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

NEW CASTLE COURT HOUSE PLAZA
NEW CASTLE, DELAWARE
4.0 ARTIFACT ANALYSIS
The assemblage is generally divided between imported fill matrices (within SUs B, F, and I) and
intact contexts native to the Court House property (SUs C, E, and J; Features 20, 22, 37, and 60).
The former group consists of 52 artifacts recovered from the sand deposits. This material was
likely excavated from a nearby (but now unknown) coastal site at the time of the brick plaza
construction. The sand fill deposit assemblage was found to contain mostly lithic chipping debris
(n=47; 90%) including 25 chert, 19 jasper, 2 quartz, and 1 quartzite flakes/shatter. The five
remaining items consisted of two untyped projectile points (a jasper notched point and a chert
bifurcate), a possible quartzite chopper/cobble tool, and 2 pieces of quartzite fire-cracked rock.
The prehistoric assemblage recovered from secondary deposits within the plaza stratigraphy or
from intact historic-era features identified at the base of the plaza fill contained a slightly
different artifact class than seen previously. Like the artifacts recovered from the sand fill
deposits, the bulk of this assemblage (n=54) was found to be largely composed (78%) of the
byproducts associated with stone tool production and/or maintenance activities. The artifacts
included were 40 flakes/shatter (21 jasper, 15 chert, 3 quartz, and 1 quartzite) and 2 core
fragments (jasper, chert). The remaining items consisted of 11 unidentified prehistoric ceramics
and a non diagnostic jasper scraper/plane (Plate 24).
4.4.6 STRAIGHT PINS
“There is scarcely any commodity cheaper than pins, and but few that pass through more hands
before they come to be sold” (Hurley n.d.:40). Not surprisingly, straight pins are a fairly common
occurrence within a wide variety of historical archeological sites ranging from domestic to
commercial to governmental. A number of straight pins and pin fragments (n=195) were
recovered from the plaza deposits. The overwhelming majority of pins were brass and typically
measured between 0.5 to 1.25 in. in length. The pin heads all appear to be constructed from a
second piece of wire coiled around the end, and some still exhibit their original tin plating. The
coiled pin head construction technique was commonly used from the early seventeenth through
the early-nineteenth century, at which time a single stamped pin was developed (Nöel Hume
1969:254; Longman and Loch 1911:21). The smaller examples within the New Castle
assemblage (those measuring approximately 0.5 in.) are called Lilliputian pins or “Lils,” and are
most commonly attributed to use by women to pin their clothes in place (Mary Beaudry, personal
communication, September 2004; Longman and Loch 1911:24). The remaining pins represent a
more general purpose straight pin, those known as “Short Whites,” with an average length of
slightly more than one in. (Mary Beaudry, personal communication, September 2004). A number
of the straight pins were found bent in half (contexts 158 and 161) and one bent pin was attached
to a black glass bead (context 158).
The recovery of large numbers of straight pins from a non-domestic and non-commercial site
raises requires some explanation. Stanley South’s investigations at the Public House – Tailor
Shop in South Carolina recovered a large number of pins, but this was from a very different
context than that of a Court House (South 1977:65-71). When pins were sold they were purchased
stuck in paper and occasional documents housed in archives still bear the pins that held them
together (Hurley n.d.:40). Aside from the “Lils” and bent pins, which may have been used for
personal adornment, the prevalence of straight pins at the Court House may be related to
fastening or clipping paper documents together. This idea is further supported by archeological
investigations from government or public facilities, such as the recent work conducted at the State
House in Dover, Delaware, at Old Fort Western in Maine, and at the Deshler-Morris House in
Germantown (Crozier 1978). Recent analysis of the Delaware State House artifact assemblage in
Dover has revealed the presence of a minimum of 218 straight pins at that site (Charles Fithian,
73