The snapshot of the Continental Army's encampment at Valley Forge is a picture deduced from pieces of pottery, bone, and a military belt buckle.

Gen. George Washington plots maneuvers inside a log-cabin officers dining room. A table is set with fine china and a hand-painted teapot. Dinner is ham steak and whiskey.

The scene more than 230 years ago, when 12,000 soldiers and their leader prepared to face the British, is the subject of an archaeological dig this summer at Valley Forge National Historical Park.

"This isn't somebody's opinion. This is not some historian," said David Orr, a professor of anthropology at Temple University and an archaeological consultant at the park. "This is what they actually touched and used. This is what these soldiers are giving to us."

The two-part public archaeology project is an effort by park officials not only to uncover history, but also to make the artifacts accessible to visitors.

The first phase is the seven-week dig near Washington's Headquarters, the stone house where Washington lived during the encampment from December 1777 to June 1778. The second is a five-week project near Washington Memorial Chapel, a church founded in 1903 that sits adjacent to the place where a brigade of the Continental Army encamped.

Archaeology is one of the most direct experiences you can have, said Deirdre Gibson, chief of planning and resource management at Valley Forge. "You are holding things that someone held [more than 200] years ago."

Volunteers from the area work under the supervision of project archaeologists. Park visitors get a chance to see the findings close up and chat with researchers about their significance. The budget for the program is $33,000, the salaries for three archaeologists during the project.

So far, the team at Washington's Headquarters has found such artifacts as a military belt buckle, a knife handle, fragments of bowls and dishes, pig bones, a French gun flint, and an oyster shell - all dating to the time of the Continental Army's encampment.

Perhaps the most exciting find is a piece of hand-painted porcelain with the depiction of a pagoda and a woman wearing Asian garb. The piece is probably from a teapot, said Joe Blondino, field director for the project.

"We may be able to show that it was an object that belonged to Washington himself," Blondino said. The fragment is the kind of fine china that would have been used by the army's officers and also an object that Martha Washington could have brought to the encampment when she joined her husband in February 1778, Blondino said.

In 1778, the future first lady wrote a letter to playwright Mercy Otis Warren telling her that George Washington had built a hut specifically for dining at the encampment.

Archaeologists haven't found structural proof of the building, but most of the artifacts have been found in two trash pits discovered on the site. The pits would most certainly have been near the dining hut, Blondino said.

The project this summer is the third archaeological dig at the headquarters site since the 1970s and the first since 1986. That year, artifacts were found by accident. The park was in the midst of stormwater-management construction when heavy machinery unearthed artifacts. Orr, then the park's staff archaeologist, had three days in December to collect what he could. The site was then sealed. Orr vowed to one day return to the project. Last year, he sent a proposal to park officials.

The Washington's Headquarters dig will continue through Saturday. The lab-assessment portion of the project will be open to visitors through Aug. 29. The dig at Washington Memorial Chapel begins today and continues to Aug. 14, the third consecutive summer dig at the chapel site. So far, military buttons, a hearth, and gambling die have been found there, said archaeologist Carin Bloom, who will lead a field school for Temple University students as part of the project.

Once collected, artifacts are cleaned, catalogued, researched, and then become the subject of technical papers and scholarly studies. One day, they will be on display at the park.

Dan Brooker of Phoenixville and his 7-year-old son, Patrick, are among the 70 area residents who are volunteering on the projects. Brooker, who works in security, has sifted through soil, looking for anything noteworthy. He has found pieces of ceramics, animal bones, shells, and pewter.

The American Revolution "was a time of such dynamic ideas," Brooker said. "It's always fascinating when you get a chance to interact with history."

For information on visiting the archaeological digs, go to http://go.philly.com/forge

Contact staff writer Kristin E. Holmes at 610-313-8211 or kholmes@phillynews.com.