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

3.5.4 BURNT AREA ADJACENT TO THE 1845 ADDITION
NEW CASTLE COURT HOUSE PLAZA
NEW CASTLE, DELAWARE
3.0 FIELD RESULTS
Although a dark stain was noted during the excavation of EUs 18 and 19, feature identification
was not made until the remainder of the foundation material was removed during the plaza
stripping. At this time, the morphology of Feature 93 became obvious. This area represents a
large burnt area at the top of the subsoil in front of the 1845 wing (Figure 6; Plate 6). The overall
feature dimension is tentative due to the incomplete removal of foundation material during the
stripping, but it seems to overlie the highest part of the landform. The estimated dimensions of the
extant portion are 10.7 by 7 ft. and based on the section that was excavated in EUs 18 and 19; the
feature appeared to be roughly 0.2 ft. thick. Although this feature cannot be absolutely dated, it
does appear to be one of the earliest features present within the western plaza section. It is cut by
the 1845 builder’s trench (Feature 49), the circa 1820 foundation and associated builder’s trench
(Features 21 and 22), the brick wall foundation and its associated builder’s trenches, (Features 58,
59, and 60), and three post features (Features 68, 69, and 92).
3.5.5 CELLAR HOLE
Feature 20 was identified in the north central section of the east plaza. All told, five units (EUs 8,
9, 23, 24, and 25) contained portions of this square-cut feature. The visible feature plan measures
approximately 11.35 ft. in length from the southern edge to where it abuts the 1765/1802 Court
House foundation (Figure 5). It appears to measure approximately 4.6 ft. at its widest and tapers
toward the southern end, where it is only about 3.7 ft. in width. The dimension of the northern
section is unclear. The uppermost level of Feature 20 consisted of dark grayish brown (10YR 4/2)
silt loam with pockets of dark yellowish brown (10YR 4/6) and yellowish brown (10YR 5/4) silt
loam (Plate 7). Contained beneath this upper fill deposit, appeared alternating bands of grayish
brown (10YR 5/2) silt loam and brown (10YR 5/3) heavy silt loam containing high
concentrations of architectural debris (stone, brick, and charred wood) and large pieces of coral
(Plates 8 and 9). The remnant portion of the feature extends to a maximum depth of 2.6 ft. into
the surrounding subsoil, suggesting that the feature was close to 3 ft. deep from the historic
ground surface (Figure 7; Plate 10).
In total 1,475 artifacts (approximately 21 percent of the total assemblage) were recovered from
the sampled portion of Feature 20 within EUs 8 and 23. Nearly 80 percent of the assemblage was
comprised of floral/faunal material (n=1175) including 785 pieces of bone, one horn, 74 brain
coral fragments (167.5 lbs.), 313 pieces of shell (311 oyster, 1 clam, 1 whelk), five charcoal
fragments, and a burnt walnut shell. Approximately half of the oyster shell fragments (n=168)
derived from contexts 49 and 51 were found cemented with mortar and likely indicate mortar
production rather than simply food consumption. Domestic artifacts (n=78) included five tin
glazed earthenware (1 plain, 4 with blue decoration), one yellow Staffordshire, eight red body
coarse earthenware (possibly indicative of Borderware), 11 redware, two gray Westerwald sherds
with cobalt blue decoration, eight pieces of creamware, one pearlware, three pieces of Chinese
export porcelain, 31 bottle glass fragments (11 free blown olive green, 16 unidentified olive
green, 4 unidentified clear, and 2 unidentified aqua), and five tableware glass fragments. Items of
a personal nature (n=83) were also well represented within the sampled portion. Included within
this category were two buttons (a bone center hole and 1-piece cast brass loop shank), eight brass
straight pins, one brass buckle or fastener, 13 European flakes, a possible flint strike-a-light, and
58 ball clay pipe stem and bowl fragments. A number of architectural items including brick
fragments, both red (approximately 117 lbs. total weight) and yellow (n=6, total weight of 2.3
lbs.); 13 mortar pieces (3 lime and 10 sand); 28 nail fragments (14 unidentified and 24 cut or
wrought); one unidentified metal hardware; a burnt wooden plank; numerous stone fragments; 39
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