18th-Century (Temporal Keyword)
1-10 (10 Records)
The in-progress conservation of two mechanical jacks recovered from the early 18th-century shipwreck Queen Anne’s Revenge (31CR314), flagship of the notorious pirate Blackbeard, is presented here. Designed to lift or pry apart heavy objects, the jacks were likely part of the ship carpenter’s tool kit. These devices worked much like their modern hydraulic counterparts and consisted of a tapering, slotted rack with one end used for lifting; the other passed through the center of a gearbox...
Fire, Clay, and Microscopes: Micromorphology at the Little Bay Plantation Site in Montserrat, W.I. (2013)
Since the 1980’s the use of micromorphology in archaeology has grown and developed into an important tool for the analysis and interpretation of archaeological sites. Despite the increase in the use of micromorphology across the various sub-disciplines of archaeology, historical archaeologists have only just begun adopting these methods in their analyses. Micromorphology, the microanalysis of sediments and soils, can lend important information to the formation of, and activity within, historical...
"For the instruction of Negro Children in the Principles of the Christian religion": The Bray School Archaeological Project at the College of William and Mary. (2016)
In 1760, backed by Benjamin Franklin and the College of William and Mary’s faculty, the London based philanthropy known as the Associates of Dr. Bray founded a unique school in Williamsburg, Virginia "for the instruction of Negro Children in the Principles of the Christian religion." Students, male and female, enslaved and free, attended the school where they were taught Anglican catechism in addition to reading, writing and possibly sewing. As the stated objective of the Bray School was...
Garden and Landscape Archaeology at the Robert Carter House in Williamsburg, Virginia (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Meaning in Material Culture" session, at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. The Robert Carter House, built circa 1727 and restored by Colonial Williamsburg in 1931, is one of the largest domestic properties within the eighteenth century townsite. At a time when the best rooms in most gentry houses in town were oriented toward the front of the house, the best rooms at the Robert Carter House are at the back. A series of terraces...
A House, a Pistol, China, and a Clock: The Articulation of White Masculinity and the Cult of Sensibility in 18th-Century Montserrat, West Indies (2013)
A modest plantation house overlooking the Caribbean Sea on the northwestern coast of Montserrat burned in the late 18th-century. The path charted by the fire was fortunately uneven and has provided us with an archaeologically intimate portrait of the domesticity of empire—from table settings to personal adornment to furniture. The composition of the household is as of yet unknown, however. There are traces of enslaved Africans, and a wealthy British male well versed in the aesthetics of...
A pXRF Analysis on18th-Century Colonial Redware (2017)
This portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) research addresses questions concerning economic status and procurement strategies through the study of redware ceramics. The use of pXRF is a high-tech, newly emerging analytical technique for archaeologists that provides quantitative data concerning the chemical composition of ceramics. The ceramics were produced by local or regional manufacturers, and this research is a comparative compositional study with collections from several archaeological sites...
"A Sudden Flaw of Wind" -The Politics, Prize, and Pottery of the British Sloop of War DeBraak (2018)
On May 25th, 1798 the British brig-sloop DeBraak was struck by a sudden squall and sank while attempting to put into harbor at Lewes, Delaware. The unpredictable winds of the Delaware Cape may have spelled her demise, but it was the shifting political winds of war between Revolutionary France and England, coupled with the vulnerability of American shipping and a new nation’s demand for manufactured goods, that brought this warship to Delaware’s shores. This paper examines the ceramics...
Tavern Archaeology in Eighteenth-Century Williamsburg, Virginia (2018)
Taverns in eighteenth-century Williamsburg, Virginia ran the gamut from the refined to repugnant, from those catering to the delicate needs of politicians and colonial elites, to those offering basic room and board to road-weary travelers seeking to escape the elements. As elsewhere, Williamsburg’s varied taverns were central places within the community where people regularly gathered to transact business, argue over politics, exchanged news of the day, plot political action, or just enjoy a...
Using Collections for Trans-Atlantic Studies: A Case Study in the Spanish Atlantic (2015)
For decades, archaeologists working throughout the Spanish Atlantic have excavated a wide variety of sites. Today, the artifacts from these excavations are stored in museums and at universities throughout Spain, the Caribbean, and the Americas. Because it can be difficult to locate and access appropriate collections, these artifacts are often overlooked or undervalued. In many cases, however, the collections have an extremely high research potential and are invaluable for conducting...
Williamsburg's Raleigh Tavern Revisited (2017)
The Raleigh Tavern stands out as both a pioneering excavation in the history of historical archaeology, and as one of Colonial Williamsburg’s earliest reconstruction projects. First excavated in 1928, the foundations recorded at the site formed the basis of a tavern reconstruction that when completed in 1932, marked the official opening of Colonial Williamsburg to the public. In summer 2016, Colonial Williamsburg’s archaeologists revisited the iconic tavern site with the hopes of reexamining...