Demory Site, Loudoun County, Virginia Excavations and Artifacts Uncovered
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Consuming Mosaics: Mass-Produced Goods and Contours of Choice in the Upper Potomac Region © 2003 Copyright and All Rights Reserved By Christopher C. Fennell Appendix C The Demory Site, Loudoun County, Virginia Excavations and Artifacts Uncovered 575 Appendix C The Demory Site, Loudoun County, Virginia Excavations and Artifacts Uncovered Overview This archaeological site is located on private property near the town of Neersville in Loudoun County, Virginia. The site, which includes a standing house structure, is located half-way up the west side of the Short Hill Mountain, approximately 6 miles south of Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, in the Loudoun Valley. The location lies at an altitude of approximately 850 feet above sea level, and approximately 305 feet above the floor of the Loudoun Valley. A site datum was set on a mature Ash tree located 19.35 feet due east of the southeast corner of the standing house on the Demory site. This datum was given the relative coordinates of 500N 500W. Spatial measurements are expressed in units of feet and inches; grid coordinates are in feet and tenths of feet; levels excavated are measured vertically in inches below surface (BS). Maps of the excavations site, including the locations of test units, shovel test pits (STP) and main structures and features, are set out in Figures C.1-C.3 below. The excavations were conducted in the period of 1997 through 1999 by the author with the assistance of participants in an archaeological field school sponsored by the Department of Anthropology at the University of Virginia in the summer of 1999. The surface and subsoils in the area of this site are comprised primarily of the Eubanks-Chester soil types (U.S.G.S. 1960:app. 120, soil associations survey map). A general profile of Eubanks soil types includes a “Yellowish-brown loam to sandy loam over red, friable fine sandy clay loam,” and the Chester type similarly includes “Brown loam over yellowish-red sandy clay loam” (U.S.G.S. 1960:44). More particularly, the soils in this area included Airmont stony loams, Hazel silt loams, and Manor silt loams in stony colluvial land, in association with sandstone, quartzite, gneiss and schist (U.S.G.S. 1960:app. 120). Airmont stony loams are characterized by a “Light brownish-gray loam over yellowish-brown fine sandy clay loam” (U.S.G.S. 1960:45, 49). Hazel loams include a “Brown silt loam over mottled weathered schist,” and Manor loams typically include “Brown silt loam over yellowish-brown very friable course loam” (U.S.G.S. 1960:44, 78, 86). Friable mean that the soil was course, and easily crumbled into a powder. The Airmont, Hazel and Manor loams typically show a Muncell color association of 7.5YR 4/4 or 7.5 YR 5/6 for the upper levels of brown-yellow loam, and 5 YR 5/8 for the lower levels of yellow-brown or yellow-red sandy clay loam (U.S.G.S. 1960:110-111, 113). When encountered in excavations, these soils typically appeared as a dark brown friable (or “flaky”) loam, due to the inclusion of decaying organic material (humus), from the surface to a depth of approximately 8-10 inches BS, followed by a yellow-brown sandy soil at approximately 10-14 inches BS, followed by a yellow-brown and/or yellow- red sandy or clay soil at approximately 14 inches and deeper. The soils were usually 576 heavily intruded with root structures from trees and shrubs, and many small, medium and large size rocks, often of schist. Construction excavators dug deep trenches on a nearby parcel of land in the summer of 1999, testing for the land’s drainage capabilities. These construction trenches showed that the subsoil of yellow-red clay sandy soil extended to a depth of 20 feet in some places, at which point a fairly solid layer of schist was encountered. Excavations undertaken in 1997-1999 included 112 shovel test pits, 35 excavation units, and a systematic surface collection of a large portion of the site. Shovel test pits were typically 12 inches in diameter. Excavation unit coordinates were measured to the southwest corner of each unit, unless otherwise indicated. Excavation units were 3 feet square in plan. Vertical levels were excavated in 2 inch arbitrary levels, unless otherwise indicated in specific excavation notes listed in the inventory below for each excavation unit and STP. All soils from Excavation Units 1-4 were screened with one-eighth inch square hardware mesh, and all soils from Excavation Units 5-35 and STPs 1-112 were screened using one-quarter inch square hardware mesh. In addition to artifacts, we collected from each arbitrary level any fragments of animal bones, nutshells and snail shells, and all charcoal flakes. Excavators