Phase II and Phase III Archaeological Database and Inventory
18PR175 Addison House
Diagnostic Artifact Data
Features
Summary
The Addison Plantation House (18PR175), or Oxon Hill Manor, is the remains of a Late 17th–19th century plantation along the Potomac River in rural Prince George’s County. The site is situated on a high, steep bluff approx. 1 mile east of the Potomac. The river channel facing the site is tidal & deep enough to allow ocean-going ships. In prehistoric & early historic times the uplands behind the bluff were probably dominated by an oak-hickory forest, while the lowlands between the bluff & river may have had more water resistant species. The river shore is somewhat closer than it was during the period when the site was inhabited, due to modern sand dredging.
The combination of lowlands & uplands along a tidal river supported a diverse fauna. Among other species that inhabited the river & may have been important to the inhabitant of the site were oyster & sturgeon as well as a wide variety of other fish. Waterfowl must also have been plentiful. Land animals, including bison, elk, wolf, bear, & deer, are known to have been relatively abundant during the early years of historic settlement. However, since about the mid 18th century, most of these large mammals have been forced out, & unlike migratory fowl, have not been able to reestablish themselves. Coupled with this rather typical tidewater setting is a humid, temperate climate with mild winters & uncomfortably hot summers. Soils at the site are primarily Beltsville & Chillum silt loams, as well as loams of the Aura series.
Throughout most of its history, Oxon Hill Manor appears to have been one of Maryland’s most impressive & valuable agricultural estates. Originating in the 17th century, by the time of the American Revolution it featured an enormous mansion, dozens of slaves, a carriage & horses with liveried outriders, & a level of wealth & prominence which placed its owners among the area’s most powerful families.
Archival evidence reveals that the tract on which 18PR175 is located was originally purchased by Col. John Addison in 1687. The estate became the plantation home to four subsequent generations of the Addison family. The Addisons were one of the most economically, socially, & politically prominent families of early Maryland. John Addison emigrated to Maryland in 1674, & served in many public posts in the colony, including on the Maryland Colonial Council, & he also attained the rank of colonel in the colonial militia. In 1677, Col. John married the wealthy widow Rebecca Wilkinson, daughter of Rev. William Wilkinson, the first Protestant clergyman in the colony. Their son, Thomas, was born in 1679 at “Chesberton”, in St. Mary’s County. John was a merchant, frontier trader, & planter. By the time of his death in 1705, he had amassed an estate of nearly 6,500 acres.
Thomas Addison’s many public offices included service on the Maryland Council (1721-1727). He also rose to the rank of colonel in the militia. In 1701 he married Elizabeth Tasker, daughter of Thomas Tasker (another prominent planter). She bore him 2 daughters, but died in 1706. Thomas subsequently married Eleanor Smith in 1709. A brick Georgian manor house (the main part of 18PR175) is thought to have been built by Thomas in 1710-1711 to celebrate his new marriage. Children from this union included sons John, Thomas, Anthony, & Henry.
John Addison married Susannah Wilkinson & inherited an estate of over 3,800 acres, including Oxon Hill, upon his father Thomas’ death in June, 1727. John attained the rank of captain in the militia & served in a number of other public offices including Justice of the Provincial Court & Delegate to the Provincial Assembly. Sons born of Capt. John & Susannah included Thomas (born c. 1740), Anthony, & John.
When Capt. John died in 1764, Thomas inherited the manor house & property. In 1767, he had the property resurveyed & is the first to actually refer to the property as “Oxon Hill”. He also inherited his uncle Thomas’ portion of the family estate. Thomas (the younger) does not seem to have been as politically or militarily active as his forbears. There is no mention of a military rank in connection with his name, although he twice served as a justice on the County Court. Thomas married Rebecca Dulany in 1767 & their sons included Walter Dulany Addison (born in 1769), John, Thomas, & Henry.
