This blog follows the reconstruction of the Revolutionary War Public Armoury on the James Anderson site
Reconstruction of the Blacksmith's & Public Armoury
May 31, 2012
What’s Happening at the Armoury…And What Would You Like to Hear About?
The new shed with bread oven in the foreground.
The Roving Webcam offers just a narrow view of what’s happening at the Armoury on a daily basis. Beyond the camera’s reach, our Historic Trades carpenters have constructed a new shed along the east property line. Temporarily covered with canvas, it will eventually sport a riven oak roof. Once completed, this shed will provide shelter for trades activities (carpenters, coopers, basket-makers, and wheelwrights), as well as for carts and wagons. Also on the east side of the property, the bread oven has been cranking out some tasty loaves to accompany a variety of stews (beef, on one day this week, and oyster on another) cooked in the adjacent kitchen. Eleanor, the Armoury cat, has never had it so good!
Current excavation with the Armoury and Anderson House in the background.
So what does the upcoming schedule look like? The tin shop foundations were laid in April. Raw materials have been ordered for the frame; these should be received sometime in June. Over the summer, the Historic Trades carpenters will pit saw the framing members at Great Hopes Plantation, and anticipate “warming down” with a couple of months of clapboard- and shingle-production. Summer, for our joiners, will be spent fabricating windows, doors, and shutters. Frame-raising for the tin shop is scheduled for early December, with an anticipated completion date sometime around Easter 2013. There will be activity at the tin shop long before December, however. If you are here (physically or virtually) in August or September, you may catch the Historic Trades Brick Masons constructing the tin shop’s chimney and fireplace. In preparation for that event, there is a brick kiln firing scheduled for July 18th -22nd .
In the meantime, archaeologists head back out to the field on June 4th to complete work at the southern end of the Armoury property. Excavation will take place between early June and the end of August (about 12 weeks) along the 18th century fenceline. As things turn exciting (and they often do) we’ll be sure to get some webcam coverage of archaeological activities.
As you can see, a variety of long-term activities will keep us busy over upcoming months, but many of these occur off-site, beyond the reach of our webcams. So in order to keep the Armoury blog lively, we’d like to know what YOU’D like to know! We are soliciting blog topics from our faithful (and even our occasional) blog readers. This is your opportunity to appear above the “comments” line! Toss us a topic and we’ll work you into the schedule!
Site map showing current excavation in turquoise, Armoury, kitchen, and future tin shop in red, and Anderson House in gray.
June 8th, 2012. The map at left is quite difficult to read. The current excavation is shown in turquoise, the James Anderson House (on Duke of Gloucester Street) in gray, and the new, and soon-to-be Armoury buildings (the forge, kitchen, and tin shop) in red. So what are the other hatched or shaded squares? They represent the limits of past excavations on the site. As you can see, the Armoury property has seen a great deal of archaeological investigation , all of which will culminate in the reconstruction currently underway.
In our current excavation we are not only continuing out excavation of the Armoury’s perimeter fenceline, we are looking at the differences between the Armoury property, and the adjacent lot to the west. If you’ve been watching the Roving webcam this week, you’ve seen us trying to get our archaeological bearings…finding the overlap with past excavations to be certain that we’ve covered everything.
Over the weekend we will flip the Roving Webcam around to face the Armoury yard, since there will be no archaeology to watch. Early next week you can expect a return to the excavation.
MP
Funded by a generous gift from Forrest E. Mars Jr., of Big Horn, Wyoming.
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Greg Carter says:
Hello! So, what’s going on with the cannon barrel pour? Have not seen anything on your website since May 21st. I am a member of a War of 1812 re-enactment group with a cannon just like the one you people are making. The cannon project news cannot get to me fast enough! Everybody at CW is doing a GREAT JOB! Thank You Your most humble & obedient servant , G.C.
Kenneth Schwarz says:
Greg- The latest pour was a partial success. We are creating a new entry for the cannon blog describing the casting day. That entry will be posted shortly, and should include photos and perhaps video of the days work. Check the cannon blog in the coming days for that update.
Margaret says:
Is there any work being done on the carriages? Also just for fun, could you schedule the drum and fife corps sometime?
