Ye Pleasant Mount: 1989 1990 Excavations - Open site which ...

own sand. The feature contained only aboriginal artifacts and itprobably is ofprehistoric
origin.
Feature 23. Feature 23 was a large post mold that underlays Feature 19. It was subrectangular
in plan and measured 34 em east west x 30 em north-south. It extended 75 em
to a maximum depth of 155 em below datum. The feature fill consisted of mottled dark
brown, light yellowish brown, and very pale brown sand. Indian and Euro-American
artifacts were recovered from the post mold.
Dating the Deposits
Several types of artifacts were recovered from Trader Point that are useful in
determining the age ofthe archaeological deposit. One ofthe most sensitive time indicators
on eighteenth century sites is European pottery. Pottery manufactured in Europe is useful
for dating archaeological sites because many production dates for European wares are
known and some were produced only for a brief period. South's mean ceramic date, was
calculated for the Trader Point assemblage (South 1977). The results of this exercise are
presented in Table 13. A sample of 137 sherds from the excavations at Trader Point
yielded a mean ceramic date of 1749.9. The majority were from the upper soil zone
(Levels 1 & 2) which yielded a mean ceramic date of 1750.9, while 26 sherds from lower
zone (Levels 3 through 7) yielded a mean ceramic date of 1745.5.
Tobacco pipe stems also are sensitive time indicators, particnlarly on sites occupied
prior to the American Revolution. A total of 370 tobacco pipe pieces were recovered from
midden contexts while 37 pieces were found in 10 of the features. A total of 205 pipe
stems from the midden assemblage was measured and a pipe stem date was calculated,
using the Binford method. The resnlts of this exercise are presented in Table 14. Pipe
sterns from the upper zone (N=114) produced a date of 1744.9, while the lower zone
(N=71) yielded a date of 1743.8. Pipe stem samples from individual features were too
small for an accurate date for each feature (N=20), but a composite date of 1748.2 was
calculated for all features combined. Pipe sterns from all other areas of town (N=22)
produced a composite date of 1723.
The artifact assemblage from Trader Point has a terminus post quem, or a date after
which the site had to be occupied, of 1744 based on the presence of scratch blue salt-glazed
stoneware (South 1977). The time ofabandonment ofTrader Point is harder to determine,
but the absence ofcrearnware which was in wide circulation after 1762 suggests that Trader
Point was completely abandoned prior to 1762.
The artifact dates span a time range which closely corresponds to the historically
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