The Munsell site is a fictional historic site created by the ROM, and located in Toronto. Let's assume the original Munsell home is still standing. Historic research from primary sources, (records written when the Munsell family were still living on the site) show that the house was built in 1850. A carriage house, a garage-like building for the Munsell family's horses and carriage, and a large wooden barn with a stone foundation once stood on the property. Mr. Munsell was a miller. He would grind his neighbours' wheat and corn into flour. Although the original Munsell homestead - including the mill property - was much larger than the property surrounding the house today, we are not able to dig around the mill. Our licence only includes the land within the modern day property lines. While we dig the site, we are hoping to find the remains of the old carriage house and barn. Since the house was constructed before indoor plumbing, we also hope to find the old privy pit - a small building sometimes called an outhouse. This is about the size of a washroom stall, and serves the same purpose.
Our exercise takes place in the lab after the digging is finished. It's your job to look at the artifacts found in the field and analyze them for information that will help to piece together or reconstruct the site puzzle. The head Archaeologist has left you a unit profile (a drawing of one of the walls inside the square the artifacts came from) to look at while you are doing your analysis. If you like, you can see the unit profile before you look at the artifacts.
Layer 1 = Sod and topsoil layer
Layer 2 = Cobblestone walkway
Layer 3 = Mixed occupation and fill layer
Layer 4 = Fill from the top part of the privy, thrown into level off the hole
Layer 4 = Fill from the top part of the privy, thrown into level off the hole
Layer 5 = The privy pit
