Featured Fragment Blog
When Building Fragments Come Together: Foundations at the Fredericksburg Riverfront Park
By Kerri Barile One of the most exciting finds on an archaeological site are the remains of a building or structure—evidence of people modifying their natural world to create a controlled space. Whether it is a dwelling, store, barn, or other building, the activity of...
Coming Unglued: The Importance of Reversibility in Artifact Conservation
By Reagan Andersen In this month’s blog, we are highlighting a whiteware basin with a flow blue Scinde pattern from the mid-nineteenth century. The object was brought to the Dovetail lab by a curious owner from Stafford County. The vessel had once been broken into...
A “Killer” Artifact for Babies
A Partial Bone Disc Recovered from the Houston-LeCompt Site By Sara Rivers Cofield and Kerry S. González This month we are going to revisit an artifact that Dovetail recovered from their data recovery excavations at the Houston-LeCompt site in New Castle County,...
Frog Legs: The Other White Meat
A Wrought Iron Frog Gig Recovered in Randolph County, North Carolina By Kerry S. González People have been consuming frog legs for centuries. In 2013 National Geographic reported that 10,000-year-old cooked frog bones were found in England , long before the French...
Making Stone Tools the Hardaway
Making Stone Tools the Hardaway: A Paleoindian Artifact from the Graceland Site, Randolph County, North Carolina By Joe Blondino It’s no surprise that archaeologists like old things. That’s why we get particularly excited when we find artifacts dating to the...
A Brush with a Hog
A Brush with a Hog: Cleaning Your Teeth in the Nineteenth Century By Kerry Gonzalez In 2018, archaeologists from the Maryland Department of Transportation State Highway Administration (MDOT SHA), Applied Archaeology and History Associates, Inc., and Dovetail Cultural...
Turning and Burning
Turning and Burning: Locally Made Pottery from the Trogdon-Squirrel Creek Assemblage By D. Brad Hatch July continues our series of posts highlighting the artifacts recovered from the Trogdon-Squirrel Creek site (31Rd1426/1426**) in Randolph County, North Carolina....
Medicine in a Glass
Featured Fragment – Mexican Mustang Liniment for Man and Beast: Patent Medicines at the Squirrel Creek Site By Michelle C. Salvato This month we are once again returning to our series highlighting the artifacts recovered from the Trogdon-Squirrel Creek site...
“I’ll Skip My Turn Thanks!”
Featured Fragment – Civil War-Era Tourniquet Clamp from Henrico County, Virginia By Kerry S. González For hundreds of years the tourniquet has been used on extremities, primarily arms and legs, in an effort to stop hemorrhaging during an amputation. For this month’s...
A Not So Perfect Match
Featured Fragment – Nineteenth-Century Table Settings By D. Brad Hatch, Ph.D. and Kerry S. González This month’s blog continues our series highlighting the artifacts recovered from the Trogdon-Squirrel Creek site in Randolph County, North Carolina. On behalf of the...
Pipes and Patriotism
Featured Fragment – Showing Irish Pride in Nineteenth Century Washington, D.C. By Lauren McMillan, Ph.D. For this month’s blog we have a guest author, Dr. Lauren McMillan, Assistant Professor at the University of Mary Washington and noted pipe researcher. She is going...
More than Just Another Brick in the Wall
Featured Fragment – A Mysterious Artifact from the Squirrel Creek Site By D. Brad Hatch, Ph.D. This month’s blog continues our series highlighting the artifacts recovered from the Squirrel Creek site in Randolph County, North Carolina. On behalf of the North Carolina...