CCR conducted data recovery excavations at a domestic site (ca.1790-1820) associated with the Rippon Hall plantation near Williamsburg, Virginia. The results document aspects of subsistence, household economy, and lifeways at what is interpreted as a small, late eighteenth- to early nineteenth-century African-American slave quarter. Evidence suggesting one or two dwellings and an animal pen was recovered through excavation and a soil chemistry study.
The material recovered from the site includes a variety of imported ceramics and a large assemblage of locally made colonoware ceramics. The site also yielded evidence suggesting colonoware production within the domestic setting. This evidence includes unfired vessel fragments, fired clay fragments, possible kiln furniture, informal pinchpots, and possible toy vessels. The importance of the colonowares at the site may reflect needs or preferences and may even reflect participation in the local economy through ceramic trade.
