Fisher Archaeological Consulting
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FISHER ARCHAEOLOGICAL CONSULTING PROPOSED SUNVALE SUBDIVISION, DURHAM, MUNICIPALITY OF WEST GREY, GREY COUNTY, ONTARIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL STAGE 4: EXCAVATION OF BbHe-5 FINAL REPORT (Original) Part of Lot 24, Concession 1 East of Garafraxa Road (EGR), Geographic Township of Glenelg, Former Town of Durham, now the Municipality of West Grey, Grey County, Ontario PIF No.: P359-0070-2017 14 February 2018 PROPOSED SUNVALE SUBDIVISION, DURHAM, MUNICIPALITY OF WEST GREY, GREY COUNTY, ONTARIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL STAGE 4: EXCAVATION OF BbHe-5 FINAL REPORT (Original) Property Location: Part of Lot 24, Concession 1 East of Garafraxa Road (EGR), Geographic Township of Glenelg, Former Town of Durham, now the Municipality of West Grey, Grey County, Ontario Submitted to: Ontario Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport & Sunvale Homes c/o Travis Burnside Cobide Engineering 464A 10th Street, Hanover, Ontario N4N 1R1 Telephone: 519 506-5959 ext. 101 Fax: NA Email: [email protected] Project No.: NA Prepared by: Fisher Archaeological Consulting 452 Jackson Street West Hamilton, Ontario L8P 1N4 Telephone: (905) 525-1240 Fax: (905) 525-4683 Email: [email protected] Archaeological Licence Number: P359 Ruth Macdougall PIF No.: P359-0070-2017 (PIF is valid) 14 February 2018 TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVESUMMARY ................................................................. i INTRODUCTION ........................................................................ 2 1.1 Development Context . 1 1.2 Archaeological Context . 2 1.2.1 Environmental Context . 2 1.2.2 Archaeological Sites in the Vicinity of the Property . 3 1.2.3 Previous Archaeological Work . 4 1.3 Historical Context . 5 1.3.1 Township of Glenelg and Town of Durham . 5 1.3.2 Lot 24, Concession 1 EGR, Township of Glenelg . 6 1.3.3 Historic Plaques . 9 2.0 METHODOLOGY................................................................ 9 3.0 RECORDOFFINDS............................................................. 11 3.1 Site Description . 11 3.1.1 Block Excavation Units . 11 3.1.2 Cultural Features . 14 3.2 Material Culture Record . 19 4.0 ANALYSISANDCONCLUSIONS ................................................. 19 4.1 Material Culture Analysis . 19 4.2 Faunal Analysis . 35 4.3 Floral Analysis . 36 4.4 Feature Discussion . 36 4.4.1 Feature 1 – Sub-floor Pit . 37 4.5 Conclusions - BbHe-5, The Hunter Site . 39 5.0 RECOMMENDATIONS.......................................................... 40 6.0 ADVICEONCOMPLIANCEWITHLEGISLATION .................................. 41 REFERENCES ......................................................................... 42 PROJECTPERSONNEL ................................................................. 48 NPDTable ............................................................................ 49 APPENDIX A - Photologue APPENDIX B - Recovered Material Catalogue APPENDIX C - Stage 3 & Stage 4 Artifact Comparison Tables APPENDIX D - Faunal Catalogue APPENDIX E - Floral Analysis Report APPENDIX F - BbHe-5 Stage 4 Field Drawing List LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Registered Sites within 1Km of the Sunvale Property . 3 Table 2: BbHe-5 Stage 4 Block Excavation - Ploughzone Artifact Summary . 12 Table 3: BbHe-5 Feature Summary . 15 Table 4: Material Culture Collection by Class . 20 Table 5: Foodways Class by Group and Subtype/Ware Type . 24 Table 6: Ceramic Tablewares by Decorative Type . 26 Table 7: BbHe-5 Faunal Material . 36 Table 8: Feature 1 Artifacts by Lot, Class and Group . 37 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Sunvale Property Location and Topography Figure 2: Aerial View of the Sunvale Property Figure 3a: Survey Plan of Proposed Subdivision Figure 3b: Development Plan of Proposed Subdivision Figure 4: Town Plan of Durham, 1850 Figure 5: Hunter’s Survey, 1853 Figure 6: BbHe-5, Stage 3 Recommendations Figure 7a: Overview of the Stage 3 CSP & Test Units & the Stage 4 Unit Excavations Figure 7b: Stage 4 Excavation Methodology Figure 7c: Stage 4 Block Excavation Results Figure 8: Overview of the Stage 4 Excavation - Features Figure 9: Feature 2, F3, F4, F5, F6, F7 & Post 5 Plans and Profiles Figure 10: Feature 1, Sub-floor Pit Plan of Open and Close Figure 11: Feature 1, Sub-floor Pit, Profiles Figure 12: Location & Direction of Photographic Plates LIST OF PLATES Plate 1: 286E 192N in progress; feature in 286E 193N and 287E 193N covered with filter cloth; facing SW (photo #0271). Plate 2: Overview of units around 287E 192N and 285E 195N; facing SW (#0283). Plate 3: Sub-floor pit (F1) exposed - 2 near flags at NW and NE corners, facing south (#0396). Plate 4: Monitoring machine stripping to subsoil; looking west (#0410). Plate 5: Shovel shining machine stripped surface, east side of site; looking north (#0411). Plate 6: Shovel shined surface of subsoil to the west of Feature 1; looking SSW (#0399). Plate 7: Cleaned surface of sub north of Feature 1 (sub-floor pit); Features 4 and 5 (pits) flagged; root stain on right; facing WNW (#0403). Plate 8: Showing Feature 2 (pit) in context; facing