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

NEW CASTLE COURT HOUSE PLAZA
NEW CASTLE, DELAWARE
5.0 INTERPRETATION AND CONCLUSIONS
The artifact assemblage recovered from the investigation provides some suggestions as to how
the Court House’s public space was utilized. Several classes of artifacts may be particularly
indicative of public buildings and the activities associated with their exterior spaces. First, the
recovery of large numbers of straight pins from both feature and fill contexts suggests that
pinning documents was a common way of providing notices at the court house. Straight pins
found at public buildings are likely to represent the use of pins as paper fasteners, not items of
clothing. Second, the presence of tobacco pipe fragments may suggest an individual activity or
pass-time on the part of court attendees. The pipes that were found were all unmarked, perhaps
indicative of the sale of “generic” brand tobacco pipes during court days. Finally the food remains
found in plaza contexts were similar to those observed at other “public” buildings and settings,
such as taverns.
5.5 CONCLUSION
The archeological investigation conducted at the plaza of the New Castle Court House is the most
recent in a series of archeological inquiries undertaken at the site spanning nearly 50 years. These
projects have built upon the results and interpretations of the excavations that preceded them,
supplying historical and archeological information important to relating the story of the Court
House to the public. Earlier work uncovered the foundation of the first court house and tested the
yard and eastern plaza areas. The current work on the plaza constitutes the most intensive
archeological excavation at the Court House to date and the results of that work encapsulates
many of the contributions that historical archeology has to offer. Over 7,000 artifacts were
recovered and 89 archeological features were identified beneath the plaza, a rather remarkable
discovery given the relatively small area covered by the plaza and the general construction history
of the site.
In the proposed Archeological Preservation Plan developed for New Castle by Louise Heite and
the late Edward F. “Ned” Heite, the study area containing the Court House was considered to
contain high archeological potential “both because of what is known and because of what might
be found” (Heite and Heite 1989:41). The Heite’s suggested that archeological evidence of
prehistoric occupation of the Market Green may be present, as well as evidence of the early
European settlement. The recent work at the Court House highlights the potentials enumerated by
the Heites. Archeological remains of the initial fortification and public edifice on the property
were documented, as were tantalizing glimpses – Native American artifacts displaced from their
original locations and included in the plaza sands – of the pre-European occupation of the area.
Evidence of heretofore unknown or unexpected elements of the property was discovered,
including a palisade trench and cellar hole dating to the first court house. We were able to study
in detail the historical and physical connections among the various elements that comprise the
Court House. These tangible connections range from the relationship of the palisade line to the
stone foundation to the evidence of scaffolding to the physical changes of the court house
landscape and paved plaza that exists today.
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