Background:
An excavation was done in the Hector Backbone of the now Finger Lakes
National Forest in New York. The SUNY Brockport field school's goal
for this project was to identify and excavate several farmstead that
were bought out by the United States and the area was subsequently
demolished and trees were planted throughout.
Site in question:
One of the sites located was that of the Bell family who immigrated
from Ireland and bought the lot in 1853. Through archival research it
seems likely that the house structure (including the cellar) was built
in about 5 years later. The cellar stairs (Feature 1), in contrast to
many other features from this site, were beautifully constructed.
After the bottom step there is a southwest bend that lead to the
cellar vault. The in ital goal of excavating this feature was to
reveal the cellar steps and discover the reason for the elbow shaped
bend at the entranceway. The cellar stairs were excavated however, the
vault itself was not excavated due to time restraints. Unfortunately
by the end of the excavation there was no indication as to why the
entrance was built in an unusual elbow shape.
Problem:
It's been 3 years since the site was excavated. I have been hired by
Dr.Wurst to do site reports for all of the excavations from this
region. I am focusing on the Bell site for my senior thesis. I did not
excavate it nor have I been to the site. The only reference I have are
photographs and field notes. The question that I need an answer to is
why were the stairs built in such a manner? Have any of you seen
similar cellar stair architecture from this time period or have a
suggestion as to why the bend was built?
Including is a link as well as attachments of photographs of the
stairs (whichever you prefer). If any more information or more
photographs are necessary please inform me.
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y35/kristinnicholemunro/cs3.jpghttp://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y35/kristinnicholemunro/cs2.jpghttp://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y35/kristinnicholemunro/cs1.jpg
Thank you all for your time in advance and sorry that my first post
was so long.
Kristin Munro
Anthropology major
SUNY Brockport
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