Kenneth Schwarz says:
Margaret- we are currently working on hardware for a small cart that the wheelwrights are making for another historic site. The work includes nuts and bolts, an iron axle and wheel bearings, and will include rub plates and an iron leg to support the two-wheeled cart when it is not in use. If you have been watching, Aislinn has made most of the nuts, bolts and rivets, and will be starting on the rub plates soon.
Jim H. says:
Well, over the years, I have watched many tools being made in the shop, from wheeler’s axes, to mason hammers, to wedges. I’d like to hear a discussion on the tools that have been recovered on site at Williamsburg and then copied to be used again at the site including any records from the daily journal as to the tools made or repaired to get an idea of the activity for toolmaking at the shop.
Meredith Poole says:
Greg, Margaret, and Jim~
Excellent ideas. (Not sure how much clout we have with the Fifes and Drums, but you never know! We might have to add sound to the webcam to make it worthwhile.)
In the meantime, we’ll see what we can do with cannons, carriages,and tools. Thanks for your suggestions!
Kenneth Schwarz says:
Jim- Good to hear from you! We try to make use of the archaeological collection to furnish our domestic, agricultural and industrial sites, but keep in mind that the majority of what is recovered archaeologically is refuse. That means that very few usable tools are found in the ground. We find fragments, or tools that had been used until they could be used or repaired no more. Often, tools are made from iron that is large enough that the material is completely made into a new object rather than being thrown out, leaving no trace of the original form.
I have at my bench a copy of an old cold chisel from the site, and there is a swage that was recovered from the site. The swage is not like any that I have seen before, and we speculate that it may have been used in the making of bayonets. Estate inventories and period illustrations provide a more complete picture of shop furnishings. In rare cases, sets of shop tools survive for analysis. One such set of tooling that we have studeid extensively is from a shop on Long Island operated by the Dominy family of craftsmen. The Dominy’s were woodworkers and metalworkers most noted for their manufacture of clocks in the late eighteenth century. Our forges are modelled after their surviving 1770′s forge, although ours are substantially larger than the original Dominy forge.
Charles Hummel published an outstanding work on the Dominy tool collection titled “With Hammer and Hand; The Dominy Craftsmen of East Hampton, New York”. The book is out of print and has been rising in price when available, but you should be able to find it through your local library. It is worth a read if you like early tools.
Curator Erik Goldstein and I are working together on research of armoury tooling. We have a couple of late eighteenth century inventories of armouries in Virginia to use as the basis for understanding the work activity, and the tooling necessary to operate an armoury. As the project evolves, we will be adding tools from these inventories to the Armoury in order to reflect work activity that we know to be on the site.
Russell says:
Hi Meredith, nice to hear from you again!
One of the fascinating things about blacksmithing are the steps involved in the geometric transformation from basic stock metal shapes into various final forms. Perhaps you could do a series on this. Short narrated videos might be the best format. Thanks as always to you & everyone at CW, particularly for your efforts via webcam & blog to keep us involved when we can’t be there in person!
Kenneth Schwarz says:
Russell- I agree with your thoughts about sharing our knowledge of process. That, of course, is part of our daily work in the shop, but we could reach a wider audience via our web presence. Chris and Steve, workmen in the Anderson Shop, have maintained a facebook page relating to the armoury, and have posted at least one video which illustrates process. As we settle into the new shop, and return to full staffing, I hope to do more of that sort of web-based sharing.
Thanks for your input.
DAVE S says:
Are the carpenters, coopers, basket-makers, and wheelwrights being moved to the armoury site? I’d guess not, the current arrangement encourages one to explore all of CW.
Several years ago, we watched the wheelwrights building a cart for Mt. Vernon. It was interresting to think the skills at CW were being applied elsewhere.
Are there other things being crafted for other sites?
What are the silversmiths up to?
Kenneth Schwarz says:
Dave- The carpenters, coopers, basketmakers, and wheelwrights are not being relocated to the Armoury site. They will, however, periodically contribute to our programming on the Armoury site. The carpenters will be on the site constructing three new buildings this year- the storage shed in the yard, a storage building to the south of the Armoury, and the tinsmith shop to the west of the Armoury. The bulk of their work will be carried out in the summer, fall and winter of this year. The coopers, wheelwrights and basketmakers will work in their trades at the Armoury from time to time as our programming requires, and when appropriate work is needed at the Armoury.
