What's Exciting to an Archaeologist

So someone was still asking me for pictures from Nauvoo so here are a few. First for the most exciting thing I personally found.

Yeah, most people weren't very impressed when I said the most exciting thing I found was rocks. But this was the first solid evidence (at least in my opinion) of what we were looking for: the foundation of the frame home of Samuel H. Smith's home. (Samuel H. Smith is the younger brother of the 1800s American prophet Joseph Smith Jr.). We think this was the west wall.

Here it is more fully excavated. Notice the flat rocks laying on top of flat rocks in a long rectangular schedule.

Here are two pictures of the east wall. We didn't get the chance to fully excavate.

This is probably the third thing I got most excited about. It's an Isaac Hill Brick. Isaac Hill was one of seven brickmakers in Nauvoo in the 1840s. His bricks are unusual because they are concave and have "I HILL" imprinted them. This one was obviously imprinted (we had found one other that was not nearly as visible).

Here is the only other I HILL brick on display in Nauvoo (at least that I know of). Ours is better! At least more legible. It is on the top floor of the Seventies Hall.

This is probably the fourth most awesome find. And the first one that most people could relate too. It is a doll head just to clarify.

I had a lot of fun with these. Pig mandibles. But then again I like bones.

Now here are a few other finds along with things they match. Similar to how I did my Historic Archaeology post from last year. Most people will probably find these artifacts were exciting then my top 3. They are easier to relate too.

This is what I'm pretty sure is a raccoon skull in my palm. In the case below is what is labeled as a cat skull. Similar but a little different. We uncovered most of the raccoon skeleton. Awesome.

Any guesses?

This is my guess. A candle maker.

A doll appendage.

Several doll appendages.

Alright. Sick of pictures yet? Just so you know I did not take all of these pictures. Some of them are from my friend's phone and others are from the Head Archaeologist's camera.