COLONIAL WILLIAMSBURG WERTENBAKER 449 



the main floor, which made it possible to restore the mantel exactly as 

 it had been in the days of Governor Botetourt and Lord Dunmore. 

 Especially interesting was the lovely floreated slab in the center, of 

 which almost all the pieces were unearthed. Some of the Delft tiles 

 of the mantels in other rooms were found in such perfect condition 

 that they could be replaced in their original positions. The architects 

 were grateful, also, for fragments of water-table bricks, of marble 

 floor tiles, rubbed corner bricks, stone-step scrolls, lead joints for the 

 stone steps, bricks from the window arches, keys, hinges, shutter hooks, 

 and locks. 



In like manner as the archeologists who excavated the agora at 

 Athens or the site of ancient Antioch found evidences of civilizations 

 earlier than those for which they were searching, so the restoration 

 staff, in looking for the foundations of colonial Williamsburg occa- 

 sionally uncovered those of some Middle Plantation house built per- 

 haps nearly three centuries ago. One of these was discovered not 

 far from the College of William and Mary. About 48 feet in length 

 and 19 feet in depth, with chimneys at each end, and a basement partly 

 paved with brick, the building must have corresponded closely with 

 those of Jamestown in the days of Sir William Berkeley. 



The objects dug up from the debris confirmed the ancient origin 

 of the house, for the fragments of ale bottles, the bits of broken 

 rectangular or diamond-shaped panes and the lead cames into which 

 they had fitted, all were typical of the seventeenth century. In the 

 paved area of the basement was found, almost complete, the lead frame 

 of a casement, lying flat just where it seems to have fallen when the 

 building was demolished. 



The objects dug up on the site of an old building proved invaluable 

 in determining its functions and the period of construction. If the 

 workmen found numerous fragments of the little earthen bowls used 

 for mixing drugs in colonial days, one could be sure that formerly an 

 apothecary shop had stood on the spot ; if in another place they found 

 rusty harness buckles or stirrups or bits, it was certain that a stable 

 had once been there; if their picks turned up handsaws, gouges, 

 augurs, chisels, adzes, or axes, it was clear that they were digging on 

 the site of a carpenter's shop. And since styles in glassware, pewter, 

 earthenware, bricks, mortar, ironwork, and stonework changed from 

 decade to decade, the fragments found in or near the foundations of 

 old houses were of great assistance in fixing not only the dates of 

 construction but those in which they were burned or torn down. 



The very absence of certain objects among the artifacts proved help- 

 ful. When no broken roof tiles were found it became clear that tiles 

 were seldom, if ever, used to cover the houses; the absence of lead 

 •casement frames on the sites of eighteenth-century buildings makes 



