Dig at Colonial Battleground Turns Up Artifacts

An archaeological dig at a Colonial military site in the southern Adirondacks has turned up thousands of artifacts, from butchered animal bones to uniform buttons, along with a lime kiln used to make mortar for a British fort that was never completed.

The six-week project at the Lake George Battlefield Park also uncovered a section of a stone foundation and brick floor of a small building likely constructed alongside a barracks in 1759, during the French and Indian War.

“That’s the sort of clear-cut structure archaeologists love to see,” said David Starbuck, the lead archaeologist.

Lake George was the scene of heavy military activity over a 25-year span beginning with the start of the French and Indian War in 1755 and running through the end of the American Revolution. Thousands of American and British soldiers and Indian warriors passed through the forts, and many of them left stuff behind in heaps at their encampments.

This article appeared in print on page 4 of the September 2nd, 2014 edition of Hamodia.