Archaeologists excavating the site of Saint's Rest, MSU's first dorm, aren't leaving anything to the imagination.
With a little help from geophysicists, archaeologists hope to reveal the location of the residents' most private refuge - the outhouse.
Tom Mann, a geophysical specialist from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, or DEQ, paced the area surrounding the dig site Wednesday morning, carrying a GPS unit and an instrument resembling a long plastic pipe.
The instrument, an electromagnetic conductivity survey device, puts out an electric charge at one end that is recorded through the other.
Mann was gathering data on abnormalities in the soil density, said Lynne Goldstein, chairperson of the anthropology department. If the charge hits materials such as metal or brick underneath the ground, the device records the data, she said.
The data might provide clues to the locations of portions of the dormitory wall or other undocumented structures.
"What we're hoping he finds out here may be something like privies and other outbuildings," Goldstein said.
Because of the danger of damaging existing trees or utility lines, the anthropology class conducting the dig was not allowed to excavate the entire site of the former dorm.
There are no records in the University Archives of outhouses or sheds at Saint's Rest, which burned during a winter break in 1876.
But Burrell Shirey, chief of the geological services unit at DEQ, said there could have been several outhouses constructed while the building was in operation.
Shirey said that if an outhouse were to be discovered, there is a good chance any artifacts tossed into the pit by the dorm's residents would still be intact.
"An outhouse is like a gold mine for an archeologist," he said.
Goldstein said the noninvasive surveying was critical to the overall scope of the project.
"It's very important for us to be able to tie the area we can't excavate to what we're learning," said anthropology Professor Bill Lovis, who is involved with the dig.
The DEQ is surveying free of charge. Shirey said the archaeologists called his office and requested their help.
"I said, 'Sounds like fun,' ... for us, this was easy to fit into our schedule," he said.
The data points Mann collects are matched to coordinates from the GPS unit and will be entered into a computer, Mann said. The computer will process the data into a map, which will then be compared to a map of buried utility lines provided by the Physical Plant.
Any interesting finds will be investigated further using ground penetrating radar, which could happen in several weeks.
The excavation is moving along steadily, said Jodie O'Gorman, an anthropology assistant professor who is coordinating the dig along with Professor Ken Lewis.
"I would say we're making pretty amazing progress for a field school," she said.
In the first week and a half of excavation, students have discovered dozens of artifacts including cut nails, shards of china and a fully intact medicine bottle that appears to date back to the time when the dorm was in operation.
The team has discovered so many bricks that they have scrapped plans to catalog each brick and are instead piling them at the site, said Jill Selke, an anthropology senior at Grand Valley State University.
Selke was sweeping mortar off a section of the dorm's stone foundation - a surprising find.
"We got a really good idea of some of the weird stuff that's been going on in the building," Selke said. "They (the professors) apparently picked some good plots to start with."
