An aerial view of part of the Colony of Avalon grounds showing some of the stone falls and features that have been discovered by archaeologists over the years. This past summer proved to be one of the most successful seasons in terms of finding artefacts.
By Craig Westcott
Every year when Dr. Barry Gaulton presents his end of season archaeology report on the digging done at the Colony of Avalon site in Ferryland, he starts with a slide showing the biggest find of the year. This time, he started his talk with three slides; there were that many interesting arte-facts found in 2024.
“This year was exceptional in many ways,” said the Memorial University professor who serves as the Colony’s chief archaeologist.
This past summer Gaulton’s team focused on four parts of the site, two with a bit more urgency because of the damage they have been sustaining from storm surges and coastal erosion along the waterfront, including from Hurricane Ernesto this past fall.
The two more inland locations, on the southside of The Pool Road, were tackled in the hope of shedding more light on the early construction activities and operations of the Colony founded in 1621 by Baron George Calvert, and later by Sir David Kirke, a privateer and trader who served as Newfoundland’s first governor, who was based in Ferryland.
The waterfront area work included continuing an excavation from the previous year below the late 17th century cobblestone pavement, while the other involved digging a one by four metre trench in an area behind a more modern erection colloquially known as ‘The Moose Shack.’
“As it turns out, the small number of 17th century artefacts that we found in 2023 hinted at much more substantial and deep midden deposits revealed this year in 2024,” said Gaulton.
Midden is the archaeological term for a garbage deposit. They are often rich sources of arte-facts yielding food bones, cookware, and other detritus tossed away by people living centuries ago.
“There was a whole variety of English clay tobacco pipe bowls, there was also a variety of relief moulded decorated (pipe) stems produced in the Netherlands, there was an assortment of glass beads, including a really nice blue and white tube bead, as well some oval beads and some seed beads,” said Gaulton. “We found a circular lead gaming piece in the same area this year, we found some North Italian marble slipware, as well as a whole variety of ceramic pieces, pieces from North Devon, some milk pans, some case bottle glass, we even found a broken clay pipe stem that was drilled out to make a crude whistle. All of these objects clearly suggest there was a domestic (garbage) deposit originating from a nearby house, the location of which has yet to be determined. A notable find from this year from the midden that’s worthy of special attention is a couple of pieces of clay tobacco pipe that were decorated in what was referred to as the ‘running deer motif.’ These pipes are exceptional because they were actually made by Algon-quin peoples in Virginia and Maryland. This is the first such find at Ferryland in over 30 years of archaeology and as far as I know, it’s the first such find in Newfoundland if not in all of Canada, so quite an exciting discovery. As to how it got to Ferryland, the logical assumption is the pipe likely arrived along with shipments of tobacco from the Chesapeake in exchange for Newfoundland salt cod.”
Gaulton thanked the efforts off all the field and lab staff, and other staff for helping the season a success. He had particular praise for Neil Jordan and his “uncanny ability to sniff out parts of the site that are interesting, informative and rich in artefacts.
“The plan for 2024 was to excavate a test trench directly behind the moose shack to record any intact cultural deposits, or surviving features,” Gaulton said. “Although no structural features were found, there were thick cultural deposits from both the 17th and the 18th centuries, and these contained a tremendous number of objects associated with daily life in Ferryland. And even before Neil reached those deeper intact deposits, the upper disturbed layers hinted at good things to come in the form of a William III ha’penny (coin) dated 1695.”
Gaulton said the deposits suggest there was “intensive” occupation in the 18th century of the lower ground near the waterfront known as The Pool.
“This is evidenced by large quantities of English ceramics, including a variety of earthen wares and stoneware, there were English wine glass fragments, there were German stoneware pieces, pieces of flint, all sorts of clay tobacco pipes... and the area really was so rich in artefacts that Neil enlisted the help of our very own Lucille Hynes and Sarah O’Brien, both of whom found lots of objects on site including a wonderful example of a clay pipe produced by Reuben Sidney of Southampton, England.”
Gaulton said one of his favourite pieces discovered by Jordan was a small brass lock plate from a little box or chest that still had its springs and levers intact.
Below the 18th century layers there was a thinner 17th century deposit that contained a variety of similar objects.
“Given the richness of these deposits and what they can tell us about life in 17th and 18th cen-tury Ferryland and given its location along the exposed waterfront, we hope to return to the ar-ea in the future and continue additional excavation,” Gaulton said.
Another highlight of the past season was a ground penetrating radar survey conducted on The Pool Road. The results will be analyzed over the winter. “This may allow us to ‘see’ underneath the road for intact wall features and cobblestone pavements and slate drains and such,” said Gaulton.
The team also started mapping the Colony with a drone this past summer to start documenting the changing waterfront.
A third area excavated was an early 17th century drain that was associated with a brewhouse and stable that had been built in the 1620s.
“This work was part of a larger project looking at the various sanitation systems built during the Calvert period here at Ferryland,” Gaulton said. “Our goal this summer was to expose a small section of that drain that runs directly under the Colony’s cobblestone street. We also wanted to remove the capstones, take soil samples from inside the drain, record details on its construction, and finally attempt to determine the exact direction of that drain as it snakes its way under-ground, under the cobblestone street and under the current street so that we could locate its eventual outflow.”
The first part of the work was easy enough, Gaulton said, but tracing the direction of the drain proved harder. It turned out to be almost completely filled with silt. After managing to probe to about 30 feet, the archaeologists called in a sewer inspection crew from the City of St. John’s, who showed up with sewer cameras and other gear. In a last-ditch attempt to trace the line, they tried pumping a nontoxic red dye into the drain that eventually emerged near the seawall and inner harbour.
The fourth area explored is the former site of a buttery that served Calvert’s Mansion House. It was the first time excavating the area since 2012, when the location of the buttery was record-ed. This summer the archaeologists decided to explore near a small section of mortared stone wall between the buttery and a garbage deposit that had remained unexcavated. They began by removing the upper section of the stone wall that had once housed the Mansion’s adjacent kitchen building in order to get at the underlying midden.
The work indicated that parts of the neighbouring kitchen building have been modified and in-filled over time. “So, this really has the potential to change our interpretation of this particular building associated with the Mansion House,” said Gaulton. “Excavation of the associated refuse deposit in 2024 also revealed very clearly two distinct occupations, the first one associated with the initial construction and occupation back in the 1620s, and an overlying layer consisting of objects discarded in the second half of the 17th century based upon objects such as datable pipe bowls.”
The uppermost deposit also contained an interesting collection of artefacts, Gaulton said, in-cluding a large number of bones preserved in the mortar in the nearby wall. “Students and visi-tors were especially fascinated by all the rat bones, including the well-preserved mandibles and teeth,” he added. “These things were balanced with other informative pieces, things like a bale seal fragment. We found a pewter spoon handle, a small copper bell, we also found a tiny little silver sequin, some pins and needles fragments, and some large chunks of ceramic milk pans manufactured in places like England and Portugal. This is yet another area that is clearly worthy of further investigation…
“To conclude the 2024 field season was a resounding success and it really reinvigorated plans for future archaeological work at Ferryland,” Gaulton said. “There’s clearly more we can do to un-derstand this 17th century village, and so much more we can do to share with the community and the general public.”
