Eli Orrvar is an archeology graduate student at Northern Illinois University. He’s been leading the excavation at the Glidden Homestead barn in DeKalb since March.
Joseph Glidden is known for inventing barbed wire in the late 19th century.
Orrvar says he's found a variety of artifacts throughout the barn, like a horseshoe, a pocket knife, and a lot of different animal bones.
He says the digging goes about four feet beneath the ground, and the barn is separated into sections.
Artifacts are collected carefully in each sub-layer of the soil. Orrvar says each section yields at least 50 findings.
He says artifacts are placed in bags and organized into different categories for analysis.
Orrvar says he's examining how the findings explain what other projects may have taken place at the barn.
"I want to know why he built a brick barn. It's kind of peculiar; you typically have wooden barns. And I want to know what all the barn was used for besides barbed wire," Orrvar said.
The excavation is expected to be finished next month.
Orrvar says the Glidden Homestead Board will decide whether to extend the excavation -- or to pursue plans of refurbishing the barn into a museum-like setting.