As for work being done for other sites, The wheelwrights are building a hand cart for Old Salem, in Winston-Salem North Carolina, and we are making the hardware for that vehicle. We are starting to work on two door locks for Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, and we recently completed two weathervanes (copies of their original 1743 vanes)for the 1743 Augustus Lutheran Church in Trappe, Pennsylvania. We take on this sort of private commission work as our schedule permits.
As for the silversmiths- I will ask what they are up to and let you know…
Kenneth Schwarz says:
According to Master silversmith George Cloyed , he is making an embossed sugar and creamer set, Preston is making a bowl, ladle and tankard, Lynn is engraving a new plate for a print of a pepper plant, Steve is making ladles, and the two apprentices are working on hammer engraving. They keep their workplace lively!
Jim H. says:
Ken,
Thanks for the heads up on the book. I found a copy and it is on its way to me for a good read! As to the armoury tools, I look forward to that research and display. I have read the 5 volumes of the Journal of Historical Armsmaking Technology with interest, as one of the gunmakers in Rockbridge County was apparently located not far from my Dad’s farm there. One of the things I am going to do is make a lock for a rifle builder friend of mine. He’d like to use a handmade lock and I’d like to make one, so its a good fit. That’s why Volume 1 of the JHAT is read and studied by me at length. Now, if I only had a hammer…..
It would be interesting to see the swage and its shape. It’s the joy of reverse engineering the use of the tools found that keeps folks like me coming back to Williamsburg to see the tools in use and the collections on display. Keep up that great research you do as we enjoy reading it so.
Mike Lynch says:
Good moring Meredith,
I see from the roving cam that you have broken ground on what appears to be the southern part of the property. The cam does not give a good sense of the space being opened; but i thought, when Nick and I visited a few years ago, you had already done so? Might I suggest that on a future blog entry you add a site map showing the sections that have, are and may in the future be explored?
Ken, it is difficult to see Aislin’s work via the camera; but I’d love to learn more about fastener production. I am challenged repeatedly to repair items on the farm that require fasteners that may or may not be available from the local 1890′s mercantile. Hence my desire to use my rivet forge to create fateners of different thread types. Also, Ainslin may want to reach out to the Industrial Fastener Institute in Cleveland to learn if it might be interested in supporting her work. The Exec. Dir. is a W&M grad and was married in Bruton.
Meredith Poole says:
Hi Mike~
You are correct. We have returned to the southern end of the Armoury…a spot that we opened in 2010 before we were pulled away to work at the Tin Shop.
As you may be able to tell parts of this area have been started but not completed. And we are also (as you observed) extending the excavation 3 meters northward, toward the Armoury. This will allow us to follow some curious-looking soil stains that we have recorded in the past.
A site map is being prepared for just the orienting purposes that you request. We simply moved the camera before the map was ready to post. It will be up soon.
Chuck Trefz says:
So glad we will be able to watch the return to the south excavation. Is there any other excavation work planned for the summer/fall? We are thinking about our next visit and are curious about the archeogical work schedule for this year.
CWResearch says:
Chuck~
Thanks for support! The archaeologists will be at the Armoury until the end of August. We are also running an archaeological field school (in conjunction with William and Mary) at the corner of Prince George St and Boundary St., behind Brown Hall. That project, which runs through the first week in August, is focused on finding evidence of the Bray School, a school for African American children operating in the 1760s. While we have a great deal more field work to do this year, the remainder will be out of the public eye. I hope your next visit can coincide with the more public part of our digging schedule! If not, please check our lab tours. They are available 4 times each Tuesday.
Russell says:
Hi Meredith!
I’m looking forward to your site map & following along with the dig. In the meantime, I can’t resist asking about the group of curiously shaped deeper holes you’re digging. Are you following some specific artifact deposits, or are these just various test holes to scope out what’s there? Also, do you plan on moving the camera around for closer views as various things are (hopefully) uncovered?
CWResearch says:
Hi Russell!
