James Madison’s Montpelier

Archaeology of the North Kitchen Site….The Final Word With A Few Pleasant Surprises

Expedition members at the North Kitchen site

After six months of excavation that included two university field schools and seven Expedition programs, most of the puzzle pieces have fallen into place, and we can now share the final outcome of our endeavors.  With careful analysis, the tangled web of 50 different soil layers and 53 features yielded some interesting and significant results.

Results of the North Kitchen project include identification of intact 19th-century deposits, including those related to the Madison kitchen and surrounding landscape.  Especially significant deposits include features that represent previous locations of kitchen piers.  Archaeological evidence suggests the north, detached kitchen was initially constructed in 1797, 57 feet from the mansion.  This distance is 100 ft from the center-line of the 1797 mansion, just as the earlier south detached kitchen had been constructed 100 feet from the center-line of the 1763 mansion.

Image demonstrating basic results of the investigations

When the mansion’s north wing was constructed in 1809, the kitchen was relocated 16 feet to the north, moving the kitchen away from the wing and bringing it into balance with the south detached kitchen; both kitchens were now 38 feet from their respective wings.  This 38-ft distance from the mansion to the north kitchen is depicted on an 1837 insurance map, and the corresponding archaeological evidence confirms this.

Continue Reading…

History in your hands

Have you ever wondered what happens to artifacts once they come out of the ground? Now you have the chance to learn first-hand through Montpelier’s Ceramics Workshop, January 24-29. The ceramics workshop is the complement to Montpelier’s popular Expedition program that brings people to Montpelier to excavate during the spring, summer, and fall.

Participants will practice the three steps of artifact analysis-cataloguing, labeling, and assembling-under the guidance of Montpelier’s staff archaeologists. There will be three work stations set up to help participants get valuable hands-on experience in each of the steps throughout the week.

They will also engage in several lectures and get a behind-the –scenes look at the role ceramics play in “A Presidential Detective Story: Rediscovering the Furnishings and Décor of James and Dolley Madison.” Many of the ceramics that are reassembled will be displayed in the mansion. Continue Reading…

Ceramic Work Study–2009

The last full week in January we had our second annual ceramic work-study.  This year we focused on ceramics recovered from the 2008 South Yard excavations.  Our objective was to understand how many ceramic vessels were represented by the myriad of small sherds recovered during the excavations this past summer.  Participants cataloged, labeled, and matched the ceramic sherds from across units into the various decorative categories.  The first part of the workshop started out a bit rocky when Montpelier was closed due to a snow storm–but being hard-core ceramic enthusiasts, the group agreed to label ceramics over at Arlington House and we even had one lecture in the dining room while the snow piled up outside!The more exciting results of the week’s work was the discovery of the wide range of Davenport ceramics we had recovered at the South Yard over the course of the summer, in particular, those decorated with the Bamboo and Peony transfer print.  These ceramics were part of a set owned by James and Dolley Madison and based on the excavation in 2007 at Dolley’s Midden, consisted of quite a massive set of china.  The pieces recovered from the South Yard are exclusively serving pieces ranging from platters to gravy boats and even include a potential vase or dessert cooler.  How these pieces ended up at the homes of the house slaves is likely once they were either chipped or broken at the main house they were deemed unsiutable for the table.  With the request to dispose of them, house slaves could either dispose of them in the trash heap or make a decision to reuse them at their home.  Such opportunistic re-use continued until they were finally broken at the quarters and made their entry into the archaeological record.  With archaeologists recovering the broken pieces in the field, the vessels entered into their final opportunistic life cycle as Montpelier archaeology staff and volunteers cleaned and mended their shattered remains! The workshop also kicked off the addition of a new staff member, Christine Heacock.  Christine has been hired to keep the archaeology lab open on the weekends and to help Kim Trickett complete an object inventory of all items recovered at the mansion through archaeological excavations.  This inventory will be entered into the Curatorial Department’s database to aid in the furnishing of the mansion.

