Student Joanne DeMaio at New Harmony, IN

Joanne ('11) writes about her experiences at the New Harmony excavations this summer:

I helped excavate the site of the Harmonist potter, Christoph Weber, in New Harmony. Weber moved to New Harmony with the rest of the Harmonists in 1814; his son later left the Harmonist society and became a potter himself in Illinois. One of the goals of this season was to find the kiln, and we began by digging in the backyard of a house where one of the old maps indicated the location of the Harmonist kiln. During the first couple of weeks of the dig, we didn't find much other than lots and lots of pottery, kiln furniture, and other kiln-related objects. In week three, we uncovered something that looked to be a wall. We followed the wall through four 1x1 meter units, until we lost it. Confused, we dug deeper and revealed a U-shaped structure that we believe to have been the fire box of the kiln.

More information about this project can be found on the homepage of Professor Michael Strezewski of the University of Southern Indiana.