After two weeks of painstakingly sifting through soil, brushing off ancient foundations and even vacuuming up dust, archaeologist Tim Baumann and his assistants filled in three weeks’ worth of excavation with dirt.
But while it may appear the crew is undoing all of its hard work, the site of the Arrow Rock pottery kiln has now been documented, and history preserved to a much greater extent then ever before.
“I know I’m protecting it rather than leaving it open to be destroyed and we’re trying to do everything we can to map it and photograph it,” said Baumann, as archaeological students working with him at the site measured digs and carefully dusted the foundation for photographs on the final day of the dig last Friday.
Baumann and his staff have uncovered over three-quarters of the pottery kiln built by Newton G. Caldwell and his partner, McCumber, in 1854. Caldwell continued to own and operate the kiln until 1863, when Arrow Rock’s population was near its peak of over 1,00
0 people.
Baumann has been digging at the site for the second summer to unearth what might have been made there and how the production of as much as 35,000 pieces of pottery in a single year, as documented in an 1860 Census of Industry for Saline County, might have been carried out.
“The length of time it was in use is not very long, but they were producing a lot when they were here,” said Baumann, adding that the total amount pottery produced in 1860 was likely worth as much as $2,800 at the time.
“This site, it’s part of Arrow Rock’s history and at the same time it’s part of industrial history,” said Baumann. “It’s the first kiln that has ever been uncovered.”
The kiln, measuring about 16 feet in diameter, has an outer and inner brick wall separated by an arcing chamber. The kiln is what is known as a bottleneck, or beehive kiln.
Besides the actual foundation of the kiln and ashes from the wood used to heat the kiln to temperatures as high as 1,200 degrees F, countless shards of pottery have been found on the site.
“There are thousands and thousands, most of the pottery is crockery and jugs for food preparation,” said Baumann. “Of course most of what we find is their mistakes, the stuff that broke.”
According to the 1860 U.S. Census, Caldwell had five employees working at the site and one man and one woman in his household. A Saline County tax book also lists African-American slaves among Caldwell’s holdings, which were valued at $500 in total from 1859 to 1861.
In 1863, the kiln was sold to a second owner, William Price and Co. for $1,000, Price owned and operated the kiln until his death in 1869 when it was obtained by Price’s brother-in-law, William B. Sappington. Sappington operated it until 1875, when the kiln was closed down.
Baumann is an assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. He has conducted a public archaeological dig in Arrow Rock every year since 1996 - including a project to analyze African-Amercans’ struggle for equal rights and freedom from slavery in Missouri for the first time.
Baumann plans to return to Arrow Rock again in 2003 and may excavate at the site of a plantation near the town as well as search Arrow Rock State Park for the location of Sibley’s Fort, a federal trading post established for relations with the Osage Indians in the early 1800s.
“I think they’ll keep bringing me back to Arrow Rock until the day I retire, which is fine,” said Baumann.
