Topic: Brick oven at Jamestown?
A part of the original James Fort complex, newly found brick features date to the earliest years of the Virginia Jamestown colony.
Archaeologists have excavated two brick features in an L-shaped cellar near the first well of early colonial America’s 17th century James Fort. The cellar and the nearby well have both been dated to the earliest years of the famous Jamestown Colony (1607 – 1610), the early British-American settlement that is widely considered the “birthplace” of the American colonies and, by extension, that of the U.S.
The cellar measures about 25 feet long and is located in the area just west of the brick church tower and north of the previously found remains of the first (1608) church, aligning with James Fort’s first well, dated to the same time.
The first of the two structures emerged as archaeologists excavated in mid-July. This structure has been described as a brick “stack” with relatively precise mortaring. The second began to appear in August, about 10 feet away from the first. In contrast to the first structure, its bricks were in a disorderly pile, indicating a collapse.
In 2007, two similarly constructed features were excavated in what has been identified as a blacksmith/bakery cellar, located near the northwest bulwark of the Fort. Those features were detemined to be bread ovens, originally constructed in later years, or 1610 – 1611. According to Dr. William Kelso, long-time director of the excavations and head of research at Historic Jamestowne, the new structures in the L-shaped cellar may have been, like the bread ovens discovered earlier, used for cooking as part of a kitchen. He points to a large number of sturgeeon bones found within ash in front of the structures as a clue.
But, as fellow excavator Danny Schmidt has added, “We can’t be certain yet if the ash is from the building possibly burning down or ash coming from the brick features. If it is ash from the brick features, that ash would be an occupation layer, during the use of the cellar.” Associated ash was a defining find in the 2007 excavation of the blacksmith/bakery cellar. Moreover, the shape of a flue found in the L-shaped cellar looks similar to the flue also found associated with the ovens excavated in 2007.
The 2007 bread ovens featured brick façades with “turtle-shaped” spaces. Continuing excavations in the L-shaped cellar may reveal whether or not its brick features will show the same configuration.
Although only a third of the the L-shaped feature has been excavated, its fill has already yielded sherds of two Indian pots, an ivory ring, parts of a hammer and a pike, a bone handle to a knife, and many fragments of glass, lapidary, shell, and even some bone beads, among other finds. One of the bone beads is still wrapped in original fiber, indicating that it may have been used as a doublet button for clothing.
Original Article:
popular-archaeology.com
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