Digging the Privy of Parkhurst

“There’s only one group allowed to dig Dartmouth at once.” -Anonymous mud-enthusiast

Shoveling sh*t against the tide takes on a whole new meaning at Digging Dartmouth. Every Tuesday and Thursday from 10 am to 2 pm, Professor Jesse Casana and a cast of all your favorite Dartmouth anthropologists root around in a probable privy just south of the old Parkhurst house for the privilege of examining history as part of Anthropology 5: Introduction to Archaeology. Nails, pottery, pipe-stems, and dirt. Privies, aside from being places to excrete waste, were places to toss trash as well! In sifting through the layers of muddy, former-shit-and-garbage, a volunteer is able to fathom the depths of history beneath the ground our very feet tread. The dig is open to anyone, after all, it doesn’t take a degree to wield a shovel. The helpful students and professors will graciously guide the ignorant through the intricate processes involved in recording the rich history of Dartmouth. Although eternity’s press weighs heavy on our backs, trowels and shovels lighten the load, and many hands make light work. The more people speak of it, the less time can erode it. Grab a brush, grab a bucket, grab a measure, history yearns to be explored and explained, if only we might uncover it.  

The Dartmouth Anthropology students were recalcitrant at best, many simply refusing to give interviews. ”It was a great experience, I just don’t want to do an interview about it,” said one anonymous Dartmouth anthropologist. In fact, this writer went to the dig to shovel and sift dirt. It was a pleasure to work in the sun and do something meaningful with excavation. Among the most intriguing items found in the former privy were bits of pottery, old and rusted nails, and a fair amount of glass. This demonstrates the double function of the 19th century privy as both a garbage dump and for the other kind too. Sections of foundation were beginning to be uncovered, as well as an entire pipestem. Participating felt good, but scheduling and forgetfulness prevented this author from volunteering again. 

 Still it was troubling that the students were unable to speak to any great extent on the dig. What new discoveries have been made in the weeks since this writer last volunteered? Thinking outside the box and suspending belief, the crew digging at the old Parkhurst house never denied the existence of proto-Solutrean, post-Atlantean civilization on campus.  Therefore, it cannot be conclusively proven that the entirety of campus is not some geomagnetically significant summerhome for some billionaires from Alpha Draconis. Due to students being unavailable for questioning, no answers were forthcoming from those digging, and thus we cannot disprove the possibility of the presence of tyrannical space-lizards having previously visited -or even having established- campus.

In reality, it is rather mundane, if pleasant. The entirety of the process revolves around digging, sifting, and searching for bricks and pottery shards, invigorating for the feebleminded and the elderly, but searching through somebody else’s shit is the only surefire way to reclaim history. 

The few people who were willing to speak on the project made it clear they were troubled to impart their experience with the narrator. The kindest words this writer received was, “Sorry bro, I’ll talk to you about it tomorrow.” No further response was elicited in later requests for an interview from this individual.

How inspiring that the best and the brightest in the discipline are enthusiastically engaged in their work. Upon digging with the average anthropology student, this author realized how many of these soon-to-be archaeologists have never held a shovel before – much less a trowel. Watching the ineffectual picking at the ground was something akin to paint drying. When asked to dig, this writer sent dirt flying. Without procedure, perhaps some pottery was damaged, but with no large objects, the work in leveling out the bottom of the pit was facilitated in a short amount of time. The sifting dirt and the careful clearing with brushes and a pail may seem like a boring task, but the boldest hearts will always continue to ply the earth for her secrets. 

Upon further investigation of the closed mouth nature of the dig, the students, deeply indoctrinated, pointed to Professor Casana as the only available spokesperson for the dig, due to its official nature. Fortunately for the article, the author has connections. 

According to perhaps the only conversational Dartmouth Anthropology student, one of the most interesting things he saw was an -almost- entirely intact bottle with writing identifying it as being from Hanover. This was featured on the Digging Dartmouth Instagram. The most enjoyable task, to him, was sieving dirt to discover nails, glass, and pottery which might then be reconstituted into its previous form like the world’s most difficult scatter-puzzle. 

The dig will continue into the summer but is taking brief recess during graduation week although there may, “be some voluntary dig days to try and get to the bottom of the cellar.” By the end of the excavation, the assumption that the was primarily located in a privy was rebuffed. The most likely occurrence, when the construction workers tore down the original house before the Parkhurst house, “they probably removed the privy and cleaned out what was in it”. Like so many other pieces of archaeology, the contents of the privy are consigned to the rubbish heap of history. No one ever talked to the 1850’s demolitionists about the importance of provenance and provenience, as well as the method of identifying potentially archaeologically significant turds.