Excavating Beekman	January 18, 2008
by Courtney Scott

Area 4. Bulkhead (Intersection of Beekman Street and Water Street)

The intersection of Beekman and Water Streets (Chrysalis Archaeological Consultants)

"Excavating at the intersection of Beekman and Water Street was like digging through a spider-web of utility lines," says Loorya. It was clear that this area had been heavily disturbed throughout the past century.

Despite this, approximately ten feet below the street, workers found four timbers laid out in a crosshatch pattern. Excavating to document the timbers prior to their removal uncovered a series of timbers that extended 16.5 feet below surface.

Water entering excavation trench during removal of timbers, left, and wooden pier remains, right (Chrysalis Archaeological Consultants)

Several of the timbers were directly beneath the early twentieth-century sewer line making it difficult to remove them intact. An attempt was made to date the logs but the tree was too young when it was felled to be accurately dated through dendrochronology. Documentary research identified an ad placed by Robert Crommelin in the last quarter of the eighteenth century seeking yellow pine logs for the construction of a bulkhead at Crane Wharf. It was concluded that the logs uncovered during excavation were part of the cribbing for Crane's Wharf.

Construction and utility installations in the nineteenth and twentieth century destroyed any stratigraphy here. Even so, late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century artifacts were recovered. Found among them was a 1960s Pepsi-Cola bottle--evidence of an earlier work episode. Will future workers in the area find a twenty-first century Pepsi-Cola bottle left by workers on this project?

No stratigraphy? A Pepsi bottle will do the job! (Chrysalis Archaeological Consultants)

© 2008 by the Archaeological Institute of America
www.archaeology.org/online/features/beekman/area4.html

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