Always good to hear from you. The site map showing our current location (as well as where we’ve dug in the past) should be up later today. In the meantime, I’m going to post an image that should help orient you and other blog readers. The deeper holes that you’ve noticed are places where we have re-excavated holes that someone dug in the past. Some are from the recent past. For example, you may be able to see some diagonal trenches across the area. These are remnants of the 1941 trenches cut across the yard as excavators searched for brick foundations to rebuild. Other holes are much older, representing pencepost holes, come curious “privy-like” pits with absolutely nothing in them, even a few dog burials. As we dig, we are able to see where others have dug before us because the soil is either a different color, or a different texture.
We have spent most of this week cleaning up an excavation that we started back in 2010….removing the silt that has settled over it, and giving it a fresh surface. You may have noticed that we have been checking and replacing grid points. We are also opening up some more space to the nother, and removing the topsoil. I promise that as we start to work on more interesting things, we’ll move the camera in for a closer look. -Meredith
Kenneth Schwarz says:
Mike- Always good to hear from you. I suspect that you are firing up the forge again, now that the air is warmer in your neck of the woods.
Fasteners are an interesting part of our work, as the variety and application is quite varied. Aislinn is making simple nuts and bolts for the cart.
Let me know when you will be back in town, and you can have a close-up look at the manufacture of fasteners as we do the work. We usually expect to see you as the weather gets cooler and your forge shuts down…
ryan says:
I hope the gunsmith shop will continue to produce high quality long rifles in the tradition started by Wallace Gusler and Gary Brumfield and continued since the 1960′s. Those skills will be hard to re-learn if new apprentices are not brought up in them. Muskets may be more historically accurate for the armory, but CW did an amazing thing by saving historical rifle making from the dustbin of history and I hope that isn’t lost.
Kenneth Schwarz says:
Ryan- Our gunsmith shop remains a very popular Historic Area attraction. They produce sporting guns- rifles and fowling pieces- following the traditions established at Colonial Williamsburg by Wallace Gusler and Gary Brumfield. The shop is under the direction of master gunsmith George Suiter, a thirty five year veteran of the gunsmith shop who worked with both Wallace and Gary. The gunsmiths work at the Geddy site, an important Williamsburg industrial site. A few years ago our gunsmith shop was moved from the Ayscough property- where there was no evidence of a colonial gunsmith shop- to the Geddy property, the home and workshop of a prominent Williamsburg metalworking family.
In August of 1751, David and William Geddy advertised in the Virginia Gazette as “smiths of Williamsburg” stating that they “…had all of the utensils requisite to carry on the gunsmiths, cutlers, and founders trade…” and would supply “…Gun work such as gun and pistol stocks plain and neatly varnished, locks and mountings, barrels blued bored and rifled…”
If you visit the Geddy site today, you will see that Colonial Williamsburg gunsmiths actively carry on traditional gunbuilding work as did the Geddy family 260 years ago. You can see the Geddy’s ad in the Virginia Gazette at:
http://research.history.org/DigitalLibrary/VirginiaGazette/VGImagePopup.cfm?ID=1019&Res=HI&CFID=13981300&CFTOKEN=59553302
The Geddy gunsmith and foundry is open Sunday through Friday, closed on Saturdays. Come by and visit if you have a chance
Mark Oliver says:
The roving webcam today, June 7, 2012 is trained on a tarp over a yard o a field. Where is it, and what is it covering. I am very curious.
Thank you so much,
M. O.
Meredith Poole says:
Hi Mark,
We have moved the Roving Webcam to focus on the archaeological excavation just south of the Armoury. We started digging on Monday of this week, and are finishing excavation along the Armoury’s fenceline. As I told Russell (above), we’ll try to switch camera angles to a closer view once we begin excavation of individual features.
The tarp, by the way, is used not only to protect the site from rain, but to hold in the moisture overnight. On occasion you’ll see us spraying the site down with water. Soil stains, or features (which indicate where people have dug through the soil in the past) show up much more readily in damp soil.
Russell says:
Hi Meredith!
