Lives and Legacies
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, where t is vital to keep the artifacts organized. This video shows how artifacts are labeled to help make sure nothing gets lost.
Learn more about archaeology at Ferry Farm at http://bit.ly/1Ob37in.
Sometimes, it can be a challenge to precisely identify an artifact. When faced with this challenge, archaeologists working in the lab put their five senses to work and call upon some interesting ‘tricks of the trade’ to make those difficult identifications.
Learn more about archaeology and being an archaeologist during Archaeology Day at Ferry Farm on Monday, February 15 from 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. Visit http://www.ferryfarm.org for event details.
Recently, a 3D image of a smoking pipe was added to the Virtual Curation Lab, an online project of Virginia Commonwealth University. You can view rotate, zoom, and manipulate the image by clicking the photo above or by clicking here. The smoking pipe was discovered within the fill of the main cellar of the Washington family house at George Washington’s Ferry Farm, his boyhood home. The pipe features the square and compass and twin pillars that distinguish this as a masonic pipe. Such motifs were very popular. The masonic symbols faced the smoker and fluting characterized that portion visible to surrounding friends. The design elements used suggest that this pipe was likely made in the northeast of England sometime between 1770-1810, in places like Hull.
George Washington was initiated as an apprentice mason on November 4, 1752, passed to fellow craft on March 3, 1753, and became a master mason on August 4, 1753. He achieved all of these masonic ranks at Fredericksburg Lodge No. 4. While it is certainly possible the masonic pipe belonged to George, he was one of four notable masons associated with Ferry Farm. The other three were Fielding Lewis, Hugh Mercer, and George Weedon, who each may also have left this specimen behind in the archaeological record.
The Virtual Curation Laboratory (VCL) at Virginia Commonwealth University, headed by Dr. Bernard K. Means, scanned this pipe bowl in three dimensions. 3D scanning provides two types of digital models: a three-dimensional image to be viewed on a monitor and, with the use of a special 3D printer, a plastic replica of the item. Replicas can be printed at a larger scale, allowing details to be viewed more easily. VCL has used the technology to scan bones from extinct passenger pigeons, allowing researchers from around the nation to compare these known digital models to bird bones in their own assemblages so that they can identify passenger pigeons in their collection.
Three-dimensional scanning allows The George Washington Foundation to provide greater public access to fragile artifacts both on the Internet virtually and as 3D printed copies that visitors can see and hold. Making 3D images available online allows more people to see these artifacts than could ever visit Washington’s boyhood home. We can even make these digital files available to researchers on the web, allowing others to 3D print them wherever in the world they may be. In the field, 3D replicas allow staff to engage visitors, showing them (for example) a wig hair curler or tobacco pipe, then inviting them to guess how the object was used in the past.
Fragile ceramic sherds can be printed in plastic, allowing visitors to mend the pieces together as an educational exercise. Such access allows the original objects to be on exhibit while simultaneously allowing maximum access to the replicas physically and digitally.
Laura Galke, Archaeologist
Site Director/Small Finds Analyst
This cuff link or ‘sleeve button’ – made in the mid 1700s – was recovered by archaeologists from George Washington’s boyhood home at Ferry Farm. It is one of the earliest examples of the Washington family’s resistance to King George III. What makes this sleeve button so interesting is the man depicted: King William III, who ruled England with Queen Mary. This sleeve link was made two generations after the death of this monarch. Nonetheless one of the Washington brothers wore this politically provocative accessory. What made William III, a monarch who died in 1702, an attractive choice for colonial apparel during the mid-1700s? The answer resides in this sleeve link’s political dimensions and reflects the Washington family’s early resistance to Crown policy.
November is an appropriate time to remember the polemical reign of William and Mary: they were married on November 4, 1677 and William landed at Torbay, England, November 5, 1688 to begin battles against the supporters of King James II, then ruler of England. When the unpopular James fled to France with his wife and young son (heir to the throne) parliament met and, after some deliberation, offered the monarchy to William and Mary. Individual rights, representative government, and justified rebellion became associated with the rule of William and Mary and were part of annual celebrations held for this sovereign pair for generations. Popular items such as coins, playing cards, plates, mugs, and pamphlets reinforced these connotations throughout their reign and beyond.
Cuff links, such as the William III link from Ferry Farm, were popular fashion accessories throughout the 1700s. Made from a molded glass ‘gem’ (see photo) originally situated within a copper-alloy setting (not shown), this sleeve button featured King William III’s silhouette. It was modeled after coins that depicted the English monarch beginning in the mid-1690s (see image). At that time, the king’s profile, along with his name “Gulielmus” (in Latin) followed by the initials “D. G.” – an abbreviation of the Latin dei gratia (by the grace of god [King]) – were prominently featured on currency.
