Excavations at Thurgood Marshall School
Why were archaeologists at Thurgood Marshall School? Why were they excavating under a school yard? The Thurgood Marshall School at 4621 Canal Street in New Orleans was seriously damaged by Hurricane Katrina. FEMA funded the repairs from the Hurricane Katrina damaged Thurgood Marshall School, and, like all federal agencies, ensures that preservation values are considered in federal agency planning and decisions. FEMA-staffed archaeologists and preservationists identify areas where the work could affect historic properties. Some of those properties are below ground and only discoverable through the practice of archaeology. Archaeologists can tell the stories of the people who are excluded from the written record. Facts about the lives of people are discoverable in what they leave behind.
Through historic records research, FEMA knew that before Thurgood Marshall school was built, there was an earlier school on this block from ca. 1884-1918. This school occupied repurposed grand mansion built in the 1800s. The photo on the above from the late 1800s is on approximately the same location as today’s Thurgood Marshall School building. Early repairs in the modern school yard along Iberville Street uncovered the undisturbed remains of the people who lived and learned here. Before the repairs began in earnest, FEMA hired Goodwin and Associates to complete an intensive archaeological investigation at Thurgood Marshall school.
Archaeologists used historic maps, census records, and other documentation to plan their excavations. Maps showing historic homes, backhouses, sheds, and privies (outhouses) were overlaid on satellite images and used to plan where to focus their excavations to yield the most information within the school yard. In this photo, an archaeologist directed a mechanical excavator to expose the historic brick surface that was then cleaned by hand. The archaeologist is mapping this feature to plan the careful and deliberate placement of archaeological test units.
Frequent heavy rains challenged the archaeologists’ controlled, systematic excavations. Thunderstorms interrupted fieldwork. The excavations flooded repeatedly. Archaeologists controlled their work by bailing and carefully pumping the water from their excavation units. After pumping and bailing, the units needed several hours to dry in the sun before excavation could continue. Sometimes the rain washed in sediment, however none of the precisely dug unit walls caved in from flooding and the investigation proceeded.
Archaeologists Bailing Water from Excavations at Thurgood Marshall School. Courtesy of Goodwin and Associates.
Archaeologists carefully control their excavations. Almost more important than the artifacts are the relationship between artifacts. Archaeologists pay attention to where each artifact came from, the soil or material around it, and how it is arranged in relation to other artifacts, soils, and materials.
In the lab, archaeologists analyzed thousands of artifacts excavated from Thurgood Marshall. Archaeologists are specialists in identifying the origin and use of glass, wood, ceramic, bone, metal, and other artifacts. They solved many mysteries such as why there were hundreds of crushed and burned artifacts. Archaeologists at Thurgood Marshall were able to uncover the stories of past lives at that site. We now know more about yellow fever emergency hospitals and the life of Hannah Ford, the school caretaker.
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