Walter Dulany inherited Oxon Hill upon Thomas’ death in 1774 (at 5 yrs old). The estate was operated under the trusteeship of Thomas’ brother John & an Overton Carr until Rebecca & her 2nd husband, Thomas Hanson, brought suit against the trustees for not honoring Rebecca’s dower rights. In 1783, she was awarded a formalized dower (1/3) share of the estate, including 828 acres & the manor house. Over the next several years, the property was leased to several tenants who cleared land & made changes. Eventually, these changes led the Trustees for Walter Dulany to bring suit against Rebecca & her husband for “damages” to the estate (which Walter would one day inherit). The Hansons contended that new land needed to be cleared, as the old tobacco fields had become depleted. The outcome of this suit is unclear. Walter Dulany Addison spent much of the 1780s being educated in England. In 1783 John Hanson, the President of the Continental Congress under the Articles of Confederation, died at Oxon Hill while visiting his nephew, Thomas Hanson.
Walter Dulany Addison returned to Maryland by at least 1790, as the US census for that year lists him as the unmarried owner of 20 slaves. In 1792, Walter married Elizabeth Hesselius. They moved into the Oxon Hill manor house the following year. Rev. Walter Dulany Addison became the first Episcopal priest ordained in America. He was initially given charge of Queen Anne’s Parish & by about 1801 he was installed as rector of St. John’s Church, Broad Creek. While Elizabeth enjoyed entertaining family, friends, & others at Oxon Hill, Walter seems to have been disinterested in the manor’s management. Early in his tenure, he began selling off portions of the property & in 1794 gave 400 acres to his mother & 500 acres to his youngest brother. By 1797 the estate was reduced to approx. 1,500 acres.
About 1800, Walter began to make arrangements for the emancipation of the enslaved Africans in his ownership. At that time he altered his will to provide freedom for men over 25 & women over 20 years of age upon his death. Walter & his family had quit the manor house at Oxon Hill by 1806. In 1808, Walter’s wife Elizabeth died. Her passing seems to have brought a significant change over him, & the following year he moved to Georgetown to take charge of the new St. John’s Church there. In 1810 he sold 1,328 acres, including the Oxon Hill manor house, to Zachariah Berry, & over the next decade divested himself of the remainder of the estate lands. He did, however, retain ownership of the family cemetery.
Zachariah Berry was a wealthy planter from elsewhere in the county. Unlike Walter Dulany Addison, he was active in the pursuit of wealth. He turned Oxon Hill Manor over to his son, Thomas Berry, in 1812, & the son maintained the estate at roughly the same size (1,308 acres) until his death in 1854 or 1855. The Berrys practiced a more diversified agriculture in 1850 than might be expected, relying more heavily on livestock, grain, & to a lesser extent, orchard products, than on the traditional tobacco. The manor house burned to the ground in February of 1895 & was not rebuilt by the property’s owners. During the 1930’, much of the brick was reportedly removed & other vandalism likely took place.
The ruins of the old Oxon Hill Manor house were re-discovered in 1980 & recorded as archeological site 18PR175 as part of a Phase I survey for a planned Maryland Route 210/Interstate 95 Interchange. Also recorded at that time were the Addison family cemetery (18PR176) & the presumed Addison mausoleum (18PR177), which have associated synopsis reports.
The 1980 Phase I work entailed an initial pedestrian survey of the entire tract purchased by SHA, examining all tree falls, hilltops, & erosional cuts. This was followed by selective shovel testing (STPs) within the actual highway ramp corridor. STPs were excavated approx. every 30 m along the corridor. Soils were not screened. No prehistoric artifacts were recorded, but the three historic sites were identified. Site 18PR175 consisted of the original foundation & excavated basement (which measures approx. 50 ft north-south by 25 ft east-west). Although the site was very overgrown, a large quantity of red brick was visible in a scatter which extended at least 10 m on each side of the house.
Based on the Phase I recommendations, researchers at the University of Maryland (UMD) conducted additional archaeological examinations in 1981. Actual testing of the project area around the Addison House site was conducted in 4 discrete phases. The first phase included a complete pedestrian survey of the entire 11,594 m project area. The next phase involved the creation of a grid system composed of 5 m cells over the entire project area, with a total of 626 STPs excavated at intersecting points. All matrix was screened, with recovered artifacts being saved, curated, & analyzed. The third phase of testing involved the use of a geologist’s probe to further test for structural remains or artifact concentrations. Probing transects radiated out from the house foundation on 10 degree compass increments following a circular pattern. And finally, 18 formal 1 X 1 m test units were excavated at discretionary locations to further investigate potentially significant features & artifact concentrations. All test units were excavated in 10 cm levels & all soil matrix was screened. In addition, the extant foundation remnant was exposed & mapped.
