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Crew members conduct shovel testing to determine where to establish an excavation unit. This photo shows how overgrown and undeveloped Louis Armstrong Park was in the 1970s following the city's destruction of the 9 residential blocks that formerly…

A closeup photograph of the wooden planks that lined the Fort St. Ferdinand moat. This moat connected each of the five forts surrounding New Orleans.

Excavators work to pump out the water that had accumulated in the trench. The wooden planks on the left side of this trench are remains of Fort St. Ferdinand. The ditch, or moat, that surrounded the city was lined with these planks. This excavation…

The excavation crew uses a backhoe to dig excavation trenches to look for evidence of Fort St. Ferdinand.

Perseverance Lodge, the oldest Masonic temple in Louisiana, still stands today in Louis Armstrong Park.

An important development related to the Oak Island archaeology projects was the creation in 1982 of the 'Indian Youth Project'. That year, Richard Shenkel and Pete Gregory launched a project with the Inter-Tribal Council of Louisiana and the…

Excavations at Little Oak showed greater evidence of year-round habitation, including the remains of at least two different structures, but also a shorter period of use. The site contained dense quantities of pottery and faunal remains that…

Field excavations in progress at Oak Island sites.

Excavating at the Oak Island sites was not easy. Supposedly the 1930s excavations were called off prematurely because of the difficult field conditions. The sites are difficult to reach, especially in wet weather, and heat, water, mosquitoes,…

Interspersed within shell middens are numerous other types of material remains: bits of pottery, stone and bone tools, items of adornment, animal bones discarded from meals, and even human burials. Some shell middens also contain distinct living…