Archaeological Field School Week 3

This season, Poplar Forest’s archaeological team and field school students surveyed existing documents, maps, and stream of ownership, as well as what they’ve learned in previous excavations, to try and locate one of the 18^th-19^th century overseer’s house. The third week of field school continued this quest. With the grace and generosity of a historically curious neighbor, we have been granted permission to excavate a site that appears on at least one map to have been placed near the already established quarter site, which sits just over the private property fence on the northern edge of Poplar Forest property. Though our test pits have not been particularly fruitful, we are finding some small items associated with Thomas Jefferson’s time here. A few pieces of creamware or pearlware, some wrought nails, a buckle, and some melted glass. One of our test pits revealed a sizable collection of slag – debris from a blacksmith shop or coal – though there weren’t any other artifacts to provide a context to connect it to and none of the nearby excavations provided more that might guide us to our goal. This slag was still a fascinating find, as a future season of field work at Poplar Forest is likely to include the search for a Jefferson era blacksmith, which may potentially be located in the same vicinity.

Despite being outside the time frame we seek, we have unearthed a couple of prehistoric stone tools, one nicely worked and clearly used, and one that is clearly formed but not ‘finished.’  Prehistoric Native Americans may have needed to travel distances to acquire the things they needed. They might carry with them several points, to be prepared if something happened to the one they were currently using, or if some other prehistoric problem came their way. The sheer age of these lithic tools makes it a satisfying discovery, despite being completely disconnected from our focus.