Report of the Archaeological Investigations of the New Castle Court ...

NEW CASTLE COURT HOUSE PLAZA
NEW CASTLE, DELAWARE
3.0 FIELD RESULTS
artifacts within this deposit exhibited extremely worn edges; a wear pattern most likely caused by
water erosion. This suggests that a percentage of the artifacts were probably imported onto the
site within the fill matrix.
3.1.5 LOWER SILT LOAM DEPOSIT – FEATURE 19 (SU E)
The lowest fill deposit corresponds to an artifact dense layer directly overlying the subsoil and an
alluvial wash on the east plaza. From this layer, a total of 2111 artifacts were collected and a TPQ
of 1810 was assigned based on two sherds of Albany slip stoneware recovered from EU 28.
Recovered faunal material include bone, clam and oyster shell fragments; personal items
consisted of slate pencil and writing slate fragments, marbles, a glass figurine, bone and brass
buttons, an unidentified domestic coin, fan fragments, brass straight pins, a brass safety pin, brass
tacks, glass beads, ball clay tobacco pipe fragments, and gun flint fragments; the ceramic
assemblage, dating from the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries, was composed of tin glazed
earthenware, buff-bodied earthenware, redware, creamware, pearlware, porcelain, white saltglazed
stoneware, imported and domestic gray stoneware, imported brown stoneware; glass items
included tableware and free-blown and unidentified bottle glass fragments; unidentified metal
objects; architectural items were comprised of cut/wrought nails, mortar, brick fragments
including one yellow brick fragment, and window glass. Prehistoric artifacts, totaling 28,
consisted of four unidentified prehistoric body sherds, one chert core fragment, and 23 prehistoric
flakes of various material types. An occupation date range of 1753.7 to 1803.5 was calculated for
this deposit.
3.1.6 ALLUVIUM (SU F)
An alluvial wash was identified within EUs 9, 24, 27, and 28, the area constituting the
southeastern-most section of the blocked area on the east plaza. An occupation date range of
1758.6 to 1812.6 was calculated from the 52 recovered artifacts. Items recovered include one
quartz flake, 14 bone fragments, nine oyster shell fragments, a ball clay pipe bowl and stem
fragment, one tin glazed earthenware sherd, six redware sherds, five light yellow creamware
sherds, one plain pearlware sherd, a nail, brick fragments, and nine window glass fragments.
Based on the recovery of the plain pearlware sherd from EU 27, a TPQ of 1779 was assigned.
3.1.7 SUBSOIL – B HORIZON (SU G)
The final layer observed during the excavation was the subsoil within the eastern section of the
circa 1820 plaza. This natural horizon was not sampled in any of the units.
3.2 CIRCA 1820 WEST PLAZA STRATIGRAPHIC UNITS
Two foundation deposits, similar to two uppermost fill layers on the east plaza, were documented
within the western circa 1820 plaza section beneath the brick paving surface (Table 2; Figures 9
and 10). Excavation of west plaza began with the removal of a layer of organic debris that had
accumulated between the brick spacers. This layer consisted of black (10YR 2/1), very dark gray
(10YR 3/1) and very dark grayish brown (10YR 3/2) sandy loam to silt loam. Identical to the east
plaza, a layer of beach sand comprised the primary fill within this section of plaza and measured
from 0.02 to 0.41 ft. in thickness. Munsell hue and chroma consisted of brown (10YR 5/3), dark
yellowish brown (10YR 4/4), and yellowish brown (10YR 5/4) sand with less than 30 percent pea
gravel. At the base of the sand deposit was a fill layer that ranged from 0.01 to 0.58 ft. in depth
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