The earliest architectural structure ever identified in New Orleans, a ca. 1717-1726 simple hut, predates the streetgrid and appears to be a structure associated with the pioneer land-clearing days.

The highest percentage of Native American material culture ever found on a colonial era site in New Orleans. Particularly noteworthy is a red-painted pottery newly nicknamed “New Orleans Red.” These ceramics as well as hide scrapers and associated wild animal food remains suggest that Indians were much more involved in the founding of New Orleans than the archival record allows.

Several excavation units revealed the original street surface, ditch, and banquette (sidewalk) of Orleans Street (ca. 1788-1830s) which cut through the space before it was converted to a public garden. This is the first time the old ditch and banquette architecture has been exposed and investigated archaeologically. The ditch was full of the debris and lost items of early New Orleanians, with great potential to inform us about the conditions of daily life in the city, from clothing habits to health and diet. 2009 excavations confirmed this identification and more firmly dated the road's development in this square following the city's devastating fire in 1788.

Ecavations also uncovered numerous small items associated with religious, recreational, and economic activities that took place on the site. Examples include:

• A zinc-metal crucifix possibly associated with Pere Antoine (2008) and two more crucifixes in 2009, votive statuary, religious medallions, children's toys, coins, beads and evidence of past barbeques and picnics speak to the special place this garden area had in the religious and recreational lives of New Orleanians.
• One of the most spectacular small finds from 2009 is a lead baling seal used to seal a shipment of cloth from Lille France. On one side the words, "Fermé du Roi [Sealed by the king] 10 Nov 1752" are visible, on the other "Lille France 1752".

In the 2009 excavators discovered several campfire rings rich with early French colonial and native American materials. The evidence strongly suggests that this undeveloped space was used by Native Americans or coureurs de bois during market or diplomatic visits, accounting for the dense scatter of native materials across the site.

2009 excavations also uncovered structures associated with two townhouses that bordered the site ca. 1780-1830, with artifactual evidence of daily life and diet.

Overall, St. Antoine's Garden has produced that largest and most diverse colonial era ceramic collection from a New Orleans area site, which will serve as an important resource to researchers for years to come.

Upon returning from the field, work has focused on washing, bagging, and sorting all artifacts and preparing the zooarchaeological and archaeobotanical samples for analysis by our collaborators Susan deFrance at the University of Florida and Kristen Gremillion at The Ohio State University.

The next stage of analysis in the Chicago lab has been the identification and analysis of diagnostic cultural (non-ecological) artifacts which as of September 2010 is 80% complete. The 2008 season produced 28,932 cultural artifacts while the 2009 season produced an estimated 38,500 due to even richer deposits and a new waterscreening method. Students enrolled in Prof. Dawdy's laboratory practicum course in 2010-2011 will be instrumental in completing the identifications and preparing the collection for curation.

Students, consultants, and volunteers devoted over 5,000 person-hours to the archaeology of St. Antoine's Garden in the 2009-2010. Thank you one and all!

The first volume of the field report for the 2008 season was completed in January and is available upon request. It reports the results of field excavations and archaeobotanical analysis to inform the garden's redesign.