Archaeology.
In Provo.
Yes, please!
Believe it or not, there is an actual dig going on right next to NuSkin on Center Street. The Church is digging up the old, original Stake building that was used before the new Tabernacle was erected. The Church News had a blurb about it and my friend MaryAnne called them to get us in for a walk through.
Here are some pics:
This is the dig looking from southwest corner to the northeast corner. You can see some BYU student volunteers doing some sifting in the corner. They are finding things like buttons, straight pins, rusty nails, etc. When I talked to them, they thought that because the building was also used as a school at the time, that this may be where small bits and pieces would fall through the floorboards while working on projects.
This is a photo of the building that once stood here and was later demolished to make way for the new Tabernacle that stands today. The dig has recovered that small round window casing.
In this display case, there are remnants of slates in the center and some slate pencils on the upper right. Lower right are coins. Upper left in the case are tiny toys about the size of a quarter as well as a small porcelain doll face. Lower left are several buttons they've found.
This display case has shards of a dish in the lower left corner. At the center left are some rusted items such as a spike and an ornamental piece of some kind. Upper left is a lid to a crockery pot. Just to the right of the spike is a portion of an old light bulb. The building had been electrified shortly before being demolished. The items on the right are easy to identify (bottle, place, horseshoe) but what was interesting about the place (saucer, really) is that it was found in two places. The brown part was burned in a fire, the white half was not.
Here's a view of the new Tabernacle today (after the fire that gutted it recently), looking from northwest to the northeast corner. You can see the braces holding the structure in place. The archaeologist said that the temple interior will be built as a stand alone structure inside these walls and once finished, they will secure the inside building to the walls.
Oh, and see the vehicle in the picture there? Under that - get this - is the old well that was covered up back in the day. Hopefully, they will excavate that too and I would be so interested to see what they find down there!
Here's another shot of the dig with the buildings on Center Street in the background. You can see how thick the stone walls were. They told us the interior walls were plastered and some of the plaster was even done in colors (green, red, etc.). The floors would have been wood planks and some of the wood thresholds have been uncovered but the wood is shredded from decay.
This is the view looking from north toward the south. The poster on the fence has the photo of the old Stake House. Behind the poster is the dig. Then behind the dig is the new Tabernacle that is being converted into a Temple.
Again, looking from Center Street southward you can see the poster, the dig, and the Tabernacle. The sad thing is, they are going to have to hurry and finish digging what they can by March 31st because the whole thing will then be filled back in to get ready for the ground-breaking ceremony for the new Temple construction to begin on the Tabernacle structure. Shame they can't leave it uncovered and use it to attract visitors.
This is one of the spires on the Tabernacle that fell during the fire. They may be able to refit it when the restructuring is done in the future.
Anyway, it was fascinating to be able to walk all around the dig, ask questions, look at artifacts, and feel a part of history. Very few human beings will have this chance. I'm a lucky one.
Archaeology Nerd. Yep yep.
