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

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NEW CASTLE COURT HOUSE PLAZA NEW CASTLE, DELAWARE 3.0 FIELD RESULTS A TPQ for this destruction layer was 1795 based on a hand-painted underglaze pearlware sherd recovered from the north bisection of EU 22. An occupation date range of 1796.9 to 1811.2 was calculated based on a light yellow creamware sherd and two pearlware sherds. Due to the small quantity of datable artifacts, these dates should be thought of in extremely tentative terms. 3.3.5 LOWER TRANSITION LEVEL (SU P) A total of 39 artifacts were recovered from this level in EU 20 including coal, oyster shell fragments, a slate pencil, redware, unidentified bottle fragments, nails, mortar and brick fragments, and window glass. Due to the lack of diagnostic artifacts no dates could be assigned to this layer. 3.3.6 BURIED TOPSOIL – AP HORIZON (SU Q) A total of 103 artifacts were recovered from the buried topsoil beneath the 1845 plaza including bone, clam and oyster shell fragments, one brass straight pin, redware, creamware, pearlware, porcelain, unidentified bottle fragments, nails, brick fragments, and window glass. A date range of 1795.7 to 1805.1 was derived for this layer, while a TPQ of 1779 was assigned based on the recovery of a four plain pearlware sherds from the north bisection of EUs 20 and 22. 3.3.7 SUBSOIL – B HORIZON (SU R) This represents the unexcavated subsoil bounded by the circa 1820 and 1845 retaining walls. This was not sampled in any of the units. 3.4 PLAZA ELEVATIONS Latrobe’s 1804-05 drawing shows the south façade of the Court House and its topographic setting prior to the construction of the plaza (Figure 3). One of the primary goals of the fieldwork was to determine how much of the original landform remained intact beneath the plaza. It is fairly evident from the elevation discrepancy between the plaza and the surrounding sidewalk that a substantial portion of the landform outside of the plaza footprint was removed to allow for the road grading and sidewalk construction, but the extent of disturbance underneath this area was not known prior to the field investigations. Disturbances within the circa 1820 plaza footprint, aside from the construction of the retaining wall, appear limited to the cutting and removal of the historic topsoil. The preparation of the ground surface was likely accomplished in order to provide a solid base for the newly deposited foundation material. The substratum elsewhere in the circa 1820 plaza appears largely intact. This conclusion is based on the elevation of the circa 1732 and 1765 Court House foundations which were both constructed directly on top of the subsoil prior to the plaza construction. The elevation beneath the building foundation and under the surrounding plaza is comparable. Therefore, the highest point of the knoll would correspond to the section of plaza fronting the 1845 wing; the landform gradually slopes toward the east, west and south, with a more noticeable slope within the expanded western section of plaza (Figure 3). The plaza surface had been intentionally sloped toward the south and east away from the Court House. This slope enabled adequate drainage of rainwater and prevented pooling of water next to the Court House foundation(s). A north-to-south slope of 0.35 ft. was documented for the plaza surface in front of the 1765/1802 and 1845 additions (Figures 8 and 10), while the surface of the 30
NEW CASTLE COURT HOUSE PLAZA NEW CASTLE, DELAWARE 3.0 FIELD RESULTS Court House plaza gradually sloped from west to east losing 1.5 ft. in elevation from the western plaza edge to the eastern extreme (Figures 7 and 9). The height of the capstone at the western end of the plaza measures approximately 1 ft. above the lawn surface, and has an absolute elevation of 1.3 ft. The capstone on the eastern end of the plaza measures approximately 3 ft. above the sidewalk, for an absolute elevation of (0.2) ft. This slope is similar, but not identical to the natural slope of the landform, as indicated by the remnant height of the intact subsoil within the plaza footprint. The highest elevation of intact subsoil within the circa 1820 plaza measured 0.3 ft. above datum in front of the 1845 Court House addition, while the lowest measured elevation of intact subsoil occurred at the eastern end of the 1765/1802 addition within EU 12 at (2.2) ft. beneath datum height, an elevation loss of approximately 2.5 ft. The north-south slope of the subsoil fronting the Court House wings varied substantially. The measurement on the eastern section of plaza was incomplete due to an erosional feature (23) and the circa 1820 plaza builder’s trench (22) at the southern end of the plaza. Therefore, comparison measurements of the subsoil were taken at the exterior of the 1765/1802 addition and at 17.5 ft. south of the east wing addition. An