Beginning in the mid-1700s, when the Washingtons wore their William III sleeve link, tensions were growing between Britain and her North American colonies, incited by the colonists’ concern over the policies of King George III. The Sugar Act and the Stamp Act taxed American colonists, even though they had no representation in parliament.
Colonists asserted that this was a violation of their rights under the English Bill of Rights (enacted in 1689 under the reign of William and Mary). Thanks to a popular campaign that originally began in the 1690s, William and Mary came to represent the right of subjects to resist a king who was abusing power, and this narrative proved to be enduring. In fact, colonists supported this narrative with other figures in English history. As the Washingtons were looking to William and Mary to legitimize their resistance to King George III, Thomas Jefferson took as his role model Oliver Cromwell, whose rebellion resulted in regicide and who was considered particularly militant by the colonists. While the Washingtons owned cufflinks to celebrate William and Mary, Jefferson owned a miniature depicting the far more revolutionary Cromwell.
Regardless, William III thus became a symbol for American colonists in general, and the Washington family in particular, as momentum grew to resist crown powers during the mid-1700s. By wearing this sleeve link, the Washingtons proclaimed their enduring support for representative government. And, we all know where that led—the American Revolution and birth of the United States, whose first president grew up at Ferry Farm.
Laura Galke, Archaeologist
Site Director/Small Finds Analyst
Additional Reading
Cofield, Sara Rivers
2012 Linked Buttons of the Middle Atlantic, 1670-1800. Journal of Middle Atlantic Archaeology 28:99-116.
Greene, Jack P.
1992 The Glorious Revolution and the British Empire 1688-1783. In The Revolution of 1688-1689: Changing Perspectives, edited by Lois G. Schwoerer. Cambridge University Press, New York, pp. 260-271.
McConnel, James Richard Redmond
2012 The 1688 Landing of William of Orange at Torbay: Numerical Dates and Temporal Understanding in Early Modern England. The Journal of Modern History 84(3):539-571.
McConville, Brendan
2006 The King’s Three Faces: The Rise and Fall of Royal America, 1688-1776. University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill.
Schwoerer, Lois G.
1990 Celebrating the Glorious Revolution, 1689-1989. Albion: A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies. 22(1):1-20.
1989 Images of Queen Mary II, 1689-95. Renaissance Quarterly, 42(4):717-748.
1977 Propaganda in the Revolution of 1688-89. The American Historical Review 82(4):843-874.
Weil, Rachel J.
1992 The Politics of Legitimacy: Women and the Warming-pan Scandal. In The Revolution of 1688-1689: Changing Perspectives. Cambridge University Press, New York, pp. 65-82.
Wieldraaijer, Matthijs
2010 Good Government and Providential Delivery: Legitimations of the 1672 and 1688/89 Orangist Revolutions
Archaeologists are always trying to link artifacts with the actual people who lived at the sites we study. As such, we get very excited when we find artifacts with people’s names on them. It makes our job easy, right? So, imagine our elation when a small creamware cup bearing the words “A Present For Mary” in black transfer print was unearthed at George Washington’s Ferry Farm. People immediately assumed it must have belonged to George’s mother Mary Washington, the most famous Mary to live here. However, upon closer inspection this theory totally unraveled. The small cup was in fact a child’s mug manufactured long after Mary had grown up and, for that matter, probably after her death. It could never have been owned by Mary Washington. What seemed an open and shut case got a little more interesting.
First off, what was a child’s mug? Well, it was a common and inexpensive small mug given to children as a reward for learning, doing well in Sunday school, or general good behavior. The mugs were fairly small and decorated with the child’s name, bible verses, images of play, or references to learning. Inspiration for these decorations came from the popular children’s books of the time. A few common sayings found on these mugs were:
A gift for___.
A present for ___.
A trifle for ____.
A present for a good girl/boy.
A present for writing well.
A reward for industry.
These mugs were similar to christening mugs, which are still common gifts today. While they have the same shape and are given to children, the two types of cup differ in material and purpose. A child’s mug was mass-produced in factories and made of relatively cheap ceramic. It would have been sold for a few pennies. In contrast, a christening mug was a fancier gift, often made of far more expensive silver or porcelain. Similar to our fine china today, these christening mugs weren’t meant for everyday use like the more ordinary child’s mugs. Indeed, excavated child’s mugs often exhibit extensive use wear from being handled by children.
Ceramic child’s cups were manufactured starting in the late 1700s and remained abundant by the mid-1800s. Their rise in popularity coincided with the emergence of a more modern concept of childhood. Prior to the 19th century, children were treated like tiny adults or pre-adults. They dressed like adults and the few toys that did exist reinforced social roles and instructed children how to perform adult tasks. It wasn’t until the 1800s that childhood became distinct from adulthood. With this change, children became a new marketing demographic with books, toys, and ceramics targeted just at them.
In our efforts to find more fragments of the mystery Mary mug, we scoured the Ferry Farm artifact database and not only discovered more of her mug but also sherds from three other child’s mugs! While two of these do not contain complete names, one pearlware mug clearly reads “A Present For Billy”.
Unfortunately, the dates during which these mugs were manufactured fall within a fifty year gap in our knowledge of who exactly was living at Ferry Farm. From the late 18th century to the first quarter of the 19th century, an absentee owner rented the land to tenants. Information on just who those tenants were has been lost to time. In a sense, this makes the discovery of the mugs even more special. Although we’ll probably never precisely know the Mary and Billy the mugs belonged to, we now know that two children with those names lived and played here. Anonymous no more, these simple sherds are likely all the evidence there is to proclaim their time at Ferry Farm. While the children may have been sad upon breaking their mugs, we’re very happy to have what remains and hope to one day expand upon their stories.
Lauren Jones, Archaeologist
Archaeology Lab Technician
Mara Kaktins, Archaeologist
Ceramics & Glass Specialist
Here at Ferry Farm for the last 13 years, professional archaeologists have been exploring the local landscape, digging hundreds of excavation units in their quest to reveal the history of all those who lived here, including, of course, the Washington family. Their investigative efforts have resulted in a multitude of artifacts dating from the earliest prehistoric Native American occupation of this riverine site, through the Colonial and Civil War periods, all the way to a 1990s occupation of the farm.
So, what happens to all the artifacts that are uncovered and dug up with trowels and shovels? All of those items are important pieces to the puzzle of reconstructing the history of this site, but only if they are cleaned up and recognizable. That is the purpose of the archaeology lab here at George Washington’s Ferry Farm. With the help of both professional staff and dedicated volunteers, every single artifact that has come out of the ground is washed, dried, identified, labelled, and, finally, catalogued into a searchable computer database.
The archaeology lab is located within the Ferry Farm Visitor Center which houses museum exhibits, storage rooms for the artifacts, and other administrative offices. Visitors making their way through the exhibits can check out our lab spaces through large windows, allowing them a peek into our work spaces and giving them the ability to see the different processes the artifacts go through.
While archaeological excavations at Ferry Farm take place every year, actual digging occurs only three months out of the year. Artifact processing and analysis in the lab goes on for 12 months out of the year. Archaeologists often say that “1 day in the field equals 3 days in the lab” and, in general, that adage is true. Once the artifact bags come into the lab, it can be six months to one year or more before an entire artifact collection is completely processed.
So where does it all start? Well, in the wet lab…
Wet Lab
The wet lab is a small room where the artifacts are washed and dried. It is fitted out with two sinks – the artifacts are washed only with water – and a countertop to provide space for the washing process. Toothbrushes, dental picks, pipe cleaners, washtubs, and other cleaning tools are handily arranged for easy access by the staff.
The washing process is pretty straightforward. The artifacts, covered with dirt from the field excavation, are poured out of the bag onto a tray. The washer separates the different items on the tray and proceeds to carefully wash them with a tooth brush and water. After a quick rinse, the washed items are placed on a tray covered with mesh and the tray is placed in a drying rack. The washing process can be seen in this video. The artifacts stay on the drying racks for at least a week to make sure they are completely dried before being bagged. Large windows allow visitors to watch this process and to see the “treasures from the earth” as they are uncovered and completely revealed, often for the first time in 200 years or more!
Dry Lab
The dry lab is a larger space containing desk space for the staff, the small finds cabinets, and long tables used for labeling and other projects. It is here that the dried artifacts are placed into acid-free plastic bags, catalogued, and then labelled by the staff and volunteers. Our staff spends quite a bit of time cataloguing the artifacts, which involves identifying, counting, measuring, and weighing all the artifacts. The cataloging process can be seen in this video. Each artifact is labeled with identifying information and the address of the exact location where it was found on the site. Research is always an ongoing activity as identifying and dating specific artifacts helps in understanding Ferry Farm’s past and the people who once occupied this ground.
Time is also spent on the mending, conservation, and analysis of artifact collections. The small finds cabinets contain hundreds of unique artifacts that are studied because of their personal relationships to the individuals that lived here. Long term projects, such as our current white-salt glazed ceramic mending, take place in the dry lab space, where a table covered with hundreds of ceramic sherds awaits matching. And as with the wet lab, museum visitors can look through the windows and observe all the projects being currently worked on.
Having an archaeology lab on site is very convenient for the archaeologists that work at Ferry Farm as it allows them easy access to the artifacts at all stages of their processing. Future plans for Ferry Farm rely on knowing what has been found here and weaving together that data with the historical record. It also gives the public an exciting chance to see all the work that goes into getting the artifacts ready for further research.
Judy Jobrack, Archaeologist
Assistant Lab Supervisor
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. First, artifacts must be washed, which you can see here. Then, the artifacts are cataloged as the video below shows.
Learn more about archaeology at Ferry Farm here.
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 here.
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 for a cup or mug to form a disc. In addition, they also smoothed out the broken edges so they are no longer sharp.
For the moment, the object’s purpose is and, may always remain, a mystery. Use-wear on the base’s interior may hint at how it was used after alteration. Numerous scratches in the glass are present on the ‘kick up’- a small bump on the inside of the glass formed when it was hand blown.
This is not wear that typically accumulates during the life of a drinking vessel so we know the wear occurred after modification. Oddly enough, while pondering possible uses, a staff member here at Ferry Farm turned it upside down and spun the disc on the table. It whirled around perfectly like a top right where the glass exhibited the extreme wear! Take a look at this video for more detail in how the glass has been broken and smoothed and see how the modified base spins like a top.
While this is only speculation, it is possible that we are looking at an improvised toy. Perhaps a child living at Ferry Farm converted this broken glass into a toy top and played with it for many happy hours before it was lost or discarded and found its way into the archaeological record. We can only assume the child would laugh if they knew that archaeologists would be brooding over their whimsical plaything hundreds of years later.
Mara Kaktins, Archaeologist
Ceramics & Glass Specialist
What do archaeologists do with the broken ceramic and glass artifacts after these objects have been excavated, cleaned, and catalogued? They are cool to look at but what do these little pieces actually tell us about the past? How can we use them to understand the lives of those who purchased, used, and eventually discarded them?
One method is by mending the sherds (‘sherd’ is the term we use to describe broken pieces of ceramic and glass) to re-create the vessels. We mend by spreading out all of the fragments on a table and carefully seeing which ones fit together. Then, we use non-damaging tape to join the pieces temporarily. If deemed appropriate, we might decide to carefully glue the sherds together – with removable archival glue, of course!
As archaeologists mend and a vessel takes shape, we can determine a number of details about the object we couldn’t when it was just a pile of broken stuff! First, we can figure out what type of vessel it was and what its uses were. Determining the vessel type helps us figure out what activities took place in a given excavation area. Cooking vessels mean the area was used for food preparation. Plates, bowls, and cups show the area was used for dining while crocks indicate a storage area.
Second, we can determine how much a mended vessel was used by the “use-wear” present on it. For instance, a chamber pot kept under a bed and drawn out from its storage place a couple of times a day will start to exhibit wear marks on the base where it is dragged across the floor. These grooves usually run parallel with the handle. The longer the pot is used the more wear it acquires. The same goes for knife-marks on dinner plates or stir-marks in drinking vessels. However, it is difficult to truly examine the use of a chamber pot using just one sherd. It is preferable to have as much of a whole vessel as possible, so we must mend!
Within the archaeological community, the general opinion is that mending is a fun activity. It definitely is! What is more fun than taking ancient fragments long-ago discarded by their owners and creating tankards, porringers, teapots, jugs, and all manner of other vessels that say something about who used them? It is one thing to show someone a sherd of porcelain and say “George Washington’s mother may have owned this” and quite another to show them a mended teapot and declare “George Washington was served tea from this very pot!” That being said, mending is also frustrating at times. Imagine taking 100 puzzles, mixing them all together, throwing away 90 percent of the pieces, and then trying to work the puzzles! This is basically mending in a nutshell. Some of us stare at the sherds for so long that we see them when we close our eyes or go to sleep! Now, that’s dedication!
It is rare that an entire vessel can be completely reconstructed. When an object is broken, perhaps all of the fragments do not get swept up and deposited in the same place. Areas where people lived sometimes become agricultural fields and are plowed for decades or longer, resulting in fragments of vessels being further broken and scattered about the landscape. Insects and animals move artifacts when burrowing in the soil, a process termed ‘bioturbation’. We do the best we can with the artifacts we’ve recovered.
Still, archaeologists really love when we mend a vessel to near perfection and put it on display for the public along with all the information we’ve learned from it. We’ve actually just finished mending German Westerwald stonewares and we’ll share some of that project’s results in the not-too-distant future. Soon, we’ll be moving onto English white stonewares. On your next visit to Ferry Farm, you’ll likely see a mending project on display in our laboratory and maybe some of our talented staff working hard to unlock the secrets contained within those humble sherds!
Mara Kaktins
Archaeologist/Ceramics and Glass Specialist
Lives & Legacies 