Artifacts from the South Yard

All archaeologists have worked upon sites where it seems that you never find any artifacts, and those where you cannot move your trowel for fear of breaking one of thousands of artifacts.  In the Front Yard it might be a good day to find 12 artifacts, whereas in Dolley’s Midden it would have been a bad day to find anything less than 120 artifacts (or sometimes even 1,200 artifacts!).  The South Yard falls between these two extremes in terms of the number of artifacts recovered, yet has managed to have jaws dropping at the unique finds that have been uncovered. In this post we thought we would share some of these artifacts with our readers, including those that had us excitedly gathered around an excavation unit to discuss the find, and those finds that still elude identification.Given the paucity of evidence from the 1990s excavations, beyond the astounding find of the brick chimney base itself, we were initially concerned as to what evidence might remain in the “Structure 1″ duplex.  In chasing down the location of the duplex, however, were were able to open up a large area of the South Yard, the result of which is to enable us to begin to interpret the day-to-day lives of the domestic slaves that lived and worked in the complex and the mansion.  Although further excavations are needed to fully determine the nature of the deposits, early analysis has allowed us to extrapolate the kind of plates that the domestic slaves might have had on their table, what utensils they may have eaten and cooked with, and even what personal items they had, or the type of music that might have filled the rooms of a duplex after “can’t see” (dusk).

Tablewares

The ceramics that have been recovered from the South Yard allow us to begin to piece together the kind of plates, drinking vessels, and other tablewares that might have been used by the domestic slaves.  These materials would have included hand-me-down materials, perhaps plates chipped in the main house and deemed unsuitable for use, or those that the slaves might have bought for themselves in the market.Pictured above, from left to right, are sherds of chinese export porcelain, tin-glazed earthenware, ironstone made by the Davenport manufactory, and finally a rim sherd of shell-edged pearlware.  The Davenport ceramic is of particular interest since it has been found on almost all of the archaeological excavations that have taken place around the mansion, including the area affectionately referred to as “Dolley’s Midden” (early 19th century trash dump associated with the retirement years of James and Dolley Madison).

Utilitarian Items

While often not as pleasing or exciting to uncover from the site, the utilitarian items – the cooking pots and the utensils – provide just as much information to the daily lives of the domestic slaves as the tablewares.A number of utilitarian items are pictured above including, from right to left, a two-tine fork that likely had a bone handle, an iron table/serving spoon, and the lid of a dutch oven (link to picture from Wikipedia article; after viewing press the “backspace” key on your keyboard).

Clothing

Unfortunately, the majority of clothing does not survive in the Davidson Loam soils upon which Montpelier sits, and it is only buttons, brooches, buckles, pins, and other metal artifacts that we tend to unearth.  Pictured to the right are a number of artifacts that were recovered from what appears to be underneath the duplex slave quarter, as opposed to the artifact-rich trash deposits to the south (rear) of the structure.Pictured above, from left to right, is a clothing button, a bone bobbin used to hold wind thread for sewing, and straight pins that were likewise used by a seamstress. The final button (second row, center) is a Naval 1-piece button dated to 1827-1840.  (We had originally hoped that this was a US Marine Corps button, reaffirming the connection between Madison and the USMC, but, alas, this was not to be the case.)

Music, Culture… and Ritual?

One particularly fascinating find to come from the trash midden to the rear of the structure is a mouth harp, otherwise known as a Jew’s harp amongst many other names (right). To use the mouth harp, the tongue/reed is placed in the mouth of the performed and plucked with the finger to produce a note, with the jaw and mouth acting as a resonator to increase the volume of the note. The note produced is of the same pitch, but by varying the
shape of the mouth, the performer can create melodies.The Jew’s harp has also been associated with “trance-based” rituals, so while at the very least it represents music and culture in the slave duplex, it might also represent a connection to past rituals and ways of life.Pictured above on the far right is the bowl from a ceramic pipe for smoking, a common habit for people in the nineteenth century.