north (#0537). Plate 9: Feature 6 (pit) in context with Feature 4 (pit) in background; facing NE (#0451). Plate 10: Feature 7 (possible burn pit) in context; facing west (stake 290E 200N) (#0461). Plate 11: Overview of Feature 1, sub-floor pit, in context; facing north (#0594). Plate 12: Overview of Feature 1 in context; facing west (#0597). Plate 13: Overview of Feature 1, sub-floor pit, after excavation of NE and SW quadrants; looking SW (#0649). Plate 14: Crew drawing north profile of Feature 1 SW quadrant; facing SW (#0636). Plate 15: Site wrapped up for a cold night - Features 1 and 2 under tarps and straw bales; looking NW (#0650). Plate 16: Feature 1, NE quadrant after Stage 3 Test Unit 287E192N backdirt was removed; soil at approx. open of Lot 3, remnant dirt floor (#0608). Plate 17: Feature 1 with SE and NW quadrants at the open of Lot 3, dirt floor remnant. The other two quadrants are at subsoil (with some boot trample); facing west (#0662). Plate 18: Close of Feature 1, sub-floor pit; looking north (#0677). Plate 19: Stone China (Rhone Pattern) - 1) “double curve shape” (cat#335), 2) willow motif on exterior (cat#172), 3) 1830-1841 Rhone backstamp (cat#257). Plate 20: Slip/Banded - RWE - 1) banded, speckled blue and brown (cat#249), 2) slipware, blue rim with moulding (cat#248). Plate 21: Refined White Earthenware (RWE) - 1) scalloped, impressed, edged blue (cat#372), 2) curved, impressed, edged blue (cat#293). Plate 22: RWE - 1) sponged blue (cat#21), 2) delicate floral blue transfer (cat#51), 3) “Philips” makers mark 1822-1834 (cat#194), 4) “double curve” vessel, sponged blue (cat#173), 5) Ironstone “-E-/-NE/-CORN” (cat#217). Plate 23: Pearlware - 1) blue transfer, dense floral (cat#246), 2) blue transfer (cat#39), 3) edged, curved impressed (cat#48), 4) rim, undecorated (cat#245). Plate 24: Porcelain - faded floral decal overglaze (cat#294). Plate 25: Bank of Montreal Tokens - 1) 1837, One Sou half penny (cat#348), 2) 1844, half penny (cat#201). Plate 26: Buttons - 1) porcelain Prosser (cat#252), 2) bone (cat#38), 3) bone (cat#358), 4) “TREBLE GILT / STANDARD COLOUR”, with back shank and front inlay (cat#200). Plate 27: Smoking - 1) white clay, marked bowl (cat#81), 2) white clay, glazed mouth (cat#302), 3) white clay, plain stem (cat#251). Plate 28: Assorted Sample - 1) clay marbles (cat#19), 2) slate pencil (cat#359), 3) wound straight pin (cat#263), 4) copper-alloy spoon or fork handle (cat#345), 5) free blown glass pharmaceutical bottle (cat#216), 6) pewter candle snuffer (cat#61). Plate 29: Nail Sample - 1) cut (cat#24), 2) machine cut (cat#56), 3) wrought (cat#66). Plate 30: Hispan (Mexican) colonial reale, very faded; late 1700s (cat#404). PROPOSED SUNVALE SUBDIVISION, DURHAM, MUNICIPALITY OF WEST GREY, GREY COUNTY, ONTARIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL STAGE 4: EXCAVATION OF BbHe-5 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Fisher Archaeological Consulting (FAC) was contracted by Cobide Engineering on behalf of Sunvale Homes to conduct the archaeological Stage 4: Excavation of BbHe-5 within the proposed Sunvale Subdivision property. The property is on part of Lot 24 Divisions 2 and 3, Concession 1 East of Garafraxa Road (EGR), geographic Township of Glenelg, former Town of Durham, now the Municipality of West Grey, Grey County, Ontario (Figures 1 and 2). The Stage 1 and 2 Assessment was completed by Detritus Consulting Limited in the spring of 2017, and the Stage 3 Testing of BbHe-5 in the summer of 2017 by FAC. The specific Stage 4 Study Area (BbHe-5) is located on the western side of the property, on the break in slope overlooking the lower ground. It was determined in the Stage 3 Testing to be approximately 21 by 17 metres in surface dimension, with a further spread of outliers to the north and south (FAC 2018). It is located northwest of the extant barn. There were initially eight Euro-Canadian sites registered on the Sunvale property that were subjected to Stage 3 Testing in 2017 (FAC 2018). Of these, only BbHe-5 was recommended for further work. The recommendation was based on its potentially discrete pre-1870 time- frame and its association with one of the founding settlers, Archibald Hunter. The Stage 4 Excavation included both hand-block excavation around the three highest count units from the Stage 3 Testing, followed by mechanical removal of the ploughzone to look for features. One sub-floor pit and five small cultural pits of unknown purpose were identified, as well as a post and possible cultural pit. The sub-floor pit has been determined to be the source of the artifact concentration. A total of 1,115 artifacts were recovered during the Stage 4 field work, which further tightened the time-frame of the site to ca 1842 to 1850. The material record also provides a glimspe into the life of one of the early founding families of Durham. The site BbHe-5 has been completely excavated and has no further archaeological concern, Cultural Heritage Value or Interest, and therefore FAC recommends the following: 1) That as the site BbHe-5, indicated on Supplementary Figure 2, has been adequately excavated and documented and has no further Cultural Heritage Value or Interest, no further archaeological work is recommended.