An open house at Verdmont Museum tomorrow hopes to unravel some of the mysteries of the old house.The Bermuda National Trust (BNT) is holding the event to showcase a recent archaelogical dig.Boston University archaeology professor Brent Fortenberry and volunteers from the BNT are conducting the dig around the cottage adjacent to Verdmont. Part of the cottage used to be a detached kitchen built at the same time as the main house in 1710.“We hope to get a better understanding of how the building developed, as it has clearly gone through several stages,” said Andrew Baylay, chairman of the BNT Archaeological Research Committee. “This will allow us to better understand the lives of those that lived and worked in the old kitchen.”The first part of the dig focused on an area under the cement patio on the eastern side of the cottage.“One of the first questions we had was whether there was a room underneath the patio area,” said Dr Fortenberry who also conducted an excavation at Verdmont in 2007. “We know in the early 20th century there was a lean to and they had horses in this area.”They found only bedrock, indicating the patio area had previously been part of the main house’s original lawn. The second area he looked at was to the south of the cottage. This area reaped more reward for Dr Fortenberry.“We are trying to understand how this building has evolved, as it is one of the best surviving intact detached kitchens from the 18th century in Bermuda,” said Dr Fortenberry. “We didn’t understand what was on the southern side of the building. We excavated down about five feet. We determined that at one time this area was the buttery for the house, probably in the late 18th century. It was probably one-and-a-half storeys high.”The buttery was a place to store alcohol and dry goods. It was built low to the ground or into the ground with a domed roof to keep the inside of the building cool. Dr Fortenberry found several artefacts at the bottom of the hole including tin-glazed earthenware which was used between 1600 and 1800.“This was a good diagnostic ceramic to tell us when this particular area was inhabited,” said Dr Fortenberry. “These pieces were found under a hole in the wall, where the floor joists would have been. When you find it underneath the floor joists that gives you an indication that the stuff came from the time when the buttery was being used, not after it was destroyed. Everything above [the joist holes] would have been fill from when the area was used as a trash dump in the 19th century.”He has also been excavating in a space under the cottage on the west side. He said this has been extremely hard going. It is a very cramped, dark space with temperatures inside soaring to 100F.“I have been doing the digging in there, passing out the dirt and the volunteers have been sifting it outside,” said Dr Fortenberry. “It is pretty inhospitable in there. We have found not just interesting artefacts from historic times, but also some interesting things from more recent times such as parts of a child’s tea set and marbles. I envision that small children would have played in there. It would have been a great place to have a fort or a playhouse.”Although historians do not yet know for certain, it is likely that slaves once lived in the lower level of the cottage. When the original owner of Verdmont, John Dickinson, died in 1712, he had 14 slaves, many of them associated with his maritime travels.One of the objects found was a broken Freemason’s flask dating to the 19th century. Freemasons are a men’s fraternity that has existed for centuries. The flask has the symbols of the American Freemasons on it which includes an American eagle clutching arrows in its talons.“These flasks would have been manufactured in England and then shipped across the Atlantic,” said Dr Fortenberry. “You would buy this if you were a Freemason and then fill it with your own spirits. They actually found a ton of similar flasks off the Caesar wreck that is on display at the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute right now. We have also found pieces of queensware, probably from a bowl used for eating in the late 18th century.”Tomorrow’s open house takes place from 2pm to 5pm.Useful website: www.bnt.bm