The Archaeology of Rich Neck Plantation (44WB52): Description of the Features

In 1988, two boys found several artifacts while playing on a road construction site that was part of a new housing development. Accompanied by their parents, the boys brought their finds into Colonial Williamsburg’s archaeology laboratory to see if the fragments were important. The curators at the lab are frequently called on to identify recently unearthed objects, most of which turn out to be modern castoffs. Once in a great while, however, someone comes in with an artifact that is an impressive example of colonial craftsmanship or that has a significant provenience. What the boys found fell into the latter category, and their visit would trigger a massive archaeological investigation that would take eight years to complete. It had been a long-standing research goal of Colonial Williamsburg’s Department of Archaeological Research (D.A.R.) to investigate the colonial plantations that surrounded Williamsburg, and the date of manufacture for the artifacts found by the children indicated they had stumbled onto one. An excavation team dispatched to explore the housing development quickly uncovered other artifacts and architectural remains associated with a seventeenth-century plantation known as Rich Neck near where the boys were playing, as well as the remains of an early nineteenth-century slave quarter.

In 1992, McCale Development Corporation planned to develop the area as part of the Holly Hills residential development, and as part of their proffer to the city they contracted with the D.A.R. to evaluate the archaeological significance of the seventeenth-century site. Test units, placed at 10 meter intervals, uncovered several artifact concentrations and the remains of a brick foundation. That brickwork later proved to be only one of a number of structures located on Rich Neck’s homelot
(Muraca 1993). Even though the site had been plowed throughout the nineteenth century and later logged in the early 1900s, it was still in excellent shape.

Recognizing the scale and importance of these findings, Colonial Williamsburg, the McCale Development Corporation, and the City of Williamsburg agreed to sponsor efforts to excavate the site. Colonial Williamsburg accordingly made plans to use its summer field school, run in conjunction with the College of William & Mary, to accomplish the task. The excavation was originally conceived as a salvage operation that would last only ten weeks. Midway through the summer, however, it became apparent that completion within this time frame was impossible given the growing size and complexity of the site. In response, McCale adjusted property boundaries so that the site’s major components could be encompassed within two lots, which the City and Colonial Williamsburg then purchased and agreed to sell when the excavation was completed. The developer established two rules which were in effect for the entire dig. No machinery was to be used and no live trees with a diameter greater than 4 inches could be cut down.

With a new schedule in place, the field school spent the remainder of the first summer investigating features outside of the purchased lots, and after the field school was over, a professional crew continued this work for an additional two months. From 1994 through 2000 field schools returned to work at the site for ten weeks each summer. In 1998, Colonial Williamsburg sold its lot to individuals interested in preserving the site permanently. The city has just recently sold its parcel as well, but with a protective easement to shield the surviving architectural remains from destruction during the lot’s development.

Also found at the site was a slave quarter that was part of eighteenth-century Rich Neck. It was located on the northern edge of the seventeen-century complex and was excavated in 1994 and 1995 by Maria Franklin and Anna Agbe-Davies. Separate reports exist for these excavations (Franklin 1997; Agbe-Davies 1999). Most of the initial salvage excavation focused on the area in the path of the development’s main road. Plowed layers in this area were removed by machine, exposing numerous features including two post-in-ground structures, fences, a trash pit, and a man-made ditch—all of which were excavated. During these hectic first few weeks, field school students were instructed to hastily shovel away large areas of plowed soils without the benefit of screens in order to get at features that had survived underneath. Of course, both techniques resulted in a permanent loss of data, and after the time constraints were lifted a new excavation strategy was implemented that allowed plow zone material to be recovered over the rest of the site.

