Posts or Sills – What’s The Big Deal?

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Archaeological Imaginaries, Regional Realities: 50 Years of Work in the Chesapeake", at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

This paper examines two colonial sites in Maryland’s Patuxent River Valley: the Melon Field site (18CV169), home of Robert Taylor Jr., dating between the 1660s and the 1680s and the 1690 to 1711 King’s Reach Site (18CV83), home of Richard Smith Jr. While these two small tobacco farms both have small structures containing multiple subfloor pits typical of early Chesapeake plantations, the sites differ significantly in building construction techniques. The King’s Reach structures were post in the ground, a building method typical of early Chesapeake construction and familiar to Chesapeake archaeologists. Robert Taylor’s home and outbuildings likely used ground sill construction. The two sites are separated by approximately 1,000 feet in distance and in time by only a few decades. Contrasting Taylor and Smith using documentary records provides further clues to the choices made by these men when constructing their homes.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2024   •
• Archaeological Imaginaries, Regional Realities: 50 Years of Work in the Chesapeake

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow