Some DePaul University students are taking part in an archeological dig in Chicago’s Bronzeville neighborhood.

They are digging in the backyard of the Phyllis Wheatley Home for Girls, a house that provided shelter for African-American women in the early 20th Century.

Anna Agbe-Davies is an assistant professor at DePaul and oversees the project.

She says she’s learning about the lifestyles of the women who stayed at the house.

“One of the things that I’m finding most evocative and sort of representative of the women who were running the house and also living in the house is some costume jewelry that reflects their aesthetic sense and their way of asserting their femininity in a time when black women weren’t necessarily treated as full citizens,” Agbe-Davies says.

Children’s toys, coins and even the bones of a dog have been discovered at the site.

The dig will wrap up later this week.