Week three has proved to be a new adventure for the field school students here at Poplar Forest. With the heat wave seeming to dissipate for the time being, the field work has become less strenuous. Earlier in the week a pair of students came upon a feature, which is a man made alteration to the landscape. This caused much excitement amongst all the students. The feature is believed to be some type of hole that may have at one time contained a fence post. There are now three post holes present at site B and students and teachers expect to find another which may give evidence to a once standing structure on the property.
Along with the efforts in the field, the students have returned to the lab in order to better understand the material culture being unearthed at Site B. They have been studying Mr. Hutter’s farm journal along with letters between William Cobbs and his associates. Both Hutter and Cobbs previously owned the property. Students ended lab week by researching different aspects of ceramics and other artifacts found on the property.
Lectures for this week focused on the enslaved people at Poplar Forest. Different facets were discussed including artifacts unique to slave culture such as beads, pierced coins, cowry shells, and Colono-ware, which is a type of pottery. The landscapes of the quarter sites which include fenced-in and swept yards were analyzed as well. Debates have risen amongst scholars as whether or not slaves retained their African culture post-Middle Passage. While evidence has been brought up on both sides, the issue still remains unresolved.
In the last quarter of the week the students undertook a field trip to Colonial Williamsburg and Jamestown. Visiting the other field schools in the area gave the students a chance to observe the differences in archaeological theory and how they are carried out. For example, the Jamestown settlement archaeologists have reconstructed much of the original fort. The archaearium displays and interprets the archaeology on the site. Following the short break, the students will be back in the field and hard at work.
