This Report Describes the Research Methods and Plans, Excavations

INTRODUCTION This report describes the research methods and plans, excavations, analyses, and results of the archaeological investigations of the Patterson Lane Site Complex, near Christiana, New Castle County, Delaware (Figure 1). The Patterson Lane Site Complex consists of three separate historic sites: the Patterson Lane Site (7NC-E-53), the William Dickson Site (7NC-E-82), and the Heisler Tenancy Site (7NC-E-83) (Figure 2 and Plate 1). Archaeological investigations were conducted on the sites within the complex as part of the cultural resources survey of the planned realignment of Delaware Route 7 around the town of Christiana, which in turn was part of a larger upgrading and realignment of Route 7 from 1-95 to U.S. 13 (see Catts et al. 1988a). Phase I survey and testing and Phase II investigations of the sites were funded by the Delaware Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration, and were undertaken to fulfill regulatory obligations under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act (amended) to evaluate the effects of the proposed relocation and realignment of Delaware Route 7 on significant, or potentially significant, cultural resources as defined by the National Register of Historic Places (36 CFR 60). The Patterson Lane excavations were conducted in the summer of 1982 by archaeologists of the Delaware Department of Transportation. Phase I and II field investigations of the Dickson and Heisler Sites were undertaken in the winter and spring of 1986 by archaeologists from the University of Delaware, 1 Center for Archaeological Research (UDCAR). Preliminary artifact cataloging and analysis was performed on the Patterson Lane Site artifact assemblage by the DelDOT archaeologists, and final artifact cataloging and analysis, and report preparation for all three sites were conducted by UDCAR in 1987. The realignment of Route 7 in this portion of the Route 7 South Corridor consists of an entirely new right-of-way located approximately 0.2 miles east of the present road-bed of Route 7. The proposed ROW is approximately 350 feet wide at this point, and extends northwards from the crossing of Christina River, across 0.1 mile of wetlands and marsh, and up the bluff and across the uplands of the Patterson Lane Site Complex (Figure 2). The original Phase I survey conducted by DelDOT archaeologists investigated the proposed alignment that traversed the Patterson Lane Site. Later design changes, which shifted the proposed ROW approximately 350 feet westward, made the additional investigations by UDCAR archaeologists necessary, thus allowing the identification and excavation of the Dickson and Heisler Sites. In the following pages, the Patterson Lane Site Complex will be discussed in terms of its environmental setting, its relation to regional historic developments, in particular to the village of Christiana Bridge, and site specific historic research. Field methods and research goals will be presented, followed by the results of the excavations. Artifact analysis and site interpretations, from both intra- and inter-site perspectives, will be undertaken, and finally management recommendations regarding the sites will be made. 5 ENVIRONMENTAL SETI'ING The project area of the Patterson Lane Site Complex is located within the High Coastal Plain of Delaware just to the south of the Fall Line, directly on the middle reaches of the Christina River, a high order tributary of the Delaware River (Figure 2). The High Coastal Plain, which is located between the Fall Line and the Smyrna River to the south, is characterized by rolling topography and elevation differences which can range up to 50 feet (16 meters) from the headlands bordering high order streams to adjacent floodplain marshes. The bluff and slope along the southern border of the Patterson Lane Site Complex is the dominant topographic feature in the immediate vicinity of Christiana, rising steeply from the marshlands at the base of the bluff to nearly 50 feet in the area of the Heisler Site (7NC-E 83), and to 80 feet above sea level where the present road bed of Route 7 intersects with Patterson Lane, to the west of the project area. A schematic cross-section of this bluff, from Patterson Lane south to the Christina River, is illustrated in Figure 3. This high ground east of the village was one of the earliest parcels of land to be patented by the Penn government, and was called "Eagles Point" in the early deeds. The soils in the project area are characterized as silty and clayey sand ranging from steep slopes of 12 to 40% along the fringes of the marsh to more gradual slopes along the road bed of Patterson Lane. Soils of this type are not suited for cultivation, due to the extreme erosion and density of the clays, although silty and clayey soils are suitable for limited livestock pasturage (Mathews and Lavoie 1970). 