Interim Report: The Archaeology of Rich Neck Plantation

This manuscript is presented as an interim report on the archaeological investigation of Rich Neck Plantation (state site 44WB52), in Williamsburg, Virginia. Chapter 1 provides a project background and a brief physical description, including the environs of the site and a list of those responsible for the excavation. Chapter 2 recounts the history of the property. Chapter 3 describes the excavation strategy and summarizes the results from 1993 through 1998. Chapters 4 and 5 present interpretations of the Rich Neck site based on fieldwork results to date. These interpretations are preliminary in nature, and future excavations will not only add to, but may alter, our understanding of this seventeenth-century plantation. Included in this section are detailed accounts of a grave excavation and Dr. Doug Owsley’s interpretation of the skeletal remains. Appendix 1 gives Dr. Owsley’s full report, and Appendix 2 describes how the remains were lifted.