James Madison’s Montpelier

Historic Road

Excavation unit placed atop the road surface. Due to our excavatint grid being oriented at a 45 degree angle to the road surface, we bisected the road (white string) at a 45 degree angle to our unit. This allowed for a profile to be drawn of the road deposits. While the surface of the road can be seen at the upper right, the potential road rut (marked as ditch in the photo), contained large quantities of clinker and slag (the debris from metalworking) used to fill an otherwise wet low area of the road. This debris, when coupled with the orientation of the road and its continuation along the line of a previously identified historic road, argues for a 19th century date.