1988年，两名男孩在一处属于新住宅开发项目的道路施工现场玩耍时，发现了多件人工制品（artifact）。在父母陪同下，他们将这些发现物带到殖民威廉斯堡（Colonial Williamsburg）的考古实验室，希望鉴定这些碎片是否具有研究价值。该实验室的策展人经常需要对新近出土的器物进行鉴定，其中绝大多数最终被证实为现代废弃物。不过偶尔也会有人带来堪称殖民时期工艺典范，或是具有重要出土地点（provenience）价值的人工制品。两名男孩的发现便属于后者，此次造访也触发了一场耗时八年才完成的大规模考古调查。
殖民威廉斯堡考古研究部（Department of Archaeological Research, D.A.R.）长期以来的研究目标之一，便是对威廉斯堡周边的殖民时期种植园展开调查，而孩子们发现的人工制品的制作年代表明，他们意外找到了一处这样的种植园遗址。被派遣至该住宅开发区域开展勘探的考古队很快又发现了其他人工制品与建筑遗存，它们与男孩们发现处附近一处名为“里奇内克”（Rich Neck）的17世纪种植园相关，同时还出土了一处19世纪早期奴隶居住点的遗存。
1992年，麦卡尔开发公司（McCale Development Corporation）计划将该区域纳入霍利希尔斯住宅开发项目，作为向市政府提交的开发承诺的一部分，该公司与考古研究部签约，对这处17世纪遗址的考古价值进行评估。研究人员以10米为间隔布设探方，发现了多组人工制品集中分布区与一处砖基遗存。后续研究证实，这片砖构建筑仅是里奇内克庄园宅地之上多座建筑中的一处（Muraca 1993）。尽管该遗址在整个19世纪均被翻耕，且在20世纪早期遭到过伐木作业，其保存状况依然极佳。
意识到此次发现的规模与重要性后，殖民威廉斯堡、麦卡尔开发公司与威廉斯堡市政府共同同意赞助该遗址的发掘工作。殖民威廉斯堡随即计划依托与威廉与玛丽学院（College of William & Mary）合作开展的夏季田野学校项目来完成发掘任务。此次发掘最初被规划为仅持续十周的抢救性发掘（salvage excavation）。然而到夏季中期，随着遗址规模与复杂程度不断提升，显然无法在原定时限内完成发掘。为此，麦卡尔公司调整了地产边界，将遗址的核心区域纳入两块地块之中，市政府与殖民威廉斯堡随后收购了这两块地块，并约定在发掘完成后再行出售。开发商还为整个发掘工作制定了两项规则：禁止使用机械作业，且不得砍伐直径超过4英寸的活树。
调整后的发掘计划实施后，田野学校在首个夏季的剩余时间里对收购地块外的遗迹展开了勘探，田野学校项目结束后，专业考古队又将此项工作延续了两个月。1994年至2000年间，田野学校每年夏季都会返回该遗址开展为期十周的发掘工作。1998年，殖民威廉斯堡将其持有的地块出售给了希望永久保护该遗址的个人。市政府近期也完成了其地块的出售，但附带了保护性地役权，以保护现存建筑遗存免受地块开发过程中的破坏。
该遗址还出土了一处属于18世纪里奇内克种植园的奴隶居住点。它坐落于17世纪遗址群的北侧边缘，由玛丽亚·富兰克林（Maria Franklin）与安娜·阿格贝-戴维斯（Anna Agbe-Davies）于1994年和1995年主持发掘，相关发掘另有专项报告（Franklin 1997; Agbe-Davies 1999）。最初的抢救性发掘工作主要集中在开发项目主道路的途经区域。该区域的耕作层（plow zone）由机械清理，暴露出多处遗迹，包括两处柱洞结构、围栏、垃圾坑与人工沟渠，所有遗迹均得到了发掘。在最初紧张的数周工作中，田野学校的学生被要求快速清理大片翻耕过的土壤，且未使用筛网，以尽快发掘下方幸存的遗迹。当然，这种作业方式造成了数据的永久性丢失，在时间限制解除后，考古团队采用了新的发掘策略，对遗址其余区域的耕作层样本进行了全面采集。