elevation loss of 1 ft. was documented for the intact subsoil within this section. The elevation change exhibited on the western section of the plaza was quite different; the intact ground surface (as evidenced by the subsoil) appears fairly level within this area. It appears that the natural landform within the western 40 percent of the plaza fronting the 1845 wing is largely intact with only a small area removed for the construction of the original circa 1820 retaining wall. The highest recorded elevation of intact subsoil within this enlarged portion measured (0.85) ft. beneath the site datum. While the measurement of intact subsoil adjacent to the east side of the circa 1820 foundation wall measured 0.3 ft. above datum height, an aggregate difference between these two measurements of 1.15 ft. All of the brick pavers within both plaza sections used sand as the primary foundation material. Aside from this, the circa 1820 and 1845 sections appear to have used largely dissimilar construction techniques. The circa 1820 section underwent a purposeful preparation that included the removal of the original topsoil in order to fully expose the underlying subsoil. This was similar to the construction of the circa 1732 and 1765 sections of the Court House. Neither section was excavated into the substratum, but both sections appear to lie directly atop the subsoil. Once the topsoil was removed, the plaza was filled with up to four layers of material to its current height. The depth of this construction material ranged from approximately 2 ft. at the eastern end of the plaza to less than 0.2 ft. on the western plaza. The expanded section of the west plaza did not undergo such a preparation. The underlying topsoil remains intact at the base of the expanded section’s stratigraphic profile. Overlying this intact, natural horizon was a single primary fill layer corresponding to the destruction of the pre-1845 wing. 3.5 IDENTIFIED FEATURES A total of 89 features were either identified or relocated during the current fieldwork, for an aggregate total of 96 features identified during the 1995 and 2003 field seasons. Of this total, 41 features were located on the eastern plaza section and an additional 55 were identified on the west and central plazas (Figures 5 and 6). Information concerning feature designation, size, and feature matrix has been summarized (Table 4). Main category types and sampled features within each category are analyzed. Feature categories include a brick drain, brick foundation, 1845 builder’s trench, burnt area adjacent to 1845 wing, cellar hole, erosion trenches and drip lines, modern 31
Page 1 and 2: Report of the Archeological Investi
Page 3 and 4: NEW CASTLE COURT HOUSE PLAZA NEW CA
Page 5 and 6: Abstract Acknowledgements List of T
Page 11 and 12: 1.1 BACKGROUND NEW CASTLE COURT HOU
Page 13 and 14: 0 150ft 0 30m Project Location Figu
Page 15 and 16: Figure 3. Detail, Latrobe’s eleva
Page 17 and 18: 1.4.1 1950’S RESTORATION OF THE C
Page 23 and 24: Plate 2. Plan view mapping of EU 21
Page 25 and 26: EU6 MATCH TO FIGURE Fa Post hole Ce
Page 29 and 30: A A’ EU2 EU6 EU7 EU8 EU9 EU10 EU1
Page 35 and 36: Elevation (feet) 2 1 0 -1 -2 C’ E
Page 39: NEW CASTLE COURT HOUSE PLAZA NEW CA
Page 49 and 50: 3.5.4 BURNT AREA ADJACENT TO THE 18
Page 51 and 52: Plate 8. Opening plan view of Level
Page 57 and 58: Plate 13. Western view from the mai
Page 59 and 60: Plate 14. Plan view documenting the
Page 63 and 64: Plate 16. Plan view showing the por
Page 65 and 66: Plate 17. Opening plan view of Leve
Page 69 and 70: 4.1.2 FAUNAL REMAINS FROM FEATURE 2
Page 73 and 74: Plate 18. Table and bottle glass re
Page 77 and 78: 4.3.1 FEATURE 23 CERAMICS NEW CASTL
Page 79 and 80: 4.4.2 CORAL NEW CASTLE COURT HOUSE
Page 87 and 88: 0 1cm Figure 11. Gold sleevelinks r
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Plate 25. Plaza erosion adjacent to
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NEW CASTLE COURT HOUSE PLAZA NEW CA
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ARTIFACT INVENTORY NEWCASTLE COURTH
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Wade Catts , RPA Associate/Senior P
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APPENDIX III: RESEARCH DATA FROM DE
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APPENDIX IV: CHRONOLOGY BLOCKHOUSES
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“That his honour would please to
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(who is in pay and is kept for to l
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WADE P. CATTS Associate Principal A
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2000 Conducted historical research
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1986 Soil Chemistry and Historic Ar
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2004-2005 Field Supervisor. Phase I
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