Why are they digging that hole?

For the last week, there have been police cars in the parking lot across from our site.  It appeared as if men were digging holes--deep holes.

Today, my curiosity got the best of me.  I walked over on my lunch break and asked what was happening.  Well, it was not bodies they were looking for.  The men were testing the ground with wires and where it was soft, they assumed there were privies left from the many houses that were located in that lot in the 1800s.  I saw one privy that they had excavated--a round brick-lined hole about 12 feet deep.  They had a bin full of medicine bottles, pottery shards, a whisky bottle and a whisky jug.  The whisky bottle had a jagged, broken top or it could have been worth hundreds of dollars they said.  The jug was probably used for home-made brews.

I told the three men who made up my very small afternoon class today that we were taking a field trip.  We walked across the street and learned even more about the work of the amateur archaeologists.  They research sites at the library, get permission from the owner (in this case, the Catholic church) and then sell their finds on Ebay.  It was a great lesson in history and I was glad I was curious!

I still don't know, however, why there have been so many police cars in the parking lot--unless they too are curious!