find a survey of the site was undertaken, and two 



trial foundations wen- located and partially 

 cm avated. 1 



The are. i available for study was limited by the 

 need to cause as little disturbance as possible to the 

 newly planted seedlings, by a shortage of time and 

 labor, and by the remarkable speed with which the 

 ground became overgrown with locust trees and 

 infested by mayflies and mosquitoes. The location 

 of the excavation area, nearly a mile from the nearest 

 road, and off a track pitted with mud-filled depres- 

 sions, made access impossible during most of the 

 winter months; consequently, work was possible 

 only in the spring and fall of 1960. By the summer 

 of 1961 both the approach and the site itself had 

 become completely overgrown. 



Regardless of these limitations it was possible to 

 obtain full details of the surviving remains of both 

 the dwelling and its associated kitchen, as well as 

 1 1-( overing a number of informative groups of domestic 

 artifacts from trash pits under and around the latter 

 structure. Fortunately, the presence of seal-adorned 

 wine bottles in two pits provided data that led to the 

 identification of one of the owners of the property, 

 and thence to a reconstruction of the history of the 

 site in general. 



It should be noted that whereas the colonial arti- 

 facts that have been excavated from Marlborough 



1 I am indebted to Colonial Williamsburg, Inc., for permitting 

 the partial excavation of the site, for its generosity in offering 

 to present the bulk of the artifact collection to the United 

 States National Museum, and for its financial assistance in the 

 preparation of this report. I am also much indebted to Audrey 

 Noel Hume and John Dunton who represented the full extent 

 of our field team, and to the latter for his work in the preser- 

 vation of the iron and other small finds. My gratitude is also 

 extruded to A. E. Kendrew, senior vice president of Colonial 

 Williamsburg, and to E. M. Frank, resident architect, the late 

 S. P. Moorehead, architectural consultant, and Paul Buchanan, 

 all of Colonial Williamsburg, for their help in the interpretation 

 of the architectural remains. Further thanks are extended to 

 I haddeus Tate of the College of William and Mary for his 

 valued council throughout the operation and for reading and 

 commenting on the final report. I also greatly appreciate 

 comments made by C. Malcolm Watkins, curator of cultural 

 history at the Smithsonian Institution, in regard to the Euro- 

 artifacts; the help with the Indian material provided bv 

 Vlc< iv. president of the Archeological Society of 

 a; and suggestions for historical sources made by II. G. 

 bivist, North Carolina. Finally, my thanks are 

 I aton who first found the site and without 

 : n relic of Virginia's colonial past would 



and Rosewell provide a useful range of household 

 items of the middle and third quarters of the 18th 

 century, respectively, the Tuner's Neck material 

 belongs only to the first 40 years of that century, with 

 the emphasis largely upon the first decade. This 

 last is a phase of Tidewater archeology about which 

 little is known, falling as it does after the end of the 

 Jamestown era and at the beginning of the Williams- 

 burg period. Although, of course, Williamsburg was 

 already being built at the turn of the century, so 

 intensive was the occupation in the following 75 

 years that few archeological deposits of the city's 

 early days have remained undisturbed. The fact 

 that the Tutter's Neck site was abandoned before 

 1750, and never again occupied, consequently 

 enhances its archeological importance. 



Location of the Site 



The site lies on a steeply sloping promontory at 

 the junction of Kingsmill and Tutter's Neck Creeks, 

 which flow as Halfway Creek into College Creek 

 approximately 1,050 yards to the west. The house 

 stood on the crown of the slope facing west, some 260 

 yards from the junction of the creeks, and thus 

 possessed a commanding position. Perhaps, at that 

 time, there was a clear view of all vessels passing 

 up College Creek — the main waterway to Williams- 

 burg from the James River. As the crow flew, the 

 house stood approximately three miles from 

 Williamsburg, but by road the route was close to 

 four miles to the eastern edge of the town. 



While the largest ships generally unloaded their 

 cargoes at landings on the James, the smaller vessels 

 would often carry their cargoes up College Creek 

 to College Landing, about a mile and a quarter from 

 Williamsburg. It seems reasonable to suppose that 

 Halfway Creek was also navigable for these vessels 

 on the high tide. In view of the fact that the curve 

 of the creek's main stream today touches the southern 

 edge of Tutter's Neck, it is likely that a landing 

 existed there in the 18th century. However, no 

 traces of such a landing are now visible. 



History of the Site 



There was no known record of the existence of 

 the houses when the Chesapeake Corporation stripped 

 the site in 1959. The only colonial map of the area, 

 the so-called Desandrouin map of 1781 (fig. 4), 

 shows the neck covered by thick woodland, but 

 indicates two or more buildings some distance to the 



32 



249: CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE MUSEUM OF HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 



