Mount Vernon Archaeology in Action!
As the Mount Vernon Restoration Department concludes the third and final year of excavation in the Upper Garden, they have made a number of interesting discoveries. The archaeologists are looking for the original planting beds and pathways from 1799, the final year of George Washington’s life. The historical record has descriptions and an overview of the gardens, but not enough to reconstruct it accurately. As the archaeologists dig through layers of dirt, they look for dark brown rectangular stains in the dirt, which would indicate the location of an original planting bed. Once they find a good sample of the layout, the gardeners will reconstruct the gardens to its 1799 form. The holes that you see in the picture indicate where large ro
ots have decomposed over time. No garden tools besides flower pot shards have been found, but archaeologists are finding refuse from the inhabitants of Mount Vernon.
