A Peek into the Screen

There are many ways to engage an archaeologist in conversation.  “Have you found gold yet?” is a standard opener.   This summer’s most creative inquiry: “Is it always this glamorous?”  But perhaps the most common question that archaeologists hear…and the easiest way to open a discussion….is “what are you finding?”

Behind the kitchen reconstruction, and far beyond the webcam’s reach, archaeologists are still finding things on the Armoury site!   In early October we began the search for one of James Anderson’s shops … a search that has produced frustratingly little architectural evidence, but a wide array of 18^th century artifacts.  Those artifacts are fairly typical of what we find throughout Williamsburg’s Historic Area.  Most are badly broken; very few have any intrinsic value (so no gold!); and all are important components of the Armoury story.

To give readers a sense of what archaeologists typically find on 18^th century sites, we photographed the artifacts recovered from one layer in a meter-square excavation “unit.”  The image at right shows these artifacts grouped by type in a ¼” mesh screen.  They may not look like much, but they are full of information!  Among the artifacts recovered from this layer are:

Oyster shells.  Many people don’t think of oyster shells as artifacts because they are not made by people.  But oysters aren’t indigenous to Duke of Gloucester Street.  They were brought to this site by hungry people as a food source.  To archaeologists, then, oyster shells are part of the evidence we use to explore what people were eating.  With additional analysis, oyster shells can be made to divulge their place of origin, and even the season of the year in which they were harvested.

Animal bones are another common archaeological find that reveal diet.  The food bones found in this unit are fairly broken up, which makes identifying the animal trickier (though perhaps not for a trained Zooarchaeologist!)   One exception is the tooth on the bottom right of the picture.  Teeth are unusually informative when it comes to determining animal species.  This example appears to be a pig tooth.

Nails (and other iron artifacts) don’t survive well in the ground.  Generally they appear as blobs of rust, with very little definition.  Digging anywhere in the vicinity of a building …and certainly anyplace near a blacksmith shop, is likely to produce a bumper crop of nails.  X-rays may be needed to discover the identity of more unusual iron objects (scissors or blacksmithing tools, for example) which may require extensive conservation efforts to halt and remove corrosion.

Ceramics. Because ceramic styles and decorations changed frequently during the 18^th century, these artifacts are among the most useful dating tool in the archaeologist’s tool kit.  Fragile while whole, and extremely durable once broken, plates, cups, and saucers are plentiful in nearly any archaeological context….even on an Armoury site.  The sample below includes products from England and China, with dates that span the 18^th century.  Careful observers may be able to pick out a fragment of cobalt and manganese-decorated delftware similar to that used at Shield’s tavern today.

Glass. Wine bottle glass, deep green to nearly black in color, makes up a large percentage of Historic Area artifacts.  More than a reflection of colonial vices, this abundance reflects the inexpensive nature of wine bottles, coupled with their fragility.  Once in the ground, green glass often turn iridescent as water-soluble components of the glass leech away.   In addition to bottle glass, the glass in this layer includes clear and flat window glass, and the bottom of a pharmaceutical bottle (at about 2 o’clock in the image).  Viewed in a different way, this one “layer’s worth” of glass may be used to explore questions about food and drink, architecture, and personal health.

Pipestems. Looking like bits of chalk, bits of clay tobacco pipe are familiar components of any 18^th century archaeological assemblage.  Although pipe bowls are far more diagnostic (ie datable) than their stems, it is the stems that are more heavily represented in the ground.  Consequently, archaeologists have worked out ways of using the bore diameters (the hole running through the stem) as a way to date soil layers and features, making pipes more than simple evidence of leisure-time activities.

Wig curler. This layer includes a fragment of a white clay wig curler, which is not necessarily a common artifact.  When whole, this wig curler would have looked something like the drawing below, and would have been used in the 18^th century by well-coiffed gentlemen.

As excavation continues at the Armoury, these artifacts will be sent to the archaeological laboratory where they will be washed, sorted, cataloged, counted, mended, and analyzed with tens of thousands of other fragments recovered from the site.  Ultimately these bits of evidence may provide new perspectives on James Anderson’s business, and the lives of those employed there.

Contributed by Meredith Poole, Staff Archaeologist.