Collections

The laboratory’s study collection consists of four cases with artifacts from a wide variety of sites. The materials collected represent a type collection, with a focus on artifacts common to the Chesapeake region of Virginia from the 18^th and 19^th centuries.  Artifacts present include a wide variety of glass, historic and prehistoric ceramics, prehistoric lithics, a small faunal collection, small finds, metal objects, and architectural materials.

 

 

The University’s largest archaeological collection is from Stratford Hall Plantation in Westmoreland County, Virginia. This project was conducted by Dr. Doug Sanford. The main house at Stratford, built in 1738, served as the plantation home for Thomas Lee and succeeding generations of Lee family, including brotherly signers of the Declaration of Independence and as the birthplace of Civil War Confederate General, Robert E. Lee. The original brick mansion and several period outbuildings still stand, and represent a prime example of Georgian architecture (www.stratfordhall.org). The Stratford property changed hands several times between the 1820s and the late 1920s, when the preservation organization, the Robert E. Lee Memorial Association, purchased the property and began a series of restoration and reconstruction activities.  Archaeological excavations at Stratford began in the 1930’s, with other major campaigns occurring in the 1970’s and 1990’s.  Artifacts and records associated with the earlier episodes of archaeology are stored at Stratford.  The collection held at Mary Washington includes materials associated with the Department of Historic Preservation’s summer archaeological field school at Stratford that began in 1993 and concluded in 2014.  Currently there are 79 boxes of artifacts and associated documents from the property, as well as faunal materials and masonry and soil samples.

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The second largest archaeological collection housed at the University comes from the Enchanted Castle at Germanna site in Orange County, Virginia (44OR3). This project was directed by Dr. Doug Sanford.  The site encompasses the former mansion and plantation of Lieutenant Governor Alexander Spotswood.  The main house and its attached dependencies, built in brick and stone between 1718 and 1723, represent an early example of the Georgian architectural style.  The Germanna property, also the location of a 1714-1718 frontier fort and the first seat of Spotsylvania County, was abandoned by the Spotswood family in the 1740’s, and the mansion complex was dismantled and destroyed by fire in the 1750’s.  After an initial study in 1977 by the Virginia Department of Historic Resources, the property was surveyed in 1985-86.  The University of Mary Washington sponsored excavations at the Enchanted Castle from 1986 to 1995. The Germanna collection consists of 71 boxes of artifacts, associated documents and research files, as well as masonry and soil samples. The Enchanted Castle site is listed on the National Register.

 

The newest collection added to the UMW Archaeology Lab is from the Sherwood Forest Plantation (44ST615) site in Stafford County, Virginia. The property is a late Antebellum plantation with many original structures still standing, including the big house, a frame duplex slave quarter, and a kitchen/laundry quarter. The UMW field school has been excavating at Sherwood Forest, under the direction of Dr. McMillan, since May 2015 during the annual archaeological field school and in special class projects. The multidisciplinary archaeological, historical, and oral history project is focused on reconstructing the 1840s plantation landscape, exploring the postbellum lives of tenants on the property, and understanding the continued racialization of African American tenants and farm laborers on the plantation throughout the Jim Crow era into the early 20th century. As of July 2017, the Sherwood Forest collection currently consists of soil and masonry samples, 20 boxes of processed artifacts, and the 2017 field school artifacts to be processed. So far, this project has resulted in 18 regional and national conference presentations, of which 13 were written and presented by UMW students (including two award winning papers). Other projects produced by the work at Sherwood Forest include one senior independent study and several in class projects.