A new exhibit in Rhode Island Hall, running through Commencement, displays this semester’s discoveries from ARCH1900, a multiyear excavation of the Quiet Green, site of the first President’s House (1770-1840).

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — This semester's “Archaeology of College Hill” class has just wrapped up several weeks of excavation on the Front Green and analysis of their findings. The class did its digging to the south of last year’s trenches, aiming to locate materials associated with with the former University president’s home and a footpath that ran beside it.

Students spent nine classes excavating and used the last month to analyze and clean their finds in the lab.

While students did not find direct evidence of the house’s foundation, they did uncover a layer of materials contemporary to the life of the house in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, including remnants of porcelain teacups and a punch bowl, both Chinese imports; a hand-painted pearlware teapot; more utilitarian ceramic vessels; and other objects like a bronze gaming token.

Other found objects included an antique camera piece, bottle tops, aluminum can pull tabs, dorm room keys, and a smattering of coins dated throughout the 20th and late 19th centuries.

A new exhibit in Rhode Island Hall chronicles the class’s findings over the last three years. It opened Monday, Dec. 8, 2014, and will be on display in the Rhode Island Hall basement for the remainder of the 2014-15 academic year.