Thomas Jefferson's Poplar Forest

MYSTERY SITE PRODUCING STREAM OF ARTIFACTS
Poplar Forest Newsletter, Fall 2005

A veritable wealth of Jefferson-era artifacts continues to emerge as the mystery deepens at the excavation east of the house.

The site has both excited and perplexed archaeologists as they unearth thousands of domestic and architectural artifacts and a complicated pattern of rubble-filled pavings, trenches, and filled areas. Everything points to important— but as yet only partially understood— activity here during Jefferson ’s period at Poplar Forest .

The archaeology crew has found large quantities of early-19^th century ceramics, bottle glass, and other domestic artifacts indicating that people here or nearby. These artifacts include fragments of locally made coarse earthenware pots, as well as refined ceramic dishes in types both common and rare at Poplar Forest . A worked stone “blank” may have been shaped by an enslaved resident as a first step in making a tobacco pipe. Intriguingly, these artifacts match fragments previously found during excavations at the east wing of the house and the slave quarter sites to the north. These clues not only tie the sites together in time, but go further to suggest that in some cases, matching sets of ceramics may have been used and discarded at both places.

Architectural artifacts found at the current site

In addition, two significant concentrations of architectural artifacts— including nails, bricks, and window glass— suggest the approximate location of wooden buildings with some masonry elements. Approximately 20 feet apart, the two concentrations are connected by a narrow, stone-filled trench. The quantity of bricks and window glass suggests that the structures were more substantial than the buildings previously excavated at two nearby slave quarters. Since farm structures often sheltered both working and living spaces, it is premature to hypothesize about the primary purpose of these presumed buildings.

More excavating is needed to define additional features, and assign tight dates of construction, occupation, and abandonment.

Limited test holes indicate that the mystery site extends south of where archaeologists have excavated so far. The site may also extend northwest into an area they have not yet had a chance to test.

Jefferson-period documents speak of structures whose actual locations have not yet been found—including a pre-1816 kitchen, a spinning house, dairy, coopers’ shop, stables and numerous slave cabins—and it is possible that some may fall within this area.

Archaeologists now believe that the mystery site is a portion of a larger complex of Jefferson-era buildings and workspaces-- a major center of activity during his retirement years. As such, it has the potential to provide important new information about plantation industry and Jefferson ’s strategies for promoting self-sufficiency, the changing domestic and working conditions of enslaved people as the property transitioned from an outlying farm to villa retreat, and Jefferson ’s final resolution of the ongoing tension between elements of utility and beauty in his domestic landscapes.

Several ceramic types and patterns found at the mystery site match vessels believed to have been used on Jefferson’s table. Several fragments were found of the dining vessels Jefferson favored— decorated with J. & W. Ridgway’s “Oxford and Cambridge College Series,” especially views of Oxford within an octagonal design (see above image). Matches of other relatively rare pieces have appeared, including small amounts of canaryware— a refined earthenware characterized by its bright yellow glaze— and a single fragment of a dry-bodied red stoneware teapot known as “Egyptian Red” or “Rosso Antico.” Fragments of a pearlware bowl with an unusual trailed slip decoration, and pieces of a molded creamware basket, also match pieces discovered during excavations around the main house and the wing. These clues suggest a close connection between the mystery site and Jefferson’s household during his retirement years.