Thanks for your response, interesting and helpful as always, also for the site map (there certainly has been a lot of digging over the years!) & photo. The note about why you reoriented the webcam is also appreciated, it is nice to know the reason for the shifting views we get. In thinking about archaeology, I have heard of ground penetrating radar being used to survey sites as a guide to finding significant features before digging. Has that ever been used at CW?
Meredith Poole says:
Hi Russell,
Thanks for your question about ground penetrating radar. It does have its uses, but on a site like the Armoury, we’re interested in how ALL of the finds (“significant features”, thin layers, minor ground disturbances, etc.) fit together. As you can see from the map, we’re getting pretty close to a full understanding of this 1/2 acre.
In other cases, it can be useful to get an early peek at what’s below. In the mid 1990s, we used resistivity testing (another previewing technique) to explore a 1 1/2 acre formal garden. Resistivity testing was a useful tool for identifying the intersections between walkways and planting beds, allowing us to strategically place our excavation units. Digging an acre and a half of garden would have been a formidable task, and the amount of data recovered would have been comparatively small….making a preview quite valuable.
Russell says:
Hi Meredith!
Glad to see you have some shade to work under! I was wondering if you might comment on the ways things get buried for you archaeologists to find. I would think deliberately dug holes would be a (the?) major source, e.g., wells, privys, fences, foundations. I could also imagine there are sometimes whole areas that get buried by fill when the ground is prepared for building or otherwise leveled. Otherwise I would think things left one way or another on the surface would tend to stay there or eventually get picked up, rather than buried(?)
Meredith Poole says:
Hi Russell~
You’re right…the shade is much appreciated. I went away for a few days, and when I came back, Andy, Matt, and Wes had us working under the big top. It makes a big difference to be out of the direct sun!
Your question about how things get buried is one of the more difficult questions we have to answer. As you suggested, there are deliberately dug holes, but these really don’t make up the majority of buried soils and artifacts. Over time, soil does build up across whole land surfaces (properties or yards). Decomposing leaves, blowing dust, washing silt, and discarded kitchen garbage (think rotting potato peels) account for a good deal of this accumulation. Although there is no set “rule of thumb” about how quickly soils accumulate, we tend to see 10″ to 1′ every hundred years in the Historic Area. The more activity there is on a property, the thicker the resulting layers will be.
As for things getting picked up, I’m sure they did….especially objects with any intrinsic value (like coins or lost jewelery). But remember that most of what archaeologists recover was once deliberately discarded as trash. There may not have been as much “recovery” as you suspect!
Russell says:
Hi Meredith,
Glad you’re enjoying the shade! That’s very interesting that the issue of seemingly pervasive soil accumulation is “one of the more difficult questions”. I can more easily understand an ongoing accumulation of organic matter, both from nature and contributed by human activity, than understand a continuing source of the inorganic component of soil. Maybe there is less inorganic material in soil than I appreciate, and/or maybe as you say there is more wind-blown accumulation of dust/sand than I appreciate? Your comment “The more activity there is on a property, the thicker the resulting layers will be.” is, however, an important clue that human activity probably has a lot to do with all this. The typical rate you note yields 1″ or so in 10 years, which would seem to be enough to be easily seen in our own experience, rather than just historically!
Mimi says:
Looking at the map and having seen the current buildings (giving some perspective), the Anderson property is quite deep. Did it really extend that far to the South; did the past excavations reveal evidence of the property’s depth extending that far? What do you expect to find this time around?
Meredith Poole says:
Mimi,
Yes, the Anderson property extended from Duke of Gloucester Street southward to Francis Street. Unless they were subdivided (which some lots were, later in the 18th century) most lots in Williamsburg were equally deep. In the case of the Anderson lot, the boundaries are mentioned in the deed, and are illustrated on the (1782) Frenchman’s Map.
It’s difficult to say what we are expecting to find this time around. We have already uncovered (most recently in 2000, and 2010) foundations for a workshop and a storage building in this area. Perhaps most intriguingly, we have evidence of a long, cellar-like feature in the area we are currently excavating. This is unlikely to be part of the Armoury, simply because it does not appear on the Frenchman’s Map….but we’ve had surprises before!
