The remains of an unfinished military fort were dug up at an 18th century military site by volunteers and students during the six-week Archaeology Field School sponsored by the State University of New York at Adirondack.
The stone walls of the unfinished fort, along with other artifacts, were discovered at the Lake George Battlefield Park in Lake George, during the archaeological dig that started on July 6 and ended on Friday, Aug. 14.
According to archaeologist Dr. David Starbuck, who supervised the dig, the intact stone walls that were buried in a bastion of Fort George make up the most important find in the excavation. Starbuck has extensive experience in the excavation of military sites specifically of the 18th century.
British and Colonial American soldiers once occupied the area where the stone walls were dug up, during the French and Indian War that lasted for almost a decade some 250 years ago.
In 1759, Jeffery Amherst, the British forces commander in North America, ordered the building of a large fort near a lake where two previous battles took place.
The construction of the fort was halted in the summer of the same year, due to the British capture of the French Fort at Ticonderoga. Just a corner bastion and an inner stone construction were completed.
After the war ended four years later in 1763, the unfinished fort began to deteriorate. When the Revolutionary War began, the Americans occupied the bastion. In 1777, the British captured Fort George but were only able to hold on to it right before the year ended because of their defeat in Saratoga. They captured the bastion again in 1780.
Now, what is left of the bastion is a U-shaped ruin covered in grass and an interior that slopes upward from the U's open end. Sandbags were used to line the stone walls in order to protect the exposed ruins.
Other artifacts that were unearthed from the university-sponsored archaeological dig at the 35-acre park were musket balls, pottery pieces and gun flints.
Photo: Sadat Shami | Flickr
