This context (Catalog #223, Lot 12, Test Cut G, Strat 20, Level a) consists of artifacts from a dark brown silty sand located at the base of a circular feature excavated in the back yard of Lot 12, adjacent to the Lot 13 boundary wall. Backhoe testing in the backyard of Lot 12 was conducted in an undisturbed section and after the surface soil was removed, excavators found what appeared to be a curving brick wall. Test Cut G was placed to explore this feature further.
Although the soil above the curved brick wall was not disturbed, the top of the brick feature was disturbed. The southern portion of the feature had been removed by the construction of a brick rear wall erected for the 20th century structure that fronted Water Street. Although the top portion of the feature was constructed in brick, after 70 inches below the datum, the remaining part of the feature was constructed of cut stone which had been laid in a mortar, most of which had decayed. The base of the stone wall occurred at 97 inches below datum. Below the walls of the feature, logs and pieces of wood protruded from the south wall of the test cut into the excavated area and beneath the feature wall on the east and west sides. The structure was apparently supported on these logs, possibly to prevent it from settling into the underlying river bottom deposits. Although this feature did not seem to have a typical floor, a number of broken sandstone slabs and bricks were found beneath the slabs and may have been the feature’s floor, disturbed after the period of use.
A series of strata were uncovered within the feature with varying soil profiles and artifact densities. Beneath the stone slabs and the walls of the feature, between 108 and 111 inches, a deposit of dark brown sandy silt with a lower density of artifacts but a higher density of bone was uncovered. This deposit was underlain by a gray silt, which probably represents the river bottom. This dark brown sandy silt deposit yielded eight diagnostic sherds with a mean ceramic date of 1755.6 which helps to confirm that the material beneath the stone slabs was deposited earlier than the overlying strata.
The brick and stone arched feature referenced above was likely a cistern, a fire well or a dry well, and the excavators believed that it was constructed after the new owner, Gulian Verplanck, built a new structure on the lot subsequent to the fire of 1778, most likely in the late 1780s. The ceramic evidence would indicate that the cistern was in use for a period of only 10 to 15 years, since deposition of debris in the unused cistern apparently began in the 1790s. For more information about the deposits associated with Lot 12, please read pages 155 to 191 of the 7 Hanover Square site report.
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Collection method
Excavated this context using shovels and trowels.
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Soil description
Brown sandy loam/Dark brown silty sand
