Public Archaeology at 810 Royal Street
During the University of New Orleans field schools conducted at 810 Royal Street, students uncovered numerous building features dating to different eras of development at the site, from the wall of a French post-in-ground structure from the 1720s-1730s to the foundations of the ca. 1801 building and its outbuildings. In addition, students investigated a brick-lined privy shaft, which had been superimposed on a late-eighteenth-century cesspit. Hundreds of visitors passed by the site every day, giving students and archaeologists a valuable opportunity to speak with the public about the city’s history. The site now regularly features in French Quarter tours.
Doing an archaeological excavation in such a highly visible location meant that there were constantly people observing the crew at work. On weekends, there would sometimes be so many observers at the fence at the street frontage that the sidewalk would be blocked; with the fence at the front of the lot, students sometimes said that it felt like being on display in a zoo.
The project provided many opportunities for outreach, like when groups came from the nearby Homer Plessy Community School to visit…
But there were some unwelcome visitors too… Students were surprised to find this water snake waiting in one of the open excavation units one morning; not what one typically expects in an urban archaeology project!