But before we get to the cellar (or whatever it is) there is some more modern history to contend with! Last week’s work was to excavate the 1941 “Jimmy Knight” trenches, named for the man who employed diagonal trenching to find brick foundations. If you check the roving webcam, you’ll likely see remnants of these trenches. We also spent a good deal of time mapping all other features.. postholes, bush holes, utility trenches…that show up as dark or mottled stains in this relatively recent layer. We are eager to get to the 18th century, but are committed to recording all phases of the Anderson property’s history!
JimW says:
Hi Meredith,
You were out very early this morning at the dig. Have been watching the cams and enjoying all the conversation. Anything new or unusual found yet?
Meredith Poole says:
Ah, Jim, I agree. Eight o’clock is an early start, but it’s when we begin when the weather is hotter. The canvas tarp helps a lot, but summer in Virginia is…well…summer in Virginia.
You probably noticed that we removed a series of diagonal trenches last week…remnants of 1941 exploration. That SHOULD mean that the layer we’re left with dates to the early 20th century, but not so. We are encountering a perplexing group of very large rectangular holes, all cutting one another, and apparently 18th century. If we seem to be moving slowly, it isn’t the heat! It’s our deliberation as we work through which hole comes out first, second, and third. We’ve had this experience before at the southern end of the Armoury lot. It’s as if someone removed the 19th century.
At the moment, each of us is in charge of a discrete “hole complex.” I’ll tell you that the hole I’ve been digging today produced a small buckle, some creamware (ceramic dating post 1762), a delftware pitcher handle, a lot of animal bone, part of a pipebowl, the foot of what may be a teapot, clinker from the forges, some Chinese porcelain, unidentified iron pieces, and (of course) wine bottle glass. We’ll see what tomorrow brings!
JimW says:
LOL Meredith you might be joking but it is entirely possible that the 19th century has been removed. I remember one year my father-in-law moved several inches of dirt from his front yard to him back yard and the dirt from his back yard to the front. Why I never did figure out but someone may at some point in time have graded out the 19th century. We love to move and change things. Please keep us informed of the finds. We will be there in September for the Friends meeting and look forward to see the Armoury and the dig or any digs you are working on. And I always want to tell you so that everyone at CW knows how much we all love the cams and being able to see whats happening even though we can’t be there all the time. Say hello to Joe for me.
Meredith Poole says:
Jim~
Not joking about the 19th century being AWOL. As you may remember, the entire block on which the Armoury is sited burned in 1842, and wasn’t rehabilitated (as far as we can tell) until after the Civil War. It’s the unrecorded details of that rehabilitation that we’d like to get our hands on. The evidence, as we are experiencing, is written all over the landscape!
JimW says:
Meredith,
I had forgotten about the fire. That is fascinating to say the least. It will be interesting to see what artifacts turn up as you go along. When you accumulate enough it would be great to see pictures of what you find. Stay cool looks like you were all out early this morning.
Meredith Poole says:
Jim~
Yes, out early this morning. 8 a.m. is so much more pleasant than 4 p.m.! This morning we hosted our Jamestown Colleagues and their field school, so it was a busy day.
Thanks for the “show and tell” suggestion. I’ll try to take a few still shots, both of artifacts and features, and get them up on the blog.
Mimi says:
Is there no evidence at that end of the property of the fire? Very interesting that the 19th century strata has “disappeared.”
Dale J says:
Is there any chance of sliding the roving camera back inside the Blacksmith shop at least on the weekend. After watching the shop for over a year I’m having withdrawal without seeing a forge or 4 in use once in a while.
Thanks! Dale
Ron Trabandt says:
Good Day Meredith, Andy and the rest of the archaeology staff.
It would be great if, periodically, an update as to what is being found at the Armoury site could be listed on the blog.
I read the blog every day in the hopes of finding more information pertaining to the Armoury.
Have a successful summer.
Ron
Rick Brouse says:
ditto to Ron’s post. I was wondering too. I volunteered recently on a dig at the Alexander Schaeffer property in ScHaefferstown, Pa. He operated a 17th century commercial apple cider distillery. There is speculation that he had a large cider press “building” on the property. They are searching for said building. The archeology resulted in numerous artifacts, but no foundation(s). Archeology is fascinating! THANKS SO MUCH FOR WHAT YOU DO!