Over 4,600 artifacts were recovered from the excavated portions of the site. Subsurface features were encountered in front of the house (a cobblestone drive) & a large pit (a possible root cellar hole) was uncovered & tested to the northeast of the house. Further northeast, the remains of a structure were identified. The lack of subsurface features in the area where the wings of the house are thought to have been located was puzzling to the UMD researchers. It was hypothesized that the wings & perhaps most of the outbuildings were probably not substantial brick structures like the house itself, but were possibly post-on-the-ground structures. In general, there was very little disturbance from plowing or other forces.
Artifacts encountered during the course of the 1981 UMD study include 2 activity items (a clay marble & a small metal lock), 955 architectural artifacts, 7 clothing items (2 plastic buttons, 1 metal button, a piece of cloth, & 3 buckles), 686 kitchen-related artifacts, 2 personal items (a rusted pen knife & a plastic comb), 62 tobacco pipe stems, 4 arms objects (3 cartridges/shells & a Minié ball), & 2,920 miscellaneous objects. The architectural artifacts include 851 brick pcs., 98 pcs. of mortar, 2 concrete pcs., a metal door bolt, & 3 metal hinges. The kitchen assemblage consisted of 517 ceramic sherds (46 creamware, 248 pearlware, 1 annularware, 43 miscellaneous earthenware, 1 Vestervalle, 1 Chinese Export porcelain, 21 other porcelain, 13 whiteware, 19 redware, 1 late 19th C. ironstone, 5 18th C. slipware, 4 white salt-glazed stoneware, 2 English Brown stoneware, 1 18th C. domestic brown stoneware, 2 19th C. gray stoneware, 1 Westerwald, 3 brown stoneware, 5 gray stoneware, 2 miscellaneous stoneware, & 98 unidentified stoneware), 57 animal bones, & 112 oyster shell pcs.. The miscellaneous objects were 568 unidentified metal items, 2,141 pcs. of glass (much of this may be kitchen-related or window glass, but data is not specific enough in the full site report), 124 pcs. of slate, 2 wood pcs., a piece of plastic, 79 coal pcs., & 5 slag pcs..
At the time of the original UMD study, the planned highway alignment called for the southbound lane to pass directly through the remnant foundation at 18PR175. This lane, along with the north-bound lane, would also impact the artifact deposits delineated as a result of the 1981 work. In short, if construction proceeded as originally planned, almost the entire study area would be destroyed. After reviewing draft versions of the full UMD site report, the engineering firm involved in the project (in consultation with Maryland SHA) proposed an alternative alignment. The proposed realignment shifted the highway north & placed a retaining wall between the roadway & the foundation. This new alignment would leave the foundation & various features intact but would destroy the areas containing artifacts to the west of the foundation, thus, additional work was mandated to mitigate the effects of the retaining wall installation.
Researchers from the Division of Archeology, Maryland Geological Survey (MGS), conducted more detailed investigations (intensive Phase II testing) during the fall of 1983 & winter of 1984 in the western half of the area investigated by UMD. Their investigations involved the excavation of dispersed sampling units in areas indicated to be culturally significant by re-analysis of UMD’s systematic sample & in areas with above-grade features. Test excavations were undertaken in five locations within the impact area for the new retaining wall & roadway. These were designated Areas I through V by the investigators.
Area I included the site of the planned retaining wall directly north of the manor house. Areas II, III, & IV were delineated by re-analyzing the artifacts recovered during the systematic sampling in 1981. Area V was the site of the possible root cellar or storage pit identified in 1981. After a pedestrian survey of the new impact zone, a grid was established & oriented in relation to the (then) extant highway centerline & thirty-three 1 X 1 m test units were excavated in Areas I-V. All excavations were undertaken in natural strata with all soil matrices sifted through hardware mesh & cultural materials retained by provenience. Records were kept on standardized forms & excavations generally continued until undisturbed strata were reached. Profiles of the test units & features were recorded when applicable.
