Archaeologists have completed four weeks of digging, concentrated in three
areas.

The first is the defensive ditch along the eastern edge of the original
settlement. It is about 20 feet wide and four feet deep. Almost as soon as the
ditch was dug in the early 1620s it began to be used as a refuse dump.
Ceramics, glass, tobacco pipes, discarded building hardware and unusual objects
such as coins and a gold-plated boot spur found their way into the ditch during
the Calvert period (1621-1637). This year's excavation will open more of the
ditch as it begins to ascend the hill leading to a bastion that anchored the
southeast corner of the defenses. Testing west of the bastion later this summer
will -- hopefully -- reveal the south wall of the defensive palisade.

At Area C, north of the present road and just east of the store that displays a
large set of moose antlers over its door, excavations have revealed the remains
of a cobble pavement apparently dating from the latter part of the 1600s. Below
the cobbles are layers from earlier in the century that extend to more that six
feet below the present ground surface. The lowermost of these layers have
produced ceramics from Portugal, North Devon and Brittany, an assemblage
identical to that from the old beach surface on the south side of the present
paved road.

At the eastern end on Area C a small trench was reopened and excavations
extended downward to reveal another early layer that has, thus far, produced no
tobacco pipes but North Devon, Iberian and German ceramics all probably dating
from the early to mid-seventeenth century.

Excavations will soon be expanded to move westward from the center of the
original settlement where we expect to continue to expose layers dating from
the earliest use of Ferryland harbour by Beothuk Indians, migratory fishermen
from several western European nations as well as evidence of the Calvert, Kirke
and subsequent settlements.