A "single closely dated assemblage"?: Re-examining the Timing and Nature of the House Clearance Deposit(s) in the Custis Well

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Returning to Colonial Williamsburg (General Sessions)" , at the 2021 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

In 1964, Colonial Williamsburg archaeologists excavating an 18th-century well uncovered an unusual and exciting cache of artifacts as they neared the bottom of the brick lined shaft. This assemblage included dozens of complete wine bottles, many of which bore the seal of John Custis IV, the owner of the property the well was found on in the first half of the 18th century. Ivor Noel Hume interpreted this deposit as a house clearance episode associated with the death of John Custis’ son Daniel Custis. I draw upon the original field notes, a recent re-analysis of the artifacts, and documentary sources describing Custis’ estate to test Hume’s hypothesis as well as contextualize the deposit in terms of our current understanding of household clearance events and well use. Finally, I describe how Colonial Williamsburg plans to incorporate this assemblage into our current project, researching and interpreting the historic landscape of Custis Square.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Returning to Colonial Williamsburg (General Sessions)   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2021

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology