Fruit! It’s good for you, delicious, and often beautiful - but have you ever thought of fruit as a status symbol? In today’s world of relatively quick, inexpensive long-distance transportation, we enjoy fresh fruit from all over the world year-round. We generally take this ability for granted. In the eighteenth century, however, if you or … Continue reading Fine and Fashionable Fruit Dishes
Archaeology
Video: Inside the Archaeology Lab – Washing Artifacts
Archaeologists spend much more of their time working to determine the significance of an object than actually finding the object through excavation. This analytical work is done in an archaeology lab. Before analysis can begin, the newly uncovered artifacts have to be thoroughly washed. This video shows how. Learn more about archaeology at Ferry Farm … Continue reading Video: Inside the Archaeology Lab – Washing Artifacts
Video: The Science of History – Experimental Archaeology & Stoneboiling
Archaeologists sometimes recreate technology from the past to understand how people lived. This is called experimental archaeology. Native American occupation of Ferry Farm left behind many artifacts including fire-cracked rocks. This video shows how those rock artifacts were made through a cooking technique known as stoneboiling. See the first video in our Science of History … Continue reading Video: The Science of History – Experimental Archaeology & Stoneboiling
Why Did the Chicken Eat the Artifact?
Chances are you haven’t spent much time thinking about chicken digestive tracts. This is normal. Here at George Washington’s Ferry Farm, however, the topic actually comes up from time to time. More than once we archaeologists have found ceramic artifacts that have been rounded in an odd fashion, as if tumbled in a river for … Continue reading Why Did the Chicken Eat the Artifact?
What Is This Artifact?
Archaeologists are occasionally confronted with ‘mystery artifacts’ that either cannot be identified or have been altered to serve a purpose other than what was originally intended. Recently, in our small finds collection, we identified an artifact transformed in just such a way. Someone intentionally chipped away the edges of this 18th century leaded glass base … Continue reading What Is This Artifact?
Video: A Day at the Dig
In this video, spend a day with the archaeologists as they excavate at George Washington's Ferry Farm. Learn more about Ferry Farm archaeology at http://kenmore.org/ferryfarm/archaeology/ff_arch.html
Meet the Archaeologists: Field School Edition
Each summer. students from the University of South Florida attend a field school at George Washington's Ferry Farm to learn practical aspects of archaeological excavations. This is what they said about their experience. On weekdays, see Ferry Farm’s archaeologists at work on the excavation site from now through mid-June.
Meet the Archaeologists
Each summer, archaeologists from across the United States come to George Washington's Ferry Farm for about two months of excavations on and around the site of Washington's boyhood home. These are their stories. On weekdays, see Ferry Farm's archaeologists at work on the excavation site from now through mid-June.
The Science of History: Experimental Archaeology & Colonial Cheese Glue
Archaeologists sometimes recreate technology from the past to understand how people lived. This is called experimental archaeology. When archaeologists at George Washington's Ferry Farm found glue residue on sherds of Mary Washington's china, they developed ways to recreate this glue. This video explains the glue making process and what recreating the glues revealed about Mary. … Continue reading The Science of History: Experimental Archaeology & Colonial Cheese Glue
George Toasts George?
At George Washington’s Ferry Farm we’ve just wrapped up a ceramic mending project. We explain how and why we undertake these mending projects in this post. Our most recent effort focused on Westerwald stonewares owned by the Washington family. Stoneware is a high-fired, non-porous ceramic that is excellent for producing storage containers and drinking vessels. But … Continue reading George Toasts George?
Lives & Legacies 