A
second fence line, also first identified in 2002, and similarly evidenced
by a shallow ditch with post impressions, was found running to the west
off the northwest corner of the quarter building. The fence line terminated
at the corner of the quarter, and ran west for an undetermined distance
away from the project area. The fence line, along with the north wall
of the quarter, delineates the northern boundary of the Atkinson houselot
work yard that contains the two small outbuildings. Because only a short
section of the fence line was exposed, determining its function is somewhat
speculative. One possibility is that the fence was part of an enclosure
to keep animals out of the houselot’s work yard to the south. Alternatively,
it remains equally possible that the fence line was part of an enclosure
to the north, possibly to keep animals out of a garden area. This latter
hypothesis is seems less likely due to the lack of any archaeological
evidence to indicate the presence of planting beds in this area, although
any such evidence may have long been eradicated by the nearly three centuries
of plowing and subsequent tree harvesting that occurred at the site since
its abandonment in the early eighteenth century.
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