century have been unsuccessful. The tool is 

 well made and possesses a surprising amount of 

 decoration on the shoulders, in the shape of 

 faceting at the corners and sculpturing of the flat 

 surfaces. 40 E4. (See also fig. 15, no. 22.) 



4. Gimlet, iron, the shaft drawn out at the top to 

 grip the wooden handle, the spoon-shaped blade 

 is badly distorted but the terminal worm still sur- 

 vives in part. B6A. 



5. Tack, brass, probably from trunk or upholstery, 

 convex head roughly trimmed, diameter '•> inch. 

 C3. 



6. Boss, cast brass, from cheekpiece of bridle: the 

 slightly dished edge and central nipple appear to 

 have been ornamental devices more popular in 

 the 17th than in the 18th century. 41 This object 

 overlay the robbed rear-chimney foundation at 

 its northeast corner. B2. 



7. Strainer fragment, brass or bronze; the edge flat 

 and therefore not part of a colander, probably 

 originally attached to an iron handle. Diameter 

 approximately 8% inches. E2. 



FIGURE 13 



1. Object of uncertain purpose, iron, the pointed 

 "blade*' without cutting edge and % inch in thick- 

 ness, the tang drawn out, rectangular in section 

 and clenched at the end. A2. 



2. Object similar to the above, 42 but heavier, the 

 tang wider than the thickness of the "blade," 

 % inch and % e inch respectively. E4. 



3. Knife blade, iron, small flaring shoulders and 

 round-sectioned tang. The blade is of unusual 

 shape and may have been honed clown to its 

 present size. C4. 



4. Saw wrest or saw set, iron, used to grip and bend 

 the teeth of saws sideways to enlarge the width of 

 the cut and thus prevent the blade from binding. 43 

 C2. 



5. Object of uncertain purpose, iron, comprising a 



4fl Henry C. Mercer. "Ancient Carpenters' Tools," Bucks 

 County Historical Society (Doylestown, Pa.. 1951), p. 51 and 

 fig. 49. John L. Cotter, "Archeological Excavations at 

 Jamestown, Virginia," U.S. National Park Service Archeological 

 Research Series, no. 4 (Washington, 1958), p. 174, pi. "2 top. 



41 Cotter, no. 1. p. 176, pi. 74 top. 



42 These objects are extremely common on 1 8th-century 

 sites. Rosewell, p. 224, and fig. 36, no. 8. Tultei'i Neck, tig. 16, 

 no. 12. 



13 Mercer op. cit., p. 295ff. 



flat strip % inch in width at one end and tapering 

 to Y u inch at the other which exhibits a small 

 right-angled flange before turning upwards and 

 back on itself, narrowing to a thinner strip meas- 

 uring % e inch in width, and forming a loop. 

 The base strip has a small notch at its broad end. ' ' 

 C3. 



6. Cramp(?), iron, perhaps intended to be set in 

 mortar and used to join masonry; rectangular in 

 section and drawn down almost to a point at 

 either end. E4. 



7. Cheekpiece from snaffle bit, iron, incomplete, 

 angular knee with hole for linking element be- 

 tween rein and bit. This is a 17th-century charac- 

 teristic common at Jamestown *■■ but rare among 

 the many bits from Williamsburg. E2. 



8. Staple, iron, both points broken and the back 

 somewhat bowed, probably as a result of having 

 been driven. C3. 



FIGURE 14 



1. Eye of hoe, iron, possibly a grub hoe similar to 

 no. 2, in an advanced state of decay with the blade 

 represented only by the narrow triangular spine; 

 no trace of a maker's mark. C3. 



2. Grub hoe, iron, the eye and part of the blade 

 surviving, the spine thick and narrow, no maker's 

 mark. The form has no published parallel either 

 from Jamestown or Williamsburg. An example 

 with similar shoulders, but with a V-shaped blade 

 edge, was found on the Challis pottery kiln site in 

 James City County in a context of about 1730. 

 [C.S.21F; unpublished.] E4. 



3. Broad hoe, iron, with eye and part of the orig- 

 inally D-shaped blade surviving; the spine 

 shallow, short and flat, with clearly impressed 

 maker's initials I H within an oval. Circular and 

 oval marks are common in the 17th century but 

 are rare in the 18th.' ,; E4. 



44 Two larger examples were found in a cache of metal objects 

 deposited in about 1730 and found on the Challis pottery kiln 

 site in James City County. Two more were encountered in 

 excavations on the Hugh Orr house and blacksmith shop site- 

 on Duke of Gloucestei Street in Williamsburg where they 

 apparently dated from the mid-1 8th century. 



4 » Carl Gustkey, "Sir Francis Wyatt's Horse," The National 

 Horseman (April 195 2. 



*" The majority of marked 18th-centur) hoes excavated in 

 Virginia exhibit rectangulai stamps, while postcolonial marks 

 tend to be stamped on the blades rathe.- than the raised spines 

 and without any die edge being impressed. 



PAPER 52: EXCAVATIONS AT CLAY BANK 



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