Underwater Archaeology at Port Royal Jamaica ATAMU INA PROJECT

Underwater Archaeology at Port Royal, Jamaica ATAMU/INA PROJECT

QUESTIONS TO BE CONSIDERED 1. How was the site found? n 2. How was the site excavated? n 3. What was found? n 4. How were questions answered? n ---- Keeping in mind that any excavation of an underwater site is going to be more complicated than expected, more expensive than expected, and the analysis will go on much longer than expected and require the assistance of a number of different specialists! n

Catastrophic Sites Archaeological sites that are created in a matter of minutes preserving in situ a wide array of artifactual material. Get quote.

Port Royal, JAMAICA Largest English town in the New World when it sank in an earthquake on June 7, 1692. The only submerged town in the New World

Located at the tip of a 18 mile long sand spit makes for a precarious location subject to the whims of nature. The Institute of Nautical Archaeology spent 10 years excavating on the 17 thcentury, submerged remains of Port Royal. More than 150 students worked on the site.

Some sites such as the sunken town of Port Royal are so wellknown they are never lost. There is an abundance of historic documents and maps. Taylor’s 1688 map of Port Royal.

Of course the significant thing about Port Royal, is that much of it sunk into Kingston Harbor during an earthquake on June 7, 1692, ca. 11: 40 A. M.

In Historical Archaeology the documents and even the frozen hands of a recovered watches reveal details on everyday life in Port Royal in the late 17 th Century.

Broadside published in London in August 1692

Map of Port Royal, 1807

Assumption was that liquifaction sunk the town with little horizontal displacement

Land Support -- Living Quarters, Work Headquarters

Aerial View 0 f Port Royal ca. 1960

Barge anchored over excavation

Barge Activity

The shallow diving is conducted from a support barge and is

Land view of dredges used to excavate.

In shallow water, all excavations are done with a water dredge that control the direction of the exhaust across the bottom through a hose

Air Lifts such as used in earlier excavations are not effective in shallow water for they dump the sediments on top of your head, destroying all visibility

Port Royal- Sunken City, Brick Buildings, Shallow Diving, HOOKA, Poor Visibility, Water Dredge

2 divers working in two 10 ft squares inside Building 5

All Catastrophic sites are characterized by the great abundance of well-preserved artifacts - pipes, pewter, porcelain, bottles!

Array of Artifacts on floor being excavated

Building 1 - built in two stages - housing a Cobbler, a Tavern and a Pipe/ Wine Shop

Artifact Distribution in Building 1

Building 1, Architectural Details

Each excavated building becomes a chapter in the story of the daily life of the town

Building 1

Following are sequential stages in the excavation of Room 1 in Building 5

Sequential Excavation Stages

Earthenware Pot in fallen doorway 21 pewter plates in stairwell

Cistern, Privy and Walls

Pots, pewter plate, coconut & Wicker Fish Basket

Mapping in Poor Visibility Errors always creep in and accumulate, but modern science has provided instrumentations that allow us to overcome some of the difficulties.

The difficulties of plotting the building and artifacts were facilitated by SHARPS - Sonic High Accuracy Ranging and Positioning System.

3 -D computer generated drawing

The excavations of Building 4/5 revealed a first -- a building rammed by a ship during the earthquake! Built in two stages. Bldg. 4 was tacked on to it. Note the pattern of hearths and sharing of cisterns.

Drawing of 1666 London -- Interpretations

Hogarth Lithograph

The excavations of 8 buildings allow us to reconstruct the alignment of houses along the intersection of Lime and Queen Street

Street View of Excavated Houses

Land Excavations at Port Royal New Street Excavations Lime Street Excavations St. Paul’s Church

New Street Excavations

Water Pipe Trench cut down housing block on landward end of Lime Street

Intersecting House Walls

Underwater Archaeology has shown how densely packed the multi-storied brick building were in the town.

The area at the NW end of Line street at intersections of Queen and High Streets was excavated.

Artifact Analysis

With the 10 year excavation completed, the detailed analyses of the thousands of recovered artifacts is started

Slipware Posset Pot

Delftware Vase and drawing

Chinese Export Porcelain: Blanc de Chin, Batavia

Lighting in a Port Royal House

A late 17 th-century . pewter candlestick with a wax catcher

Pewter, because of the presence of maker’s marks and ownership marks are particularly useful for identifying occupants of building. Pewter is seldom found on land sites

Summary of X-Ray Fluorescence Data Port Royal Jamaica Pewter, Test Performed by Janice Carlson Winterthur Musuem, Delaware Object Acc. # Part Sn Pb Cu Sb Zn Bi BR HR HO 94. 57 95. 50 93. 30 3. 58 1. 95 4. 35 1. 16 1. 28 1. 06 0. 00 0. 30 0. 32 0. 31 Side 93. 39 5. 41 0. 46 0. 00 0. 32 Charger-509 -6 Obv. Rim Ctr. 94. 85 96. 75 1. 90 1. 68 2. 55 1. 45 0. 00 0. 25 0. 27 Charger-255 -5 Obv Rev 87. 40 90. 98 11. 34 7. 50 1. 36 1. 05 0. 00 0. 21 0. 16 Plate-688 -18 Obv Rev 84. 98 95. 26 3. 54 3. 32 11. 41 1. 29 0. 00 0. 08 0. 13 Plate-688 -19 Obv Rev 91. 40 93. 83 1. 81 4. 58 6. 41 1. 51 0. 00 0. 38 0. 01 Spoon -1035 Tankard -167 -1

Tankards & Pewter Bowls

A Stuart Tankard with cherub thumb piece

Historic Documents Wills, Inventories, Land Patents, Deed Records, Guild Records, Shipping Records, Law Suits, Northern Colonies Records --- Begin to put everything into context!

The maker’s mark of Simon Benning And the NCI ownerships marks of Nathaniel Colson and his wife, Jane

Simon Benning’s Will

Simon Benning’s Jamaica Inventory

Broadside published in London in August 1692

SUPRISES Skeletal Material Unexpected artifacts

Two of three skeletons of children in Building 5

Burial Crypts in Church Yard

Middle America Three-legged metate encrusted onto a cast iron cooking pot

Three-legged metate with King Vulture head and mano made from the broken leg of a similar metate

Port Royal and other underwater archaeology project conducted by Texas A&M University and the Institute of Nautical Archaeology are highlighted on the WWW pages maintained at the WEB address below: http: /nautarch. tamu. edu/ina Look for the Port Royal Project Link