Building Materials

Finally for this post, we come to some of the more common artifacts found in the South Yard 2008 excavations: brick and nails.  As previous posts have described, the duplex had a great deal of brick to the south of its structure, possibly as a means of weathering control to prevent water drainage to the slave quarter and work yard itself.  One brick that was uncovered from behind the duplex, pictured to the right seems to have some form of makers mark, or perhaps a signature, incised on the rear.Although one of the most common types of artifacts found at Montpelier, the midden towards the rear of the duplex is noteworthy in terms of the sheer numbers of nails that were being removed from this area.  The number of nails suggests the repair of structures or recycling of boards (hence pulling of nails) occurred in the work areas of the duplex with a consequence that the waste nails were thrown in the trash area.

Can you identify this artifact?

Last year during the excavation of Dolley’s Midden – the early 19th-century trash deposit south of the mansion and downhill from the Madison Temple (see here for our previous posts) – we came across a strange artifact that we have had some trouble identifying.  At first we believed it was a graphite rod associated with an “electrical machine” owned by James Madison.  Unfortunately discussions with the Franklin Institute of Philadelphia revealed that this was unlikely to be the case. One year after, we’re still scratching our heads trying to identify the cylindrical rod.  Do you have any ideas? If so, post them as a comment (you must be registered on the ‘blog to comment).Click on the picture, above, to see a larger image.

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Summer Interns

As the end of summer (based on the school year, not the equinox) nears, our several interns will be wrapping up their projects and assignments. At this time we’d like to share with you the wonderful work that one of our interns, Christina Wagner, did for her project. A rising third year student at the University of Virginia, majoring in Anthropology, Christina’s project was to digitize all the archaeology field journals tht were kept from 1987 to 2000.The Field Journal Project was funded by Montpelier and a matching grant from the Historic Sites Fund of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. It was coordinated by Matt Reeves, Director of Archaeology for Montpelier, Lynne Lewis, Senior Archaeologist for the NTHP, and Phyllis Leffler, Professor of History at the University of Virginia. This project is a follow up to the one conducted by Serena Bollinger in the summer of 2007, who digitized all photographs and slides from the same period.There are 28 journals for the period, encompassing all the major projects undertaken during that time (e.g., the temple/icehouse/ironworks site, Mount Pleasant, the yard south of the main house, the detached kitchen south of the mansion).  Field journals are a daily record of the activities on an archaeological site, detailing who was eccavating, where they were working, what was being found, and often containing thoughts and hypotheses about the site. Years afterward, the journals can serve as a valuable supplement to the other excavation records and assist in understanding either individual excavation units, or the site as a whole.Christina began by scanning all the journals. Once they were scanned, she transcribed the four journals that directyl pertain to the south yard excavations undertaken in 1991. You will recall that this summer saw the James Madison University field school return to the south yard and having the information and insights from the earlier work will be very helpful in interpreting the site and its features.But Christina’s work didn’t stop there — during transcription she indexed the entries by excavation unit and level within the unit, and also indexed the numerous drawings and sketches contained in the journals. Finally, Christina created guidelines for the work she did, from the initial numbering of the journals through the procedures for scanning, transcribing and the indexing.  This means that the next person to pick up the transcription process will know exactly how to proceed.We are very grateful to Christina for tackling this project.  She produced a quality product — one that will be used for years to come.  Thank you!

Artifacts from the Civil War Encampments

While the department’s archaeologists have been working in the South Yard with the students of the James Madison University field school, Lance Crosby, our resident Civil War enthusiast, has been searching the woods for more evidence of Civil War encampments. By means of a systematic survey, with all finds marked and plotted using GPS, he’s made some exciting finds that we thought we would share with our readers, even if they are but the tip of the metaphorical iceberg.

