A few years ago Jerome Traver, archaeologist for York River State Park, did a random test dig at a site. He found nothing.
But after obtaining a 5-year permit to do more digging this year, he decided to check the same area again. This time he used a metal detector. The difference was startling.
Traver uncovered a previously undocumented fortified complex with a double palisade wall, bastions and redoubts dating to 1676. Inside the complex were several structures, including a barn and a house.
“You’re not always going to find them with random testing,” he said.
With the help of a sole volunteer, Traver has so far conducted 460 shovel tests using the metal detector. He found artifacts at every dig.
So far he has collected several thousand artifacts, including iron and brass spurs, nails, lead shot, a brass button and a file. He noted that the double palisade is unusual.
It’s unclear who built the fortification, but Traver said that the property was owned by a man named Brian Smith, a supporter of Royal Gov. Sir William Berkeley. He surmised that Smith may have built the fortification to protect against potential attacks from Native Americans.
The time period coincides with Bacon’s Rebellion, an uprising of colonists who opposed Berkeley’s friendly policies toward local tribes.
“Brian Smith might have thought Nathaniel Bacon was going to come across the river and attack him,” Traver speculated.
Over the next five years Traver will survey different areas of the park looking for “cultural resources,” including historic sites and prehistoric Native American sites.
Traver has been doing archaeological work at the park since 2000. In his first dig, he found a 10-acre Native American site, as well as a home built in 1817 by a one-time mayor of Williamsburg named James Henderson.
In 2006 Traver embarked on a three-year project that included 40 sites, including several Colonial sites like the home of John Blair Sr. His son, John Blair Jr., was an original Supreme Court Justice and a signer of the U.S. Constitution.
In all, Traver collected more than 30,000 artifacts from that project. Some of the artifacts are displayed in the park’s visitor center.
“We found some really neat stuff,” he said. “It’s a significant plantation.”
Author: Amanda Kerr | Source: The Virginia Gazette [October 14, 2010]