GREENPORT — A number of professionals in the fields of archaeology and history gathered at the Van Hoesen House on Route 66 Thursday to see what some cutting edge archeological tools could tell them about the 270-year-old Dutch domicile and its surroundings.
Miles Capen of the Foerster Group, based in Pennsylvania, brought a magnetometer, which resembles a cyclist’s version of a plow, and is used to detect metallic artifacts, outbuildings and barns.
Underground Imaging Technologies of Latham brought its Terravision II, a contraption pulled by a golf cart and uses ground-penetrating radar to retrieve images of things between three and 12 feet underground.
“It’s an MRI for the ground,” said UIT geologist Max Grade.
The New York State Museum will be digging up the area to the rear of the building, which is toward Route 66, from Aug. 13 to 24. The tools utilized Thursday are meant to target items of interest within the earth in order to limit the amount of digging.
“This was the rear of the house, where you’d expect to find the privy,” said Susan Winchell-Sweeney, UIT project archeologist. “We’re hoping to narrow that down.”
UIT is doing the work pro bono, she said, in collaboration with the New York State Museum, the Van Hoesen Historical Foundation and the New Netherlands Institute.
Brian Yates, one of several representatives of the New York State Office of Historic Preservation on hand, said he was there because it was a good opportunity to see where technology is taking us and how it integrates into archeological research.
“A value we like to see in a remote survey is that it’s non-intrusive,” he said. “With a remote survey you have the opportunity to picture the information before you start digging; or perhaps even avoid digging.”
Tracy Miller and other archeologists from the Albany-based Hartgen Archeological Associates were on the site to check out the new technology.
Also observing the activity was Charles Orser, curator of historical archeology for the New York State Museum. The museum worked at the site last year, he said. The southwestern wall has been showing some stress, caused by water leaks.
The Van Hoesen House Historical Foundation wanted to put in a water pipe to improve the drainage, so Winchell-Sweeney, at that time working with the museum, did some exploration and found some 18th century materials that might help date the house, Orser said.
As a public service, the museum staff dug a trench where the water pipe was laid. “There has never been archeology at this house,” he said. “It’s an important house with a good preservation group.”
At the back of the house, where the digging will take place, there’s a good chance there were outbuildings, a barn, a shed, or an outdoor kitchen.
“The coolest thing,” he said, would be to find evidence of slave quarters. “There hasn’t been a lot of study of Dutch (slaveholders).”
A tree that fell down in a recent storm turned up some artifacts, he said, such as shells, that could be the remnants of food, or that might have been used for paving.
Ed Klingler, who heads up the Van Hoesen House Historical Foundation, said “at this point, a documented study of the house is important. We’ve reshuffled the board, and we’re moving ahead to start minor stabilization work.”
Meanwhile, he said, members are collecting as much information as they can about the site, and looking toward creating a long-range plan.
Klingler said he believes the house may date to the early 1740s, though some authorities place its birth a decade a letter.
Eventually, Dendochronological data may be used, in which the house’s wood is sampled and its rings compared to known data samples to give an accurate date, he said.
Klingler said the Van Hoesen House is one of only half a dozen examples of its type. A brick manor house, it was high-end in its day. It was owned by Jan Van Hoesen, who was the grandson of the patentee, Jan Franz Hoesen, and married Tanneke Whitbeck of Claverack.
“The Van Hoesens owned Hudson,” he said. “This was the eastern edge of their patent. They sold the rights to Claverack Landing that brought the whalers to Hudson.”
The historical investigators hope to add to our knowledge of the lives that inhabited and/or surrounded this house. They have 10 days to look at their latest pieces of evidence, then the digging starts.
“Hopefully by next week we’ll have some rough maps,” Winchell-Sweeney said.
There will be an open house for interested persons to see the excavation in progress Aug. 22.
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