Anthropology students are excavating a 19th-century farmhouse foundation on Penn State forestry lands near Shaver's Creek in Huntingdon County. The dig is part of an archaeology field school requirement for the major. For a story about their work, check Penn State Live at http://live.psu.edu/story/24913

Photo Credit: Greg Grieco

Year Taken: 2007

Students researching the site say the farmhouse belonged to Daniel Massey and his descendents. The house was built in the 1840s and was occupied up into the 1930s, according to Claire Milner, curator and director of exhibits in Penn State's Matson Museum. Students have unearthed the foundation stones and the cellar area.

Photo Credit: Greg Grieco

Year Taken: 2007

Claire Milner, curator and director of exhibits at Penn State's Matson Museum, is directing the dig. This is the second year a student crew has worked on the site. Milner is standing inside a dig site near the house's stone foundation.

Photo Credit: Greg Grieco

Year Taken: 2007

The site plan documents where the students are working and what they are finding in their digs.

Photo Credit: Greg Grieco

Year Taken: 2007

The site plan documents where the students are working and what they are finding in their digs.

Photo Credit: Penn State Department of Public Information

Anthropology student Kayla Bittner found shattered shingles in her dig site.

Photo Credit: Greg Grieco

Year Taken: 2007

Students document the direction and scale of the objects found in relation to foundation stones and bricks.

Photo Credit: Greg Grieco

Year Taken: 2007

Students sift through each bucketful of dirt to prevent missing smaller artifacts.

Photo Credit: Greg Grieco

Year Taken: 2007

Careful use of a trowel and brush reveal a china shard sticking out of the earthen wall.

Photo Credit: Greg Grieco

Year Taken: 2007

These two chunks of charred wood were found in the cellar leading students to speculate about a fire in the house.

Photo Credit: Greg Grieco

Year Taken: 2007

This soil probe is used to take samples from different depths.

Photo Credit: Greg Grieco

Year Taken: 2007

Anthropology students Liz Ruzycki and Sean Dolan are scrupulously exploring their site. Ruzycki scrapes loose soil, sweeps it into a dust pan and fills a bucket headed for the screener. Dolan sorts through the artifacts from the site -- metal, glass and pottery.

Photo Credit: Greg Grieco

Year Taken: 2007

Anthropology student Christen Emery is working near the basement area of the house using a trowel to loosen soil. The cellar had a bedrock floor and students found burned debris in it.

Photo Credit: Greg Grieco

Year Taken: 2007

A student uses an ice pick to loosen soil around a small, fragile artifact. Students have found coins and fragments of household items at the dig.

Photo Credit: Greg Grieco

Year Taken: 2007

Every inch of the dig is documented thoroughly including the depth of foundation stones and the position of artifacts in situ.

Photo Credit: Greg Grieco

Year Taken: 2007

An enormous tree grows out the corner wall of the foundation, its gnarled roots entwined in the foundation stones. Millner speculated that from the tree's position, the inhabitants may have planted it there.

Photo Credit: Greg Grieco

Year Taken: 2007