Excavations--Parterre--Excavation Unit South 19 West 83

This 5-foot-square excavation unit was placed near the center of the northwest planting bed in the parterre. Farther from the old house than South 21.5 West 71 and South 14 West 78, it lay behind the Reads’ 18^th-century carriage house. Laying as it does in the planting bed, the upper 1.5 - 2 feet consisted mostly of tilled garden soil and planting features. We carefully excavated and recorded more than 15 West of the latter, ranging in size from 0.2 - 2.5 feet, and dating from the 1840s to the 1990s! One of the largest planting features cut through several layers of soil in the center of the unit. Almost completely round, its shape and placement in the parterre correspond nicely to pictures taken in the 1880s of round metal frames supporting plants. While excavating these features seemed quite cumbersome and time-consuming, it was extremely important. The Historical Society plans to use the information we found to restore the parterre to its original 1840s appearance. Had we not excavated these planting features and taken such detailed notes, this would be virtually impossible, due to the lack of photographs or other written documentation of the garden from that time.

Below the planting soils and features, we came upon a mixed deposit of yellow, orange, and gray gritty clay containing little material culture. Encountered also in South 21.5 West 71 and South 14 78, we think it represents a fill laid down by the Coupers in the 1840s to cover and seal the underlying layers of household trash. Beneath this fill, we encountered a 0.5 foot-thick layer containing garbage from the early 19^th-century tenants of the old house, but no clear evidence of the 1824 fire. This trash, or midden, layer contained nails and bricks as well as kitchen and dining wares, food bone, straight pins, cufflinks, buttons, clay tobacco pipe fragments, oyster shells, a carved bone knife and possibly an umbrella handle. As we finished our 1996 field season, we removed a dense concentration of oyster shells in the southern end of the unit, nearest the former carriage house’s location, and uncovered a row of bricks laying parallel to the west wall of the unit. Watch for updates on our discoveries when we return to complete this unit this summer!

QuickTime Movies from the excavations!

• South 19 West 83 Duration: 21.8 seconds Size: 899KB

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