Meredith Poole says:
Ron and Rick,
Thanks for your interest. It keeps us going in tough times…which is how this week feels! As you look at the Roving Webcam (which suffered a near-fatal blow during Monday’s storm) you will see that we’re all digging holes, principally down the center of the excavation area. What you are looking at is the property boundary between the Armoury site (the left side of your screen) and the neighboring property (which would come to be called the Mary Stith lot) on the right hand side.
Interestingly, this boundary was ferociously marked. When one fence post rotted, a new one was put up in its place. This happened for long enough that we are left with a dizzying array of fencepost holes (mottled soil marking the former locations of excavated fencepost holes). At present, when we remove one fencepost hole, we find two more.
At times, these patterns make sense only when you plot them all on a large map. So you have seen a lot of mapping as we record the quirks of each hole, in the hopes that we will be able to separate them into discrete fencelines later on.
On the right side of your screen you may also see archaeologists starting to take the soil down at a bit of an angle…it’s sloping to the west. We are following the natural contours of the 18th and 19th c. ground surface, and it is trending into a natural ravine. Strangely, we have found a 19th century layer on this side of the fence, but not on the other. This seems to be one of the puzzles left in the aftermath of the 1842 fire.
While we have yet to find much excitement (“challenge” might better describe our discoveries to this point) we have every reason to believe that excitement lies ahead. Keep watching!
Marie Millen says:
So happy to see an update on the Armoury. I too have been following daily to see what is going on. I will be visiting Williamsburg in the middle of July and this will be the 1st place my husband and I check out. What an undertaking but one that has brought about so much information, I thank all who partake in this project, my hats off to you!!! The webcams help me stay connected even though we are 500 miles away. Again, thank you….
Christine Hansley says:
Good morning Dig Crew,
I’ve been watching, also. Any determination on the fence post holes yet? What else have you found in the area?
I presume, Lady Eleanor is staying in cool spots instead of supervisoring your dig.
I also would like to thank the donor that gave the money to get a 6th camera out in the restored area by the Courthouse. Please let us know if we need to patronize a particular product, like we do M&M Mars.
Stay cool. Have a great and safe 4th,
Chris
Meredith Poole says:
Good morning, Chris!
Hope you had a good 4th. We are still working on sorting out those postholes. Just about finished excavating them. It will likely take review of the artifacts they contain, and a look at their placement on a broad scale (ie in the form of maps from all of our recorded drawings)before we can separate them into periods. Regardless, it is interesting to see how consistently that boundary was maintained.
When not chasing rabbits (a habit that we are trying to break her of) Eleanor has taken up residence in the reconstructed kitchen. While it may have been difficult to maintain, a clay floor (as she has discovered) stays about 15 degrees cooler than any other surface in the Historic Area. That is one smart cat!
As others may have noticed, the Roving Webcam met a disasterous fate during one of the wild storms that moved through our area last weekend. A replacement is on the way and we should be back on track early next week. At that time, we’ll provide an update on archaeological work at the south end of the Armoury lot.
Russell says:
Hi Meredith!
Thanks for letting us know what happened to the roving webcam, and for working on its quick replacement – I’ve been wondering what happened! Looking forward to your update. I hope you are all managing OK in the heat!
Mimi says:
Happy Independence Day everyone!! Stay safe, stay cool and God bless the USA!!
Diane Phillips says:
Hello all and Happy 4th of July!
I have a question and 2 requests.
Do the guests ever get to sample the tasty bread baked in the Bread Oven?
I would like to hear about husbandry and perhaps a roving cam with the animals. Also, could you ever discuss or have a cam where musical instruments are made. Is there still a violin maker?
Thanks so much and have a fantastic day
Anton Pecha says:
n reference to new topics, my understanding is that only a small percentage of the city of Williamsburg has been studied archeologically. Could you discuss what the road map looks like in the area of future study (long term)? Even areas that currently don’t have plans, but may have great potential interest? Does CWF try to acquire adjacent property in the hope of enlarging the museum? Are some of these unexplored areas outside the current 301 acre site? How big was the 1775 city of Williamsburg as compared to the current 301 acre museum?