6 FIGURE 3 Schematic Cross-section of Project Area Vertical Scale Horizontal Scale o 30 60 leel U:o ! I ~40 feet Osage Orange William Dickson Site ,/ Hedgerow Patterson 7NC-E-82 Lane I ,---- 30 20 Sewer Road 10 Marsh Christina Note: Vertical scale exaggerated to enhance cross-section River The Christina River dominates the hydrology of the project area. Although it is fed by a number of low order intermittent and perennial streams and springs, it is principally fed by Eagle Run, a perennial tributary which empties into the Christina from the northwest, just to the east of the Patterson Lane Site Complex. Like the Christina, Eagle Run has figured prominently in the development and growth of the Patterson Lane area and the village of Christiana Bridge. The Christina is tidal to Smalley's Mill Pond, a distance of approximately 15.8 miles from the river's mouth near wilmington, and about 1 mile west of the town of Christiana. The project area is included within the tidal portion of the drainage. Historic agricultural practices and recent suburban development in proximity to the river and its tributaries has increased the local rate of run-off during periods of high precipitation. This problem, coupled with the 7 river's tidal nature, make the Christina especially susceptible to flooding. In fact, the bankfull stages of 8 feet were exceeded fifty-nine times between the years 1943 and 1968, and record floods occurred on July 5, 1937 and May 1, 1947 (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers 1968). The former flood severely damaged the earthen and sod retaining banks in the vicinity of the Churchmans Road bridge, causing a flooding of the area now known as Churchmans Marsh. Prior to that time, starting in the mid eighteenth century and continuing into the twentieth century, much of the marsh had been drained by a system of dikes and ditches, and utilized for salt hay production and livestock grazing land (Robert Lynam, personal communication 1984). The combination of different hydrological settings and varied soils in the vicinity of the study area allowed for a broad range of environmental settings during the past 13,000 years of prehistoric utilization and occupation of the region. Table 1 lists the varied environments through time for the major drainage floodplains around the Christina River and the headlands and interior areas during the past 10,000 years based on local paleoenvironmental research (Custer 1982, 1984; Custer and watson 1987). More detailed environmental reconstructions (Custer 1980; Custer and DeSantis 1986) may also be applied to the project area, and the location of the project area with respect to these reconstructions is shown for different points in time in Figure 4. These regional reconstructions highlight both the environmental diversity and the upland/interior versus floodplain dichotomy, particularly apparent in the Patterson Lane vicinity. 8 TABLE 1 LOCAL PALEOENVIRONMENTS Date Floodplain Margins Bluffs and Interior prior to deciduous gallery Scattered grasslands 6500 B.C. forests and boreal woodlands 6500-3000 B.C. mixed oak/hemlock Hemlock/oak woodland gallery forest 3000-800 B.C. deciduous gallery Open oak/hickory forests woodland with scattered grasslands 800 B.C. deciduous gallery Mixed oak-chestnut recent forests woodland Source: Custer 1982, 1984a; Custer and watson 1987 It is expected that this dichotomy would have important effects upon prehistoric settlement patterns in the study area. Lithic resources which would have been available to both the prehistoric and historic populations of the study area consisted of primary outcrops and secondary cobble resources (Custer and Galasso 1980). Aboriginal populations utilized locally available secondary resources of jasper, chert, quartz, quartzite, and chalcedony which had been laid down as bed deposits by the ancestral Susquehanna and Delaware Rivers. High quality primary resources were not immediately available in the project area, but could be found in nearby areas (Custer, Ward, and watson 1986). Cryptocrystalline jaspers, cherts, and chalcedonies of the Delaware Chalcedony Complex can be found in the Newark gabbro formation in the western portion of northern Delaware, 9 northeastern Maryland, and southeastern Pennsylvania, particularly in the vicinity of Iron Hill, located about 6 miles west of Christiana Bridge in Pencader Hundred. Historic populations in the region were quick to utilize the iron ore that could be obtained from Iron Hill, and Welsh settlers in the early eighteenth century established iron furnaces on the slopes of the Hill (Heite 1983; Owen 1977). The Christina River has provided the focus of historic settlement, commerce and industry for the project area. The village of Christiana Bridge was established at the head of tidal navigation of the river by the late seventeenth century, and a bridge was in place by the beginning of the eighteenth century. The economic livelihood of the village and the surrounding region was governed by ability of the local merchants and landholders to keep the river open for efficient water-oriented transportation, and for much of the eighteenth century, Christiana Bridge was a prominent central place on the Delmarva Peninsula, providing crucial terminus for water and land carriage between the Delaware River and Philadelphia, and the Head of Elk and the Chesapeake Bay.

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