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From Field to Lab

From Field to Lab

44JC0052_excavating_cellar_BANNER
Preserving the Kingsmill Collection

In 2018, DHR received 772 boxes of artifacts from the sites associated with Kingsmill in James City County. Some of these artifacts were in bags and boxes dating to the 1970s. Their condition ranged from unwashed and unprocessed, to conserved objects stored in fully archival materials. In 2019, funds managed by The Conservation Fund provided for a collections assessment of archaeological assemblages from sites in the project area. They include some of Virginia’s most significant Colonial period sites, including those from the Kingsmill project. The assessment identified the scope of the work that needed to be addressed with these collections including rehousing, cataloging, and conservation.

In 2020, DHR received funds through The Conservation Fund for curation and conservation of the Kingsmill collections. A subset of the entire collection was selected for improvement. For this grant, DHR prioritized those collections associated with people of color—individuals often overlooked or unrecognized in the archaeological and historical record. In addition, we identified important or unique artifacts from other contexts that were exhibiting signs of deterioration.

The objects highlighted on this page represent both unique and everyday objects. They illustrate how their owners used material culture not only for functional purposes, but also to convey messages of social status, economic standing, and education, and to establish and reinforce social networks and relationships. The objects arrived in Virginia through a trade network that included Africa, the Caribbean, and much of Western Europe. The network became part of a setting where Europeans, Africans, and Native Americans interacted and established relationships that would have long-lasting, and often disastrous, repercussions. The current curation and conservation project will provide access to some of these collections to researchers for the first time since they were recovered from the ground.

Pictured above: Archaeologist Bly Straube excavating at site 44JC0052 in 1978 at Kingsmill. Photo credit: DHR.

The Kingsmill Historic Site in James City County

Located along the James River five miles south of Williamsburg, Kingsmill is the location of a complex of archaeological sites that includes plantations, wells, a mill, and quarters dating from the first half of the 17th century through the 18th century. Given the variety of site types and the identification of several quarters housing the enslaved, excavations offered an opportunity to examine the lives of those other than just that of the wealthy landed gentry of Colonial Virginia, as had been the focus of much research previously (Kelso 1984).

From 1972 to 1976, archaeologists from the Virginia Historic Landmarks Commission, now the Department of Historic Resources (DHR), led excavations at these sites with the financial support of Anheuser-Busch. Some of the more complete and unique artifacts recovered were placed in a study collection at DHR and have been used by numerous researchers. The remaining artifacts were stored in boxes at other locations and have been largely inaccessible for decades. Those artifacts were received by DHR in the Richmond repository in 2018. Since then, DHR staff have assessed the collections, completed the cataloging of 10 Kingsmill sites, and conserved over 100 artifacts.

Here are some publications where you can learn more about these sites and some of the material culture studies that arose from their excavation:

Kelso, William M., 1984, Kingsmill Plantation, 1619-1800: Archaeology of Country Life in Colonial Virginia. Academic Press.

Egloff, Keith, 1980, “Colonial Plantation Hoes of Tidewater Virginia”. Research Report Series No. 1, Virginia Department of Historic Resources. https://www.dhr.virginia.gov/pdf_files/Archeo_Reports/S683-E34-1980_Colonial%20Plantation_Hoes_Virginia_1980_DHR_report.pdf

McClure, James Patrick, 1977, “Littletown Plantation, 1700-1745”. Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects. Paper 1539624993. https://dx.doi.org/doi:10.21220/s2-jsn0-m425

Samford, Patricia M., 2007, Subfloor Pits and the Archaeology of Slavery in Colonial America. University of Alabama Press.

Kingsmill site excavation cellar
Cellar excavations at Site 44JC0032 in Kingsmill. Photo credit: DHR/Virginia Cultural Resources Information System

Check back next month to learn about the tin-glazed earthenware bowl, one of the artifacts recovered from Kingsmill!