also conducted a systematic surface collection of the area surrounding the house in 1999 by collecting all artifacts on the surface that were not located in excavation units or STPs. Artifacts were collected from the surface of each 10 feet by 10 feet square on the site grid. Artifact bags from this surface collection are labeled by the grid coordinate of the southwest corner of each 10 foot by 10 foot square. Over 22,000 artifacts and organic objects were uncovered in the 1997-1999 excavation project. In addition to the features shown on the site maps in Figures C.1-C.3, below, a large rock wall of dry stacked rocks, approximately 2 feet wide and 18-24 inches tall, ran along the west side of the log house, from approximately 580W 470N on the site grid, up through 540W 550N. This wall extended along that directional line a few hundred feet north of the house site, disappearing in an area of heavy undergrowth. This wall was constructed of the local rock, which had likely been removed in the past from the grounds surrounding it to create cleared stretches of fields along the contours of the slope for planting crops. Limited soil core samples were collected off the north side of the house. This area was thickly overgrown. Oral history interviews, the current contours of the site, and the location of the wall of dry-stacked rocks made this area appear to be a likely location of past garden or crop plots. Soil cores were taken: at 562 N 470W, to 6” BS, with typical soil profile evident; at 582N 470W, to 6 inches BS, with typical soil profile; at 602N 470W, to 8 inches BS, with typical soil profile; at 622N 470W, to 8 inches BS, with typical soil profile; and at 642N 470W, to 8 inches BS, with typical soil profiles evident. This typical soil profile included a top layer of dark brown flaky loam and transition to mix with yellow brown sandy soil. Taking these soil core samples proved difficult, due to the heavy root and rock intrusions throughout the topsoil in this area. 577 Our findings for each excavated unit, shovel test pit, and the units of systematic surface collections are summarized below. The inventories of artifacts provided below are based on a review of a variety of sources concerning different categories of material culture, including sources on ceramic wares (e.g., Barber 1909, 1971; Burton and Hobson 1928; Chaffers 1968; Comstock 1994; Deetz 1993; Gay and Smith 1974; Godden 1964; Ketchum 1971; Kovel and Kovel 1995; Lang 1995; Lehner 1988; Martin 1991; Noël Hume 1970; Sussman 2000; Turnbaugh 1985), flat glass, bottle and jars (e.g., Fike 1987; Hunt 1997; O. Jones 2000; Jones and Sullivan 1989; Newman 1970; Toulouse 1970, 2001; Watson 1965), kitchen implements and cutlery (e.g., Dunning 2000; L. Franklin 1997), tin wares (e.g., Light 2000; Rock 2000), sewing implements (e.g., Hill 2000), coins (e.g., Friedberg 1988), commemorative badges (Library of Congress 2001), barbed wire (Clifton 1970), fence hardware (Martin 1999), wagons, stoves and agricultural implements (e.g., Clemens 1994; Israel 1968), nails (Nelson 1968; Phillips 1994; Priess 1973; Wells 2000), clocks (Battison and Kane 1973; Distin and Bishop, 1976; Palmer 1950), and piano parts (Fine 1987; Pierce 1965). For glass artifacts, the term “table glass” is used in these inventories for glass that likely was part of a tumbler (i.e., a drinking glass), dish, bowl, pitcher or vase, and for which a more refined classification was not possible due to the small size of the fragments (Jones and Sullivan 1989:9). The term “flat glass” is used for fragments of glass that were typically from window glass or picture frames (Jones and Sullivan 1989:9). The term “colorless” glass is used here in place of the phrase “clear” glass (Jones and Sullivan 1989:13). Similarly, the term “light blue” is used instead of “aqua” to avoid confusion potentially created by varying uses of the latter term in literature concerning glass wares, and the term “milk glass” is used as a synonym for “opaque white” glass (Jones and Sullivan 1989:14). Some descriptive references are provided in these inventory descriptions to various types of base shapes for bottles; these shape types are based on Richard Fike’s summary of bottle base profiles (Fike 1987:10). Wrought, cut and wire nails were identified by the characteristics of the nail shafts. More refined classifications of such nails were not possible, due to the corroded nature of the artifacts. The phrase “wrought or cut nails” indicates that the nail shafts could be classified as being one or the other of these types, and could not be classified as wire nails. The term “unidentifiable nail fragments” indicates artifacts that possessed the general attributes of nails, but were too corroded to permit classification by the characteristics of the nail shafts.