This site was discovered during the Birchtown Archaeological Survey in 1993. It was dated to the period of the Black Loyalist settlers (1783-1791) based on the artifacts retrieved, however no structural remains were found other than the apparent cellar depression. A field school, run by Saint Mary's University in 1994, concentrated on excavating and interpreting this site. It proved to be a very valuable site as one of the initial "pit houses" of the settlers. In the 1930s, Clara Dennis interviewed Birchtown resident John Farmer, a descendent of Jupiter and Venus Farmer, two of the original settlers. He explained that many Black Loyalists (who had not been supplied with lumber or nails like their White Loyalist neighbours) had simply dug a hole in the ground and placed a peaked roof over it as immediate shelter from the weather and the approaching winter. AkDi-12 is an example of one such dwelling. The Nova Scotia Museum website contains the results of the 1994 field school investigations, with an excellent examination of AkDi-12.
AkDi-12, looking northeast	AkDi-12, looking south
AkDi-12, looking west-northwest	10 year-old John Niven in AkDi-12, looking north