2009 Field School at Ravenscroft/Davenport

Between June 1 and August 7, 2009 the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation’s Department of Architectural and Archaeological Research, in conjunction with the College of William and Mary’s Anthropology Department, conducted its 25th annual archaeological field school at the southwest corner of Block 27 in Williamsburg’s Historic Area.

The field work was a continuation of the Ravenscroft Field School Project that took place on the adjacent block during the summers of 2006 through 2008 (click to see more). During those three seasons, a 14 by 16-foot cellar and the surrounding area was investigated by students and Colonial Williamsburg staff. The cellar and a large dwelling had been excavated by CW’s Architecture Department back in 1954, but as is the case with much of the pre-Noël Hume archaeology, more work was necessary in order to address archaeological, historical, as well as architectural questions.

Last summer, students, faculty and staff investigated a portion of the Ravenscroft property previously unexplored in the 1950’s and a portion of the adjacent Davenport property that was a part of the 1954 explorations.

The initial plan after finishing the three-year project on the small cellar and the area surrounding it, was to open up a 55 square meter plot in the footpath just east of North Botetourt Street as shown in Figure 2. This plan hoped to accomplish several goals: have a look at an area that had not been subjected to the 1954 archaeological explorations of the Architecture Department, investigate both the eastern end of the Ravenscroft House and the outbuilding, presumably a kitchen, located directly to the north according to the Frenchman’s Map, and explore an area that had not been as intensively plowed as the 2006-2008 project area.

All of this, hopefully, could be accomplished without excavating in the street, a possible scenario, but not one without issues. Topsoil contexts were assigned for each square meter and all was screen through quarter-inch hardware cloth. Modern artifacts were recovered along with a surprising number and variety of 18th-century material, especially ceramics.

The topsoil quickly graded into a thin plowzone that seems to have originated during the third quarter of the 19th century. While the quantity of artifacts remained relatively low, the diversity of 18th and 19th-century ceramics was unexpectedly high, consistent with the character of the material recovered from the 2006-2008 excavations of the western lots of the Ravenscroft Property. The 18th-century material recovered during all the episodes of excavation on the Ravenscroft lots can be characterized as unusually diverse and of an above average quality. The kitchen foundation depicted on the Frenchman’s Map was not found during the excavations and must still be lurking under Botetourt Street.

In addition to the previously unexplored area, a portion of the adjacent Davenport Lot that had been examined during the 1954 period was also explored last summer. A kitchen foundation and the surrounding area was re-excavated with hopes of locating kitchen midden layers or features that would contain material pertaining to the enslaved people attached to the Davenport household. Unfortunately, activities during the last century, the construction and destruction of a large school building that served the African American community between 1924 and 1940, a brick kiln and associated exhibits and the site of the Colonial Williamsburg house wrights, caused a great deal of land disturbance. Nevertheless, remnant of a midden and several structural post holes, probably indicating an earthfast building were located and recorded by the students. The next field season conducted at the Ravenscroft/Davenport Site will focus around exploring this midden and post holes.

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.