ARCHAEOLOGISTS DISCOVER PROBABLE JEFFERSON-ERA BUILDING SITE
Originally printed in the Poplar Forest Newsletter, Fall 2003; updated on-line Spring 2006

Archaeologists are exploring a Jefferson-era site, known as Site B, about 20 yards east of where they have uncovered evidence of an antebellum slave cabin (see related story).

The site was discovered during testing in 1995.Late 18^th and early 19^th century artifacts found in this area indicated the presence of a site here that deserved further research as archaeologists try to find evidence of Jefferson ’s landscape design near the 10 acres surrounding his house.

Two roads are documented to have existed in the area. Farm outbuildings likely would be located near the roads to facilitate the movement of people and goods. A memorandum that Jefferson wrote to his overseer in 1812 indicates that the southeast portion of the road that encircled his house was located about 100 feet east of the current excavation. Additional survey notes indicate that a radial road connecting the plantation with the Lynchburg-Salem Turnpike intersected the circular road near the site.

Thousands of fragments of late-18^th and early-19^th century ceramics, bottle glass, and other domestic artifacts have been recovered from the site. They include fragments of locally made coarse earthenware pots, as well as refined ceramic dishes in types both common and rare at Poplar Forest . A worked stone “blank” may have been shaped by an enslaved resident as a first step in making a tobacco pipe. Intriguingly, these artifacts match fragments previously found during excavations at the east wing of the house and the slave quarter sites to the north. These clues not only tie the sites together in time, but go further to suggest that in some cases, matching sets of ceramics may have been used and discarded at both places. 

Several ceramic types and patterns found at Site B match vessels believed to have been used on Jefferson ’s table. He favored dining vessels decorated with J. & W. Ridgway’s “ Oxford and Cambridge College Series,” preferring views of the Oxford College campus set in the series distinctive octagonal cartouche. Several fragments of dishes in this series appear at the site. Matches of other relatively rare pieces have begun to emerge, including small amounts of canaryware—a refined earthenware characterized by its bright yellow glaze—and a single fragment of a dry-bodied red stoneware teapot known as “Egyptian Red” or “Rosso Antico.” Fragments of a pearlware bowl with an unusual trailed slip decoration, and pieces of a molded creamware basket, also match pieces discovered during excavations around the main house and dependency wing. These clues suggest a close connection between Site B and Jefferson ’s household during his retirement years.

Following abandonment of Site B, the area reverted to agricultural use, and was plowed in the late-19^th and 20^th centuries. While plowing has moved artifacts up and down through the soil, destroying the upper layers that archaeologists find so useful in “telling time,” it has not destroyed the horizontal relationship between artifacts that allows them to pinpoint the location of sites. By collecting, counting and measuring artifacts, fairly accurate maps can be made that illustrate artifact patterning across the site. This patterning helps archaeologists to “see” how people structured the use of space here in the past.

Below the plowed soils, undisturbed deposits dating from the early 19^th century remain in place. Near the northern edge of the block excavation, archaeologists uncovered a dense layer of cut schist, a building stone that Jefferson favored in constructing the cellar of his home, the footings of the dependency wing and for paving in front of the house. This feature corresponds with the location of the northern concentration of building material noted in the plow zone. It may be all that remains of a prepared surface that underlay the dirt floor of a structure. The intact remains of a trench, also filled with schist, connect this part of the site to the area where the second concentration of building remains was found about 20 feet to the south.

Further work is needed at Site B before archaeologists can determine the buildings’ precise locations, sizes or uses. While the domestic artifacts indicate that people lived at the site, the architectural remains suggest that the buildings that stood here were more substantially built than the slave cabins excavated previously at the North Hill and Quarter sites at Poplar Forest . This disparity may point to improved slave housing over time, or indicate a difference in the principal function of the structures site. In the early 19^th century, many farm outbuildings did double duty as housing. For instance, a stable or barn might have a loft where workers lived. Indeed, Jefferson suggests just such an arrangement for his mason Hugh Chisolm. When Chisolm planned to be on site at Poplar Forest to oversee construction of the retreat in 180, Jefferson directed him to fix himself “a snug lodging place in the barn.”

Site B is near the archaeological remains of an antebellum cabin, which in turn may sit on top of another Jefferson-period building. Close to all these archaeological sites are two extant brick structures, believed to have been constructed right before the Civil War as housing for the plantation overseer and enslaved workers. They housed tenant farmers during the 20^th century and are currently used as office space. The findings thus far suggest that this area was used for plantation outbuildings and housing from Jefferson ’s time onwards, with generations of buildings replacing each other.

Excavations in this area may help provide locations to buildings and gardens referred to in historical record. Jefferson-period documents speak of structures whose actual locations have not yet been found—including a pre-1816 kitchen, a spinning house, dairy, coopers’ shop, stables and numerous slave cabins—and it is possible that some may fall within this area.

Archaeologists now believe that Site B is a portion of a larger complex of Jefferson-era buildings and workspaces that marked this place as a major center of activity during his retirement years. As such, it has the potential to provide important new information about plantation industry and Jefferson ’s strategies for promoting self-sufficiency, about the changing domestic and working conditions of enslaved people as the property transitioned from an outlying farm to villa retreat, and about Jefferson ’s final resolution of the ongoing tension between elements of utility and beauty in his domestic landscapes.

While searching for the southern limits of the site in the fall of 2005, archaeologists discovered very deep deposits of organic soil containing large numbers of domestic artifacts that had escaped plowing. Because of the excellent state of preservation, it is very likely that a close examination of this area will help solve the mystery of how Site B was used, who used it, and how long it remained an important part of Jefferson ’s retreat landscape.