Archaeology Magazine - June 1950 - 20

Fig. 4. Newport Tower: Trench J. The point of
the trowel indicates a fragment of Colonial pottery, still in position in the fill of the construction
trench. The end of the ruler rests on the floor of
the construction trench.
shows that the loose stone foundation was topped over
with a cap of plaster. In four cases we found that the
brown "soil with plaster fragments," which everywhere contained Colonial material, actually passed under the column itself and in one case (Figs. 2 and 3)
passed under the plaster cap. Unfortunately, in this extremely thin layer which passed under the columns
finds were not frequent, and in this one case which we
were able to photograph no artifacts occurred.
However, under column 4 at the end of trench FG
we found in this brown earth layer a small pistol flint,
which we were able to see in position, but could not
photograph because of the very restricted space. Likewise, at the end of trench DE we found the same situation, in that the layer of brown earth passed under the
column. In this case, the plaster cap to the column
foundation had largely disintegrated, and I was able to
excavate a narrow area between the top of the foundation stones and the bottom of the column to a depth
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of a little more than eighteen inches. This slot was
hardly wide enough to admit my arm, but from this
area, well under (one might almost say inside of)
column 3, I extracted a small fragment of a clay pipe.
The fourth example of the brown earth passing under
the column did not yield any finds. In other words, this
layer of brown soil containing Colonial remains was
partly deposited before the first stones of the Tower
columns were put in place.
Our next step was to excavate the sections between
the columns which had not been dug in the 1948 season. The first two of these trenches revealed clearly
that which had been invisible the year before. With
the greatest clarity on the trench side we were able
to see the exact line of the original construction trench.
The fill of the trench is so similar in texture to the undisturbed soil that it is impossible to show this line in
black and white photographs, or half-tone engravings,
but it does show up with beautiful contrast in the many
Kodachrome pictures which were taken during the season. Knowing now the exact limits of the trench which
was excavated to receive the foundations of the Tower,
we were able to eliminate from our excavation any material which did not derive directly from this fill. The
builders were amazingly tidy or had worked very rapidly, and few stray objects turned up which could be
stated without question to have arrived in the fill at the
time the Tower was a-building.
However, two absolutely conclusive groups of finds
were made (others may turn up when the excavated
material is studied in detail), which permit the absolute dating of the fill. In trench J (Fig. 4) the point
of the trowel indicates a fragment of pottery; the end
of the ruler in this photograph rests on the bottom of
the construction trench. There were no signs of disturbance of the soil above this pottery fragment and
it can be seen that it lies between the large stones with
which the construction trench was partially filled. This
fragment represents one of four objects which were
found near its position as shown in the figure in the
area as yet unexcavated when the photograph was
taken. These items are individually insignificant : 1) a
rusty nail, 2) a fragment of flat glass, hand blown,
no larger than a dime, 3 ) the fragment of orange pottery shown in Fig. 4, which unfortunately had no preserved surfaces and 4) a fragment of almost identical
pottery on which was preserved a small area of glaze!
Dr. Hugh Hencken
immediately noted a resemblance to some examples which he had seen in the John
Howland House in Plymouth (built 1628, burned
1673) and made specific comparisons, both as to paste,
color of glaze, and type of interior finish. Here was a
ARCHAEOLOGY
Archaeology Magazine - June 1950

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Archaeology Magazine - June 1950
