Archaeological Field School at the Ravenscroft Site
Session 1: May 27–June 27, 2008
Session 2: June 30–August 1, 2008
The Ravenscoft Site is located at the corner of Nicholson and Botetourt
Streets in Colonial Williamsburg’s Historic Area. A domestic
site, the Ravenscroft property consists of two city lots first purchased in
1715 and occupied continuously through the early decades of the twentieth century.
Among the Ravenscroft property’s eighteenth-century owners were a tavern keeper
(who may or may not have plied his trade here), two printers of Virginia’s
newspaper, The Virginia Gazette, a series of tenants, and a number
of enslaved Africans.
The current project is focused on the area surrounding a 14-by-16-foot brick
cellar. Prior excavation (in 1998 and 2006-07) suggests that this
cellar was constructed sometime after 1725, though for what purpose is still
not entirely clear. Field school students
and staff will expose and excavate the full extent of this structure in an
effort to determine its function and relationship to another cellar lying
just to the east.
Work will also continue in the lab analyzing an extraordinarily rich and varied
assemblage of eighteenth-century ceramics and other materials recovered from the
Ravenscroft Site. Among the tasks at hand are to cross-mend ceramics
from past excavations with the material recovered in 2006 and 2007, with the
goal of learning more not only about those who lived on the Ravenscroft Site,
but also about the archaeologists who preceded us in its exploration.
Finally, the Ravenscroft project will continue to have a strong interpretive
component. In 2006 and 2007 efforts to engage the public in the Ravenscroft project
took a variety of forms: site interpretation offered by the students, hands-on
activities for children, and creation of web materials, including a blog,
providing visitors (both physical and virtual) with an opportunity to keep
up-to-date on the latest discoveries.
Participants can register for the program through the College of William
and Mary (www.wm.edu/registrar).
For additional program details, please contact the Department of Archaeological
Research.
Learn more by exploring the links below:
|
