The Story of Murfreesborough as Told in the Old City Cemetery
On-Line Exhibition Catalog
September 13-November 29, 2003
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| Two Centuries of Hallowed Ground
The Story of Murfreesborough as Told in the Old City Cemetery On-Line Exhibition Catalog
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The story of the archaeological project conducted in June and July of 2003 is documented on another web page:
http://www.mtsu.edu/~kesmith/FPC/index.htmlThis web page was maintained on a daily basis during the project.
Learning About Archaeology
A portion of the exhibit focuses on student training in archaeological methods and techniques. Photographs and tools illustrate the scientific methods of modern archaeological research.
What Kinds of Artifacts were Discovered?
Excavations at the church recovered more than 100,000 artifacts – with the vast majority relating to the architecture of the church (nails, window glass, plaster, and bricks). Since the project goals were primarily to locate and record basic architectural information, we did not focus a lot of effort on the interior of the church. As sacred spaces with special purposes, church buildings often do not yield very many objects or artifacts beyond architecture. However, small objects lost by members of the congregation probably slipped through the floorboards and await future discovery. The interior of the church remains deeply covered with brick rubble – in most places over three feet of brick and plaster cover the original ground surface below the church. This “time capsule” is well protected by this “cap” of rubble for future excavators.
In the case of the First Presbyterian Church, however, the building was also extensively used by another group of people – soldiers. This specialized but more residential use of the building left a fairly large quantity of information about the daily lives of soldiers in the Civil War. Virtually all of the artifacts “mixed” in the thick rubble layer can be attributed to items discarded or lost during the Civil War. Our analysis of artifacts in not yet complete, but the artifacts in this case show some of the objects recovered from 1864 contexts (pending reinterpretation as the laboratory cataloguing and analysis proceeds).
While analysis of the artifacts proceeds in the laboratory at Middle Tennessee State University, a number of artifacts are included in the exhibition -- ranging from bricks, nails, and window glass to chamberpots, doorknobs, and brass tacks. Artifacts from the Civil War era are also included, including the ubiquitous bullets and percussion caps.
Also included are some fragments of tombstones that were mixed amongst the rubble of the church destruction -- indirect support for the assertions that tombstones were damaged during the use of the church by two armies.
The artifacts remain the property of the City of Murfreesboro.