Current Excavation
(For current information on the excavation, skip down to An Update from the Field, or read about the Student Perspective from Rachel A. McKinnis-Mettler.)
This summer archaeologists and field school students will open a new portion of the Ravenscroft site. While the last 3 seasons have focused on a 14’ x 16’ brick cellar along the property’s west boundary, this year’s project will attempt to locate a portion of the eighteenth-century site’s main house and an outbuilding behind it. Both structures are depicted on the 1782 “Frenchman’s Map.”
Like the brick cellar recently explored, the main house was excavated in 1954, but only in part. Built across what would, in the early 20th century, become Botetourt St. portions of the house foundations remained sealed under the asphalt. To avoid tearing up the road, the 1954 excavators appear to have settled for the portion of the house that lay west of Botetourt St. By all calculations, the eastern end of that building should lie (undisturbed) just east of the roadbed.
Archaeologists are eager for an opportunity to explore the site’s main structure; however that enthusiasm is tempered by the knowledge that the house was occupied through the 19th century. Because it was in use until an 1896 fire, artifacts recovered from the cellar would be relatively modern, and not those that would speak to the site’s eighteenth-century occupants. While project goals include recording the history of later site residents, this period is not the primary focus of the Ravenscroft excavation.
Of greater archaeological potential is an outbuilding depicted just behind the main house. Like the east half of the main house, this building escaped cross-trenching in 1954, and may be the only completely intact structure on the site. Should the building prove to be a kitchen, it has to potential to provide information on a variety of subjects including diet, a chronology of the site’s development, those who worked and lived in this space.
It is difficult to use historical maps as the basis for placing modern excavation units. Archaeologists have combined photographs from 1954, the 1782 Frenchman’s Map, and measurements from modern landmarks to identify this year’s project area. We do not yet know how faithfully “the Frenchman” rendered the locations of the Ravenscroft house and outbuilding, and how accurately we have interpreted those locations on the ground.
An Update from the Field : (filed July 21, 2009)
On June 1st, the Ravenscroft 2009 excavation season opened with 17 field school students (enrolled through the College of William and Mary) and 4 summer interns. Our hope for this summer was to be able to explore a portion of the Ravenscroft site that not been disturbed by the work of earlier excavators. To this end, the project goal was to locate two buildings shown in this location on a Revolutionary War-period map. One of these buildings was a large house that, when standing, straddled Botetourt Street (which was not extended through this block until the early 20th century). Tentatively dated around 1730 (based on the assessment of previous excavators), this impressive structure stood until an 1896 fire. Our hope was to locate its northeast corner in this year’s excavation, primarily as a means of orienting ourselves in space.
Of greater importance to us was a smaller building, believed to be a kitchen, depicted behind the house on the 1782 Frenchman’s Map. Undiscovered by earlier excavations, the kitchen had the potential to be the one “intact” component of the Ravenscroft site–a component that might assist in sorting out the evolution of other buildings on the site. It, too, was anticipated to lie within our excavation area.
Detail of the Frenchman’s Map (1782) showing the proposed project area (blue) and the actual location of the 2009 excavation in space (green).
Eight weeks of digging have, unfortunately, proven this untrue! We have discovered that colonial lot 268, inhabited by William Hunter and Joseph Royle, Jenny, and other 18th century individuals with whom we have become familiar over the last 3 seasons of excavation, ends beneath, or just barely east of, Botetourt St. Consequently, we find ourselves digging on lot 269, home to the Davenport family for much of the 18th century.
The Ravenscroft Site under excavation. July 2009.
While it has been something of a disappointment to abandon our search for the “Ravenscroft kitchen,” the Davenport lot has yielded an 18th century kitchen of its own. Student excavators have assisted in locating and uncovering the remains of a hearth base and fragmentary walls within our 80 square meter excavation area. We are tentatively dating this building to the 1720s or 30s.
Students excavate a hearth base for the Davenport Kitchen.
Unlike the pristine kitchen we hoped to find, the Davenport kitchen has already been explored through architectural “cross trenching” (a technique designed to locate brick foundations). But we have questions beyond locating the physical remains of the building. By opening an area around and behind the building, we hope to find work spaces and trash deposits that reveal more about the site’s 18th century site residents.
Excavation of a water pipe.
The 18th century history of a site is always a central focus of the work we do, but this year’s excavation has revealed a great deal of more recent history. Students in the first, five-week session of field school spent a great deal of time precisely excavating six utility lines that run through the site’s western edge...a somewhat tedious job, but necessary as we systematically take the site apart in the reverse order than it formed.
Some visitors to Colonial Williamsburg may remember the brickyard that operated on this site during the late 1980s and early 1990s. This activity also left its mark, primarily in the form of an unpleasant layer of leftover clay spread across the northeast corner of the site!
Treading clay in 1990.
But the most interesting “modern” feature that we have uncovered is the front (southwest) corner of the James City County Training School. This school was built in 1924 to serve Williamsburg’s African American population, and stood until about 1940, when it was replaced by the Bruton Heights School. As we discovered over the last 3 years while working on the other side of Botetourt Street, in addition to having a rich 18th century history, this part of town has an especially rich 20th century African-American history.
Project area in 1928 showing the location of the James City County Training School (red star shows location of current excavation).
Two weeks of excavation remain for the staff and field school students. During this time, we hope to complete excavation of a layer of “plowzone” created during the 19th century. Locating earlier features (particularly the 18th century lot line!) would be an added bonus. Whether there is significant evidence of 18th century activities here remains to be seen. Testing north and east of our excavation area has demonstrated that some of the site’s most productive areas may lie in those directions.
Students at work on the Ravenscroft site. Hearth base visible in background. Front wall of the James City County Training School in foreground.
A student screens soil from the Ravenscroft excavation.
For many students, this archaeological field methods course has been eye-opening. Several commented on the changes in their perception of archaeology from the beginning of the five week course to its completion. In the words of one student “Although I was at first disappointed that my [Indiana Jones] whip was being traded in for a trowel, I quickly began to respect and enjoy the profession of archaeology.”
Others commented on the importance of patience: “I’ve now come to realize that archaeology is about minding the details-dig slow, trowel even slower, and don’t forget the paperwork.” Time will tell whether this summer’s project at the corner of Nicholson and Botetourt Streets has produced any future archaeologists.
For more information on the current excavation, please check out our current update from student Rachel A. McKinnis-Mettler.