Area I (13 test units), adjacent to the house foundation, was found to contain a well, yard fences, & apparent landscaping features. Based on the small portion of the area sampled (less than 4%) & historic documentation, it was considered likely that other significant features were present. Area II (10 units) was a large zone of artifact deposition down the slope north of the manor house. The artifacts concentrate 40 m from the foundation in an area roughly 50 m X 20 m. This slope deposit appears to represent a principal area of deposition for cultural material emanating from the manor house during both the 18th & 19th centuries. As such, it offers documentation of the social status & material wealth of the occupants. Additionally, an 1863 topographic survey indicates a structure near this area. Area III (2 units) contained a large, rectangular, flat-topped mound of fill northwest of the foundation remnant. The mound appeared to have been constructed to create a level area on which to build a structure in the middle of the 19th century. Area IV (6 units) was located about 20 m west of the foundation & was found to contain a greatly modified landscape resulting from the deposition of large quantities of fill in the 18th century to create a formal garden. The fill preserved the pre-garden landscape from later modification, including a prehistoric Moyaone occupation on the western terrace edge. In addition to the formal test units, 26 STP were excavated in this area at 5 m intervals to further define the stratigraphy of the area. And finally, Area V (2 units) encompassed the large cellar hole identified during previous work at the site. The 1983-1984 testing suggested that whatever structure was situated here, dates to the early 19th century. In general, the excavation work by MGS in 1983-194 suggested that this portion of the site also retained significant deposits with excellent integrity.
Only temporally diagnostic artifact tallies are provided in the full site report from the 1983-1984 study. Thus, the quantities provided in the table above are skewed downward. Diagnostic artifacts recovered from the site during Phase II work in 1983-1984 include 1 activity item (globe lamp glass), 12 architectural objects (4 19th C. window glass shards, 7 cut nails, 1 wrought nail), 1,135 kitchen-related artifacts, 1 white clay tobacco pipe, 4 miscellaneous historic artifacts (coal), & 3 prehistoric sherds (Moyaone ware). The kitchen assemblage included 735 ceramic sherds (31 tin-glazed earthenware, 10 Staffordshire slipware, 4 Buckley, 2 cream-colored ware, 1 Whieldonware, 134 creamware, 247 pearlware, 21 Chinese Export porcelain, 3 19th C. porcelain, 1 porcelain, 1 semi-porcelain, 226 whiteware, 12 yelloware, 4 Rhenish stoneware, 8 white salt-glazed stoneware, 7 English Brown stoneware, 20 19th C. gray stoneware, 2 19th C. Bristol stoneware, & 1 miscellaneous stoneware) & 400 glass pcs. (3 18th C. table glass, 2 19th C. table glass, 221 18th C. bottle glass, 172 19th C. bottle glass, & 2 20th C. bottle glass shards).
Additional testing was undertaken by MGS in the eastern portion of the new alignment in the fall of 1984 (designated Area VI). The prior work by MGS involved extensive archival research & that work suggested that this eastern area had high potential for 19th century features. In addition, the fall 1984 work was undertaken to examine above-grade features noted in the field during a preliminary survey conducted once the understory had been cleared.
The first step in the project was pedestrian survey to locate above-grade features. Following that, a systematic sample of STPs was excavated at 10 m intervals. Based on the results of the initial tests, areas with artifact clusters were shovel tested at 5 m intervals. Five locales within Area VI were selected for the more intensive investigation & these were designated Areas VIa (the western-most) thru VIe (the eastern-most). A final sample of STPs was excavated at 2.5 m intervals in the highest density areas of each of these five locales to provide a larger artifact sample, to refine the distributional information, & to locate & delineate soil anomalies. The STPs (average 35 cm in diameter) were manually excavated to sterile subsoil, with soil sifted through hardware mesh.
Based on artifact densities, occurrences of soil anomalies, & above-grade features, 36 one m square test units were excavated. These were excavated in natural & cultural layers. When a soil stratum was greater than 10 cm in thickness, the layer was arbitrarily divided into 10 cm levels within the stratum. All soils were sifted through mesh screen with all cultural material retained by layer. All subsurface features were excavated in section to obtain soil profiles & internal stratigraphy was drawn to scale & recorded on standardized forms.
