JEFFERSON SITE REMAINS A PUZZLE
Poplar Forest Newsletter, Fall 2004

A season of excavations has confirmed that archaeologists have uncovered a significant Jefferson-era site, but the purpose of the site— known so far as “Site B”— remains unknown.  In fact, it has become even more of a mystery.

Archaeologists had begun to investigate this early 19th-century site last year in an area about 200 yards southeast of Jefferson’s house. Site B abuts the eastern edge of an artificial terrace, believed to have been created as part of Jefferson’s ornamental landscaping of the property in the 1810s. Archaeologists excavated a portion of the terrace last year, finding a series of overlapping sites spanning 1800 to 1950 but focusing then on an antebellum slave cabin. 

This year, the archaeology team has collected many artifacts from Site B that suggest that a building stood either on the site itself or nearby. Wrought nails, pottery, bottle glass, and a pipe with the hand-written inscription “good pipe” all confirm that people were living in the area.

Also found this summer, while teachers in the annual teachers field school were excavating with the staff, was a pierced 1789 Mexican coin, likely to have been worn as a protective amulet. A similar coin was found in last year’s excavation of the terrace.

The evidence is strong that a building was located in this immediate area. However, what is puzzling about the site so far is an approximately s-shaped trench filled with rock and brick that does not correspond with the usual pattern for a foundation or wall.

The schist stone, says Barbara Heath, director of archaeology and landscapes, is like the stone used in the cellar of the main house and the retaining wall of its wing.

Quantities of unmortared brick fragments are scattered in the plowed soil overlying the trench and stretching across an area of about 1,600 square feet. Additionally, a section of brick 2’ x 3’ and several layers deep bisects the section of trench uncovered so far. Heath says the brick section appears to cut through the trench, suggesting that it is a later addition to the site.

During last year’s exploration, archaeologists suspected that another Jefferson-era site lay west of Site B, underneath the fill used to create the nearby terrace.  Heath and her team believe that the two sites may be related.  “What we’ve found this summer is just the tip of the iceberg, so to speak. The evidence we have suggests that we’re at the edge of an early site that extends across an area of more than 100 ft. to the north and west, with building stone, brick and early 19th-century artifacts spread across it. These clues point to the presence of structures and suggest that other important features of the early landscape might be preserved here as well.  Continuing to excavate this area can tell us a lot about how Jefferson transformed the farm he inherited into the gentleman’s villa of his retirement.”