No.

McCain never visited the city until that combination fundraiser/photo op at the WWII museum a few months ago.

The War of 1812 museum was closed for renovations...

[MorningGlow]

4. Damn, I love that city

I wonder what all the kitties in the garden thought of the "invasion"! I used to love to watch them come and go through the fence while I sat sipping chardonnay at the bar on Pirate's Alley. Sigh. I need to get back there.

[Taverner]

5. Did they find Lestat's Crypt?

[KamaAina]

6. I believe that would be Uptown

in Lafayette Cemetery. :P