The controlled excavations in Area VIa located structural post holes, what appears to be a cellar hole, & several landscape/planting features. Artifacts recovered suggest that this was an area of intensive occupation in both the 18th & 19th centuries, with at least 2 & possibly 3 buildings being represented. Deleterious impact to Area VIa was limited to a 20th century road which scraped a portion of the locale & redeposited it slightly downslope, but did not impact historic features. Artifact concentrations in Area VIb provided evidence of the remains of at least two of four structures shown in a cluster on an 1863 topographic map. The largest structure was represented by a high concentration of architectural debris & what appeared to be a robbed-out brick footing (likely demolished in the late 19th or early 20th century). The second structure is the easternmost of the buildings from the 1863 map & is represented by a cluster of 18th & 19th century domestic debris suggestive of an ephemeral dwelling such as a tenant house or slave quarter. Area VIc was also represented by a small artifact concentration including 18th & 19th century domestic debris. A test square in this area did not reveal any features, but indicated good stratigraphic integrity. Again, this may represent an ephemeral dwelling. Area VId was more severely disturbed (by 20th century roadways) with only a 3 m strip being potentially unaffected. The deposit was, similarly, a small artifact concentration with 18th & 19th century domestic materials. And finally, Area VIe was tested intensely due to the presence of a scatter of 18th century ceramics & other material. The results of the 2.5m grid testing & 1 m square testing confirmed that the artifact deposit was widely scattered, likely the result of field dumping. Two features were identified, but determined to be modern in origin.
Artifacts encountered during the supplementary Phase II project conducted by MGS in 1984 include 202 activity items, 18,601 architectural remains, 10 clothing items, 8 furniture objects, 4,505 kitchen-related artifacts, 5 personal items, 126 tobacco-related artifacts, 10 arms objects, 9,323 miscellaneous historic items, & 179 prehistoric artifacts. The activity items included 9 toys (2 clay marbles, 5 glass marbles, & 2 plastic toy parts), 151 lighting items (75 pcs. of lamp glass, a lamp part, & 74 lightbulb pcs.), a magic marker, a flashlight bulb, 2 tool handles, an aerosol can, 2 metal clamps, 3 non-electrical wire pcs., 2 vinyl straps, 4 metal straps, a large chrome grommet, a chain link, 3 hook & pulley components, an iron ring & bolt, 1 miscellaneous hardware item, 3 windshield wiper pcs., a car lightbulb, car headlight parts, a carburetor, a vial of battery acid, a horseshoe, 5 clay lumps (1 fired), & 6 redware flowerpot pcs.. The architectural remains include 14,993 bricks & brick pcs., 10 ceramic tiles, 903 mortar pcs., 660 window glass pcs. (at least 4 described as “Colonial”), 2 plaster pcs., 3 wood pcs., 26 dried paint pcs., 6 pcs. of daub, a cinderblock chunk, 1,957 nails (326 cut, 67 wrought, 61 wire, & 1,503 unidentified), 6 screws, 3 hinges, 5 spikes, 9 nuts/bolts, 11 terra-cotta sewer pipe pcs., a porcelain electrical insulator part, 4 electrical parts, & a florescent light starter. The ten clothing-related artifacts were 2 buttons, 3 metal snaps, a piece of leather, 2 rivet (1 through leather), a clothespin spring, & a zipper. The furniture artifacts include 2 pcs. of glass from a refrigerator shelf, 2 tacks, 2 pcs. of rug tacking, an upholstery fragment, & an electric plug prong. The kitchen assemblage includes 415 ceramic sherds (4 18th C. lead-glazed, 7 tin-glazed, 12 Buckley, 1 North Devon, 1 Manganese-mottled, 6 Staffordshire slipware, 1 Jackfield, an 18th C. agate-like ware, 4 cream-colored ware, 16 creamware, 47 pearlware, 179 whiteware, 7 yelloware, 1 Rockingham, 16 redware, 2 miscellaneous 18th C. earthenware, 19 miscellaneous earthenware, 1 18th C. porcelain, 20 porcelain, 5 ironstone, 7 18th C. stoneware, 7 white salt-glazed stoneware, 2 English Brown stoneware, 1 Rhenish stoneware, 9 gray salt-glazed stoneware, 27 gray stoneware, 6 miscellaneous stoneware, & 6 unidentified ceramics), 3,114 pcs. of kitchen