A Garden Inferior to Few: Landscape Archaeology at Custis Square, Williamsburg, Virginia

Summary

This is a paper/report submission presented at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

The Department of Archaeology at Colonial Williamsburg has begun a multi-year investigation of Custis Square, the 18th century Williamsburg home and gardens of John Custis IV. Utilizing enslaved labor, Custis transformed this four acre lot into one of the most elaborate ornamental gardens in America between 1714 and 1749. Developed at a time of transformation in European garden fashions, Custis’ garden provides an opportunity to better understand how elite Americans translated new landscape conventions into a different cultural and environmental setting. The ongoing analysis of the Custis Square landscape through GIS, geophysics, and traditional excavations is beginning to reveal the ways in which Custis organized the landscape and how it changed dramatically after his death. These analyses show the exploitation of existing natural landforms, experimentation with both local and exotic plants, and the careful manipulation of viewsheds to create a sophisticated landscape that is globally influenced but American in execution.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• 2020 SHA General Sessions   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2020

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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 624