A Tavern at Warwicktowne: Food and Function at Young's Ordinary

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions)" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Data recovery excavations were completed at the former City Farm property in Newport News, Virginia with the goal of documenting the remains of the historic Warwicktowne settlement. Warwicktowne was established by the Virginia Company for use as a major port in 1680 and functioned as a judicial center until the Warwick County courthouse was moved in 1809. During the 2018 field effort, the structural remains of an inn or tavern were identified. Historical documents identify this structure as Young’s Ordinary. A dense artifact concentration was identified within the building footprint in the area of the original cellar space. Analysis of the various artifact categories and the faunal data that was collected contributes important data to the current body of knowledge on taverns and inns in historical archaeology. While most historic tavern or inn sites are easily characterized as either rural or urban, Young’s Ordinary fits somewhere in between.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SHA 2022 General Sessions   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2022

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology