Welcome to the Ravenscroft Site

Archaeologists remove fill from the Ravenscroft cellar in 2007.

About the Excavation

Colonial Williamsburg archaeologists and archaeological field school students will spend the 2008 summer field season at the Ravenscroft site, located at the east end of Williamsburg’s Historic Area. The current project, now in its third year, is focused on an eighteenth-century cellar in use during the occupancy of two of the Ravenscroft site’s more well-known residents: William Hunter and Joseph Royle. Hunter and Royle were successive printers of the Virginia Gazette which, until the mid-1760s, served as the colony’s only newspaper. As editors and disseminators of information, Hunter and Royle were men of influence during this critical transition period in colonial history.

By the mid-eighteenth century the corner of Nicholson and Botetourt Streets, where archaeologists are currently digging, was a fitting home for men of such prestige. Though quiet “green space” today, this property was then a busy “townstead,” a multi-lot parcel with a large house (now partially under Botetourt Street) and a full array of outbuildings. Although archaeologists may one day explore the main house (which burned in 1896) this summer’s project will focus on a smaller cellar just to the west.

The function of the “Ravenscroft cellar” remains a mystery. It may have been used as a store, an outbuilding, or even a bakehouse. By excavating its contents and the area around the cellar, archaeologists and students hope to learn more about when this building was constructed, how it was used, and who may have lived or worked here.

    

Please Visit

The 2008 Ravenscroft excavation season opens on May 28th, and continues through August 29th. Visitors are invited to visit Monday through Friday from 9-12 and 1-4, weather permitting. Hands-on activities will be offered between 10 and 11:30 each weekday from June 2nd through August 1st. For further information on visiting the site, please click here.

If your travel plans do not include a trip to Williamsburg, we welcome your “virtual visitation” through this web site and the associated web log.