Bullets

A common find in metal detecting surveys, Lance has recovered a wide range of bullets over the past few months. The illustrated example, a Gardner bullet common to the Confederate forces, is one amongst many different types of bullet fired during the American Civil War. This bullet, approximately 0.58 caliber, is made of lead (the “white rust” is lead oxide) and weighs approximately 1-1.5 oz.Other examples include “wormed bullets,” or bullets that were jammed in the rifle and required extraction with a worming tool.

Firearm Hardware

In addition to bullets, several other types of firearm accessories or hardware have been recovered. Perhaps one of the more interesting and evocative is a “nipple” or “cone protector,” seen here pictured on the far right. The “nipple” was a small, threaded tube that connected to the chamber of the gun such that when the hammer struck the percussion cap placed over the nipple, the flash ignited and traveled into the chamber, ultimately firing the bullet. The hammer could, however, damage the nipple, and so the nipple protector was attached to the trigger and the donut-shaped protector placed over the nipple.The tompion (also, tampion), pictured above on the left, was a device inserted into the end of rifles to protect the bullet and powder charge from water.  Many of these rifle accouterments were located with other gun tools during surveys of the East Woods.

Spurs, Equestrian Hardware, and Vehicle Tools

Another interesting, and more rare, find is this example of a silver riding spur. A common part of a man’s attire, it was not unusual for an individual to own many different sets of spurs.As the detail shot (far right) shows, the spur is incised with the maker’s name, “Martin.” Samuel Martin was thought to have been working in Canada during the late 1700s.In addition to this spur, a number of other equastrian-related artifacts have been recovered, including horse shoes, farrier nails, and tack. (As the premiere mode of transportation until the early 19th century, some of these artifacts may be antebellum.) The artifact pictured to the right is a carriage wrench, used to tighten the hub and other hardware.

Utilitarian Items (Household Goods, Clothing)

Many of the artifacts recovered are of a far more mundane character, dealing with the every day lives of the soldiers of the Confederate encampments. Whether it was in terms of clothing (buckle, haversack hook), meals (fork), or lighting (lantern), the metal detector survey has begun to piece together a picture and story of camp life in the 1863-1864 period.

Something Unusual…

While the Spanish real-half (pronounced ray-al) from 1732, pictured to the right, is not directly linked to the Civil War, it is nonetheless one of the more interesting finds recovered from the metal detector survey. After all, 1732 is the date that the Madisons arrive at Montpelier, and also the year in which Ambrose Madison, James Madison, Jr.’s, grandfather, was poisoned!

And finally…

Metal detector surveys are only the first step in the preservation and understanding of the Civil War encampments and the lives of the soldiers who lived, worked, and died within them. The Montpelier Archaeology Department has recently secured a $35,000 American Battlefield Protection Grant to continue survey of the encampments, as well as engage in excavations.For more information on James Madison’s Montpelier as it features in news articles, please visit our “In the News” section of the main web page.

New Archaeology Lab underway

We are making significant strides in the construction of the new lab at Montpelier. With spring full upon us, we are busily working on the interior and exterior of the building (a classroom trailer that was donated by James Madison University). We have completely gutted the trailer and have installed several windows to let in more light and replaced all the old rusted metal doors with sleek glass windows. Our favorite spot in the trailer is the picture window that looks out over the farm yard area (Constitutional Village). In addition to outfitting the trailer with what one would expect in a lab (storage shelves, work tables, wash sink, etc.), we are also going to install display cabinets for mended ceramic vessels from our various excavations and study collection cabinets where students, staff and volunteers can easily peruse a wide variety of ceramics, glasswares, nails, Civil War objects, and other artifacts. These will not only be used for teaching, but also to introduce visitors to the lab to our finds and the diversity of materials recovered from the grounds of Montpelier. We will also feature a display cabinet for our latest finds in the field. We hope to attract more visitors to our friendlier and much more efficient lab once we open in mid-May for the JMU field school. A pleasant feature of the lab will be a covered work deck where all the water screening and power-washing will take place. For those of you who have water screened at the old lab, you will appreciate the improved facilities!

