Buildings and Bling But No Bottles or Bone? Peculiar Findings at the Houston-LeCompt Site

Summary

In the summer of 2012, a dozen Dovetail archaeologists and scores of volunteers toiled in the sun to excavate the Houston-LeCompt site, located along the newly proposed Route 301 corridor in central Delaware. Using test units, backhoe scraping, feature excavation, and artifact and ethnobotanical analysis, the team recovered an astounding amount of data on the Houston family and generations of subsequent tenant farmers who worked the land. House cellars, kitchen refuse pits, wells, and sheet middens contained thousands of artifacts highlighting the 250 year occupation of this parcel, some in remarkable condition. Ranging from late-eighteenth century furniture hardware and decorative ceramics to early-twentieth century jewelry and clock parts, the remains document the shift from an owner-occupied residence to tenant-based dwelling in what was then the Delaware rural agricultural backwater.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2016   •
• New Highway Uncovers New Histories: Archaeology Mitigations From the U.S. Route 301 Mega Project in Delaware

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 183