The Blog of Colonial Williamsburg
Wig curlers from the Coffeehouse Site.
This weekend, Colonial Williamsburg kicks off the 75th anniversary of the opening of the Kings Arms Barber and Wig Shop, one of our most popular trade sites. Think that archaeologists have nothing to say about 18th century wigs? Guess again. According to Associate Curator of Archaeological Collections, Kelly Ladd-Kostro:
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The Frenchman’s Map (1782).
Whether one is looking for treasure or the closest Starbucks, most searches are more productive with a map. Colonial Williamsburg’s archaeologists are the first to admit this, which is why each of our excavations begins by consulting the Frenchman’s Map….
Staff, Interns, and Volunteers gather to scrub oyster shells. Who says we don’t know how to have fun?
Last week we gathered together staff, interns, and volunteers here at CW’s Environmental Archaeology Lab to begin tackling the long process of cleaning, sorting, and analyzing more than 1,900 oyster shells recovered just from a single layer in the early 18th century saw pit uncovered during this summer’s Wren Yard excavation on the College of William and Mary campus. Each shell was sorted by side (left and right shells can be identified by the shape of the hinge-a live oyster has one left and one right shell), scrubbed with a tooth brush to remove loose dirt, and sprayed with clean water to wash off any lingering sediment that may obscure fine details on the shell. The field crew was kind enough to separate the oyster shells from other artifacts as they were excavating so we could wash them all in one go. You can imagine our excitement when they filled up 13 five-gallon buckets in the space of a few days. This is great news here in the Environmental Arch Lab, because we’re a little crazy for oysters right now!…
The Wren Yard Site (Photo credit: Willie Grahan)
Monday marked an important day in our archaeological calendar.
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The Wren Yard Site from far above. Photo credit: Willie Graham.
Early this summer we hinted about another excavation taking place simultaneously with the Bray School project. This week we are finishing that excavation. Since mid-May Colonial Williamsburg’s archaeologists have been exposing the foundation of an eighteenth-century building on the College of William and Mary’s Historic Campus. Measuring 18’ x 20’ (with a later addition), this building was likely built in the 1720s or 30s, and was gone by about 1770.
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Second session field school stdents at the Bray School site.
Three weeks ago, working late into the afternoon with the threat of a late summer thunderstorm ready to break at any moment, the Colonial Williamsburg / College of William and Mary field school in Historical Archaeology wrapped up its third season of excavation at the suspected location of Williamsburg’s Bray School. This unique school, founded by the London-based philanthropy “The Associates of Dr. Bray”, offered religious education to Williamsburg’s African American boys and girls in the 1760s. As we wrote last month, the archaeological excavations follow recent documentary research carried out by Terry Meyers, Chancellor Professor of English at William & Mary, whose research indicates that between 1760 and 1765 the so-called Bray School was housed in a rented dwelling located at the south east corner of North Boundary and Prince George Streets. Meyers’ research further revealed that this corner lot was originally developed as early as the late 1710s, and that by the late eighteenth century it was in the possession of the Digges family, which received rent payments for the lease of a building that was used as a school….
After the Rain.
Just about any invitation to visit an archaeological excavation is followed by the caveat “weather permitting.” The wording may make readers skeptical of archaeology’s adventuresome reputation. Surely a bit of foul weather wouldn’t deter a real archaeologist?! In fact, archaeologists keep a close eye on the weather, though perhaps not always for the reasons one might think. So which are the weather conditions that are most “archaeologically prohibitive”?…
Each summer Colonial Williamsburg and the College of William and Mary offer two 5-week sessions of an Archaeological Field Methods course. For the last 3 years the field school has been focused on the Bray Site, a 1760s school for African-American children. This week, we have asked Victoria Gum to write about her experience as a field school student.…
In town, black and white lived in close proximity to one another.
Archaeology plays a role in many research areas at Colonial Williamsburg, but it is an especially important component in our interpretation of slavery and African American history. Through its focus on the tangible remains of a people whose past is largely underrepresented in documents, archaeology is opening a wider window for us to examine the intricacies of slave life and culture. As this knowledge expands, we are particularly interested in knowing more about the personal lives of slaves: how they lived, what they ate and wore, and how they managed their environment.
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Rain! Why’d it have to be rain?!
For Indiana Jones it was snakes, but most archaeologists dread weather more intensely. There are a number of conditions that give us pause. This week we came face- to-face with two of the worst: rain and heat….