Small finds… Big StoriesMadison-era Shutter Dog Discovered

As mentioned in one of our previous posts (Winter 2007), the Montpelier archaeology staff have been spending much of the winter season in the laboratory processing the materials and samples excavated during the 2007 field season. While the majority of the staff are currently involved in the camp surveys, Kimberly Trickett has remained in the laboratory and is in the process of conserving, by electrolytic reduction, the unearthed iron artifacts. This process uses a small electric current to chemically reduce the rust, essentially removing it from the artifact and redepositing it on the anode, which in this case happens to be a cast-iron frying pan. It is a process that takes a not inconsiderable amount of time, usually on the order of several days, so it tends to be left alone for the rust to bubble in the electrolytic solution while we continue with other post-excavation processes.Imagine our surprise when what can best be described as a corroded mass of iron and rust began to slowly reveal what looked like a “shutter dog,” a piece of hardware used to hold shutters in an open position. While initially this may not seem exciting, it becomes much more so when one considers that no shutter dogs have survived on the house. This archaeological specimen now provides the only example from which to model the recreated exterior hardware for the mansion restoration.The shutter dog is very similar to other 18th-century examples, and its archaeological context provides the major clue as to its origin. The shutter dog was found in a brick rubble deposit just south of the front Portico. This deposit was formed in the late 1840s when the Portico columns were reshaped as part of an exterior remodeling episode. The sequence of events for this work was that the original Madison-era Portico deck was removed from the house and a temporary set of stairs was built for front access. Then between two and three feet of soil was removed from below the Portico. The shutter dog was found on the cut subsoil just south of the Portico, indicating that the exterior surface of the mansion was then prepared for stuccoing, which involved infilling windows and removing all hardware (including our shutter dog) from the house. Following the application of the stucco, the grade in front of the Portico was lowered (and the resulting soil used to cover over the old Madison-era carriage siding and roadbed) and the square bases of the Portico columns were trimmed down, allowing them to appear as circular all the way from the top to the new grade. During the chiseling of the brick columns, the shutter dog was buried underneath about six inches of brick and mortar rubble. Since the old road had been covered, a new one was installed and a layer of clay was placed atop the rubble to bring the grade under the Portico to the level of the new drive. Finally, a sand bed and brick paving were placed atop this fill.What is important about the discovery of the shutter dog in these deposits is that its presence shows the above sequence of events occurred quite rapidly. Since the excavations under the Portico in 2004, we had never been able to clarify what delay there might have been between the stuccoing and the reconfiguration of the Portico deck. The shutter dog answers this question (the events took place over a short period of time), and also provides another piece of physical evidence that allows our restoration of the mansion to be as authentic as possible.

Winter Work Study 2008

This past week the winter work study (aka ceramics workshop) took place and we got a lot of work done! We were able to cross mend the Sevré porcelain plate and get a great start on cross mending many others including the Davenport Peony and Bamboo plates and bowls, the edge-decorated wares, Chinese export porcelains (blue underglaze and polychrome overglaze), and several coarse earthenware bowls. The cross mending process revealed that in our excavations we only recovered around 25-40% of each vessel—in other words, with the sherds at hand, only 25-30% of each vessel can be cross mended. While this ratio was a bit disappointing at first, one has to realize that with a downslope midden, the dispersal rate of artifacts is very wide ranging and that a large area needs to be excavated to recover the majority of any particular vessel. Nevertheless, it still begs the question of “where is the rest of this plate?”One plate that did go together quite nicely is the Sevré plate. All the sherds that we recovered actually fit together, which is unusual as while one might recover 50% of the sherds, only around 20% actually cross mend. As one might imagine, this is a very frustrating result indeed! What is encouraging is that we have a wide array of vessels represented in the assemblage—close to 50 vessels. The information from these vessels will provide us with a large body of data to examine Dolley and James Madison’s consumption patterns for the retirement years.Over the next several months, we will begin more intensive analysis of these vessels when Melissa Rich, former laboratory director, returns to assist us with this process.