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US Route 301 Archaeology Update

Written on: June 20th, 2012 in Archaeology Updates US301

The machine was not used on the area around the house basement that had been identified in the previous phases of work.  Clearance of the plowzone here was done by hand.  The result can be seen on the photograph, which shows the exposed filled-up basement of the mid-18^th century house.  The view is facing to the south.   The dark soil filling the rectangular basement is surrounded by the cellar walls which are made of large cobbles, probably brought from the bed of nearby Scott Run.  Some of the stones have been dislodged by modern plowing, but the structure is remarkably intact.  The trench running across the view is the excavation we did in the Phase II study.  We have removed the backfilled soil from this to re-expose the profile across the cellar.  In the middle of this trench you can see a circular feature (just left of the blue plastic flagging): this is the Phase I shovel test dug by our colleagues at Archaeological and Historical  Consultants  which was one of the vital first clues that there was an important site here.  The cellar is about 7.5 feet east-west by roughly 15 feet north-south.  One of the things we will be trying to establish is whether this feature reflects the size and shape of the house above it, or whether the house was larger and the cellar was only under a part.  We have so few examples of other houses of this period from Delaware that either is possible, even though a 7.5 by 15-foot house seems rather small by modern standards!