glass (85 pcs. of table glass, 9 milk glass lid liners, 4 pcs. fo milk bottle, a piece of 18th C. Wald glass, 140 Colonial bottle glass pcs., & 2,875 other bottle glass pcs.), a rubber bottle stopper, 22 bottle caps, 4 zinc lid pcs., and 459 metal can fragments, 12 pcs. of aluminum foil, a “Bicardi” cup, a utensil handle, a plastic utensil, a plastic toothpick, 473 faunal remains (2 turtle shell pcs., 95 animal bones, 376 oyster shell pcs.), & 1 seed/nut/pit. The 5 personal items recovered include a key, a Spanish Real, a Silver ring (male), a plastic bandage, & a Crest toothpaste tube. The tobacco-related artifacts were 76 white clay pipe stem pcs., 49 white clay pipe bowl pcs., & an unidentified pipe stem. The ten arms items were 6 pcs. of flint debitage, a piece of lead shot, a gunflint, a .22 caliber bullet, & a shotgun shell. The miscellaneous historic items were a piece of chrome, 4 pcs. of lead, 1,003 unidentified pcs. of metal, 43 other glass objects, 1,424 pcs. of slate, 259 other pcs. of stone, 2 pcs. of Bakelite, 61 pcs. of plastic, 11 pcs. of rubber, 3 pcs. of Styrofoam, 85 charcoal pcs., 6,031 pcs. of coal, 394 slag pcs., a horse bone, & an unidentified object. The prehistoric assemblage consisted of 3 formal tools (a stemmed point, a point, & a biface), 4 retouched flakes, 45 other flakes, 76 pcs. of debitage (described as shatter, chips, & pcs.), 31 potential cobble/pebble tools, 2 pitted cobbles, 10 pcs. of fire-cracked rock, 7 ceramic sherds (2 Moyaone, 2 Potomac Creek, 1 sand-tempered), & a fired clay lump.
Based on the findings of the MGS archeological testing, Phase III data recovery was recommended in Areas I, II, IV, V, & VIa-d, in the hopes of examining more fully several of the features previously identified. This data recovery was carried out during the first 6 months of 1985 & involved a complex set of fieldwork activities by a team of as many as 60 individuals. The field team was sub-divided into 7 crews, each with their own crew chief, all overseen by a field director & PI. In addition, a number of specialists (a photographer, administrative staff, lab director & conservator, etc.) were hired on to help complete the project within the allotted 6 months. The excavations were plagued by bad weather throughout the data recovery project.
General field methods involved hand excavation of 1 X 1 m units in Areas I, II, IV, & V & 2 X 2 m units in Area VI. These units were placed on the same grid as the prior MGS study & tied to benchmarks. Unit excavation was supplemented by backhoe trenching & mechanical stripping in Areas III, IV, & VI. In addition, specialized features, such as the wells & cellars, required special treatment. The wells were excavated in 20 cm levels after the initial layers of testing backfill & loose sticks & debris were removed. The cellars were excavated in 1 X 1 m units aligned with the cellar. After testing the upper levels of fill in the cellars, the remaining fill was removed by a backhoe to expose the earlier, lower deposits. These lower deposits were then excavated entirely by hand.
The 1 X 1 & 2 X 2 units were excavated in natural layers. If a given natural layer exceeded ten cm in depth, it was divided into arbitrary 10 cm sublevels, & natural lenses within a numbered layer were recorded separately as well. Occasionally, it was deemed necessary to excavate an entire unit to subsoil as 1 level regardless of its depth in order to expose features which otherwise would not have been found. Soil from these units was not screened. This strategy was used only after the stratigraphy of an area was known (and when time restrictions were severe) & was considered preferable to the alternative (mechanical stripping). Such unscreened units were placed primarily in Areas I & VIa, & to a lesser extent in Areas V & VIb.
Once each level of a unit was completed, it was mapped & photographed. If a level contained a feature, excavation in that unit stopped until the feature had been excavated separately from the level. One by one m units were also considered part of a larger 2 X 2 m block. Once a 2 X 2 m block was completed, the north profile of this area was drawn. This provided a continuous record of the stratigraphy of each area excavated.
Soil (with the exceptions noted above) was dry-screened through mesh hardware cloth until March 28th, 1985 when drilling of a well on-site was completed. This well was drilled for the purpose of providing a water source for wet-screening through the hardware mesh & for flotation of soil samples. However, only 5 water screens could be kept in operation at a time because of the low water yield of the well, & the amount of soil being recovered usually required all of the 10 or more screens, so some of the material was dry screened even after the well was installed. The only excavation operation which was entirely water screened was the material from the 2 wells. Since the artifact & faunal preservation in the wells was exceptional, it was determined that water screening of the fill from these features take priority.
Backhoe trenching was utilized in Areas III & IV to expose sections of areas that were expected to contain buried deposits. Area IV did indeed have a deeply buried A horizon below an artificial terrace, while Area III proved to be a turn-around area for heavy equipment during the construction of I-95 in the 1960s. In Area VIb, once units were excavated in specific areas of high artifact or feature concentration (as indicated by the earlier MGS testing), mechanical stripping was employed to expose the entire area & its features. Exposure of these features could not have been accomplished with hand excavations in the time available. Area VIb was stripped with a grader to remove the topsoil from the area. Once exposed in this fashion, features were flagged, mapped, & excavated separately.
Features in the Phase III project area included 2 wells, 2 cellars, 1 foundation, 1 possible barn defined by drip lines & a pad, 3 potential structures defined by post hole & mold patterns, post holes, trenches, drainage features, planting holes, & planting trenches. Features were photographed before excavation, & then most were bisected & removed in halves. In the case of post holes & molds, the molds were removed first. Once bisected, the feature’s stratigraphy was recorded from the exposed half & photographed. A final plan was drawn & more photographs were taken once the feature was completely excavated. Historic trench features, however, were excavated in sections. These sections varied from one area to the next as the situation demanded. Once a section was removed, the excavated area was mapped & photographed.
Soil samples for flotation analysis were taken from the southeast corner of every 2 X 2m block at each level. Within features, the number of soil samples taken varied with the type of feature involved. Flotation was conducted on site & the resulting samples were analyzed by a qualified archeobotanist. Additional soil samples were removed for pedalogical study.
Field work began in Area I & continued sequentially to Area VI. The 1985 Phase III work at the site involved a total of 1,219 square meters of hand-excavated soil, uncovering a total of 324 features. Twenty-one other features were exposed by mechanical stripping in Area VIb. The total number of features exposed was, thus, 345, with nearly 66,000 artifacts recovered during the 1985 Phase III work. Area II had the highest concentration of artifacts & Area V had the highest concentration of features. Area VId, with only five square meters opened, revealed no features & had the lowest density of artifacts as well.
Area I was located in the north portion of the site, adjacent to the manor house ruin. That area proved to contain a large number of archeological features which included postholes, planting holes & trenches, a cobble deposit that had probably been the floor of a structure, a cellar, & a well. Ethnobotanical analysis of minor features within Area I yielded seeds of herbs & ornamental plants, & it’s likely that herb & flower gardens accounted for the observed planting features. Further, the artifacts recovered from all Area I contexts, except the well, yielded very small & fragmented artifacts that were probably too small to have been removed during regular cleaning of that space. That finding stands in sharp contrast to most colonial sites, in that trash dumping in colonial yards seems to be the rule, rather than the exception. Scrupulous maintenance & care of the side yards seems to have broken down during the 19th century, & more specifically during the second half of the 1800s. Lack of care was indicated by the presence of irregular, erosional features that contained 19th century artifacts, normally in an oyster shell matrix.
Artifacts recovered from Area I include 3,893 activity items, 23,102 architectural objects, 341 clothing items, 64 furniture items, 26,588 kitchen-related artifacts, 69 personal objects, 2,478 tobacco-related artifacts, & 53 arms objects. The activity items consisted of 2 bale seals, 29 toys, 89 miscellaneous hardware objects, a construction tool, 28 farm tools, 20 storage items, 39 pcs. of horse tack, an ink well, & 3,684 unidentified activity items. The architectural artifacts
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