Featured Fragment Blog
Common Cents Archaeology
By: Joe Blondino Most of the artifacts that archaeologists find don’t give us an exact date for when they were used or deposited on a site. Typically, artifacts are assigned a “type”, and each type has a date range that is generally accepted based on previous...
Living on a Prayer: What a Rosary Fragment Can Tell Us About the Urban Landscape in Alexandria, Virginia
By: Kerry S. González In recent excavations in the City of Alexandria, Dovetail recovered a portion of a rosary, specifically the crucifix and a section of the antiphon. Rosaries are used in Catholicism as a form of meditative prayer, and each rosary contains three...
Diamond-Notched Tobacco Barn a Precious Gem?
By Danae Peckler Tobacco barns may still be something of a common sight in central and southern Virginia, but their days are increasingly numbered. Listed as one of Preservation Virginia’s Most Endangered Historic Properties in 2009, many are being reclaimed by the...
A Kookpot from Casimir
Featured Fragment –A Kookpot from Casimir By William Liebeknecht Our story starts in 1651 with the construction of Fort Casimir, a colonial fortification built by the West India Company in what is now New Castle, Delaware. The four-sided fort was only lightly equipped...
Every Woman Needs a Little Black Dress
By Kerry S. González and Sara Rivers Cofield In the late winter of 2020, PQ (Pre-Quarantine), Dovetail conducted an archaeological excavation of a family cemetery associated with a branch of the Embrey family in Stafford, Virginia. The small plot contained the graves...
What’s THAT Doing HERE? Unexpected Discoveries at the Strawberry Run Site in Alexandria, Virginia
By Joe Blondino In June 2019, Dovetail conducted an archaeological survey of a project area located along Strawberry Run in Alexandria, Virginia. At first, the project area seemed like it might not have much to offer. Most of the project area was located along the...
While They’re “At Rest,” We’re at Work: Identifying Nineteenth-Century Coffin Hardware
By Melissa Butler In death, as in life, mass-marketed applied ornaments allow individuals to customize their belongings. This month’s artifact is one such decoration. Dovetail Cultural Resource Group (Dovetail) recently completed an archaeological excavation and...
Coins, Balls, Bats, and Bases: A Few Fragments on Fredericksburg’s Ties to America’s National Game
By Kerri S. Barile On February 22, 1936, over 3,000 people gathered on the banks of the Rappahannock River in Fredericksburg and Stafford County, Virginia, to witness history. Former Major Leaguer Walter “Big Train” Johnson attempted to recreate George Washington’s...
Let’s Shed a Little Light on this Blog: A Civil War-Era Sticking Tommy Candle Holder
By D. Brad Hatch This month’s post highlights an object recovered from a Civil War battlefield and campsite in Virginia. Rather than being associated with fighting, however, this object speaks to the daily lives of soldiers during the war. The object is a cast iron...
An Artifact as Stubborn as a Donkey: We Need Your Help?
By Kerry S. González For our last blog of 2019 we are once again revisiting artifacts recovered from the Trogdon-Squirrel Creek site, a mid- to late-nineteenth-century domestic site in Randolph County, North Carolina. On behalf of the North Carolina Department of...
The HumunGIS Importance of Mapping Data at Archaeological Sites
Featured Fragment – HumunGIS Importance of GIS By D. Brad Hatch and Emily Calhoun Since this past Wednesday (November 13, 2019) was Geographic Information System (GIS) Day, we’ve decided to dedicate this week’s blog to highlighting how archaeologists use GIS as a tool...
One Shell of an Artifact: Monetaria annulus as Evidence of Fredericksburg’s Global Economic Connections
Featured Fragment – Cowrie Shell By D. Brad Hatch This month’s artifact began its life somewhere in the Indian or Pacific Ocean, likely made its way to the west coast of Africa, crossed the Atlantic, then traveled up the Rappahannock River before ending up in...