448 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1953 



steam shovels may have tossed aside fragments of a tumbler from 

 which Peter Stuy vesant once drank his wine, or a rusty hinge from the 

 house of John Jay, or a bayonet from old Fort George. Since we 

 cannot level places like Boston, Plymouth, Charleston, Salem, or 

 Philadelphia to search for buried historical treasure, would it not be 

 wise for us to take advantage of the excavations for new buildings to 

 rescue such artifacts as are dug up ? 



At Williamsburg, it was an exciting moment when, on June 30, 1930, 

 the first shovelful of earth was brought up at the site of the Governor's 

 Palace, in what proved to be the most interesting of all the excavations 

 there. Guided by several old maps, the archeologists began by making 

 exploratory trenches just north of the public school. Finding that in 

 some places they were working in undisturbed ground and in others in 

 brick and mortar debris, they concentrated their attention on the latter. 

 After two days of work they were rewarded by touching several walls. 

 They now warned the workmen to proceed with extreme care in under- 

 cutting the debris, so that it would fall away from the brickwork and 

 leave it unscarred by the picks. 



Elated at their success, the archeologists dug deeper until, when 

 they had uncovered a small area of floor paved with flagstones, they 

 realized that they had found a large basement. Their next task was 

 to remove four large locust trees, which were growing in the debris, 

 and whose roots reached down to the floor. Then, one after another, 

 parts of all four exterior walls, several partition walls, several chim- 

 ney foundations, the brick basement steps, the foundations of the main 

 entrance steps, the stone steps of the side entrance were laid bare. 



It was not only with care, but with reverence, that members of the 

 restoration staff handled the multitude of objects which were now 

 unearthed, for they spoke eloquently of men and scenes intimately 

 connected with the early history of our nation — of Governor Spots- 

 wood and his Knights of the Golden Horseshoe, of Dinwiddle in 

 earnest conference with the youthful Washington, of Jefferson, when 

 a student at the College of William and Mary, joining Governor 

 Fauquier in a concert in the beautiful ball room, of the flight of Lord 

 Dunmore to British warships in the York River to escape the wrath 

 of the American patriots. 



Since it was assumed that when the palace burned, heavy objects 

 such as locks or tiles fell straight downward and so would be directly 

 beneath their original location, the entire site was divided into small 

 numbered sections, each having its own box into which all objects 

 within its bounds were put. Thus a record of the location in which 

 each article was found was kept for future reference. 



How valuable to the architects this proved is shown by the discovery 

 of fragments of marble beneath the fireplace of the middle room of 



