Field Quarter KES

Overview

The Field Quarter site KES is located approximately 75 feet east of a grove of Alianthus trees surrounding Cabin 4.  This site was named for its primary excavator, Kevin E. Smith.  Initial interpretation of the site as remnants of a domestic structure was supported by the heavy scatter of ceramic, glass, bone and rubble fragments found throughout the excavated layers in most of the quadrats.  The lack of any cut limestone foundation suggests that the structure was built either of logs placed directly on the ground surface, or by post-in-ground construction.  The highly disturbed nature of possible postholes obscures identification.  Dating of this site to an occupation period prior to the construction of the four brick duplex cabins is supported by the difference in structural remains recovered.

Documentary evidence

The area known as the Field Quarter at the Hermitage is located one-third mile north of the mansion. It was home to as many as eighty enslaved individuals between the 1820s and the 1850s, who worked in the outlying fields (Galle 2006). It would have been a crowded and lively place, and perhaps one of the centers of the plantation community, though the documentary record provides little information on life there. The number of slaves and some slaves’ names are gleaned from lists in account books and various references in letters penned by Jackson family members over the years.

Early structures at the Field Quarter were constructed of wood, possibly log cabins. After 1821, when the Hermitage mansion was completed, brick duplex cabins were then constructed. Any extant log structures, which had stood at least two decades by the time Jackson acquired the land outright, were likely in a state of extreme disrepair. In addition, Jackson sought to steadily increase the number of slaves at the Hermitage. While the 1820 U.S. census listed 44 enslaved persons on the property, this number rose to nearly 100 by 1830. It is likely that additional housing was required to accommodate the growing population.

In the 1970s, longtime Hermitage employees who were interviewed about their recollections of the “North Field” or Field Quarter remembered only one or two brick buildings still standing in the 1920s located near a deep and still very active spring. Archaeological investigation in the Field Quarter began with a survey conducted in 1976 by Samuel D. Smith of the Tennessee Division of Archaeology.  The survey confirmed the locations of two of the 20 by 40 foot limestone block foundations in the Field Quarter and Smith hoped that “more thorough investigation of these sites can be undertaken at a future date” (Smith 1976).

Excavation history, procedure, and methods

Though Smith conducted a Field Quarter survey and some unit excavations at Cabins 1 and 2, the area comprising KES remained largely uninvestigated until Larry McKee became director of Archaeology at the Hermitage in 1990. At the beginning of his tenure, McKee established a partnership program with the organization Earthwatch which proved to be a successful involvement lasting several years. Earthwatch volunteers supervised by experienced excavators carried out fieldwork at KES and other Field Quarters during his time.

McKee established a grid system with an 1150 foot baseline, oriented to magnetic north, which served as the system used in both the shovel testing program and the later cabin excavations at the Field Quarter. Shovel tests were then dug over the entire fifteen acres at the Field Quarter in 1990, in order to build on Smith’s work and acquire data on the specific distribution of subsurface remains.

Based on shovel test pit data, including intrusion into feature fill containing animal bone, brick and ash, the area designated KES was excavated beginning in 1990 (McKee 1990, 1991).  Research goals driving KES unit excavations included defining the boundaries of the ephemeral structure and yard area, and determining the chronological sequence of the site in relation to the four brick and limestone cabins to the west.  Exposure of multiple subsurface features including a large cellar (F289) and possible limestone hearth base (F281), as well as the lack of limestone foundations, suggest that KES was occupied prior to the formal construction of the duplex Field Quarter cabins.  Further excavation conducted in 1993 sought to complete excavation of F275, which was bisected in 1990.  Six contexts excavated in May of 1993 comprise these excavations.

McKee and primary excavator Kevin Smith employed standard excavation units of ten by ten foot quadrats aligned to the same grid system and baseline used in McKee’s shovel test survey.  All quadrats excavated for this site were designated by the Northeast corner northing and easting, since they were located east of the datum line for the Field Quarter excavations.  Five by five foot quadrant subdivisions of the units were often used during the project in situations where a fine-grained exploration of artifact distribution was deemed necessary. These quadrants were designated beginning in the northwest and running clockwise from A to D.  Given the extent of plowing and rodent burrowing present at this site, the excavators primarily excavated the quadrats in all four quadrants to achieve greater control over artifact placement due to numerous apparent but poorly defined features.

Most stratigraphic sequences uncovered in KES included the following strata: a well-developed sod layer (referred to by excavators as Level 1); a plowzone/other disturbance stratum, characterized by rubble scatter and scattered artifacts (Level 2A); a layer formed during primary occupation (Level 2C) wherein artifacts frequency was nearly zero except immediately around/in features and in rodent tunnels/burrows. It should be noted that, unlike the four duplex cabins, Level 2B was not identified at KES.  Kevin Smith noted during excavation that “Level 2B is skipped in all units, as we appear to be excavating primary deposits.”

Soil and structural features were defined and excavated as separate entities from the level designations within quadrats.  All deposits below the first sod layer were screened through quarter inch mesh. Samples from deposits of particular interest were waterscreened through eighth-inch window screen. In addition, soil samples were collected from these deposits for flotation analysis in an effort to recover any surviving micro-examples of floral remains, such as charred seeds.  Photographs were taken and drawings were made whenever warranted by exposures of artifacts or features of note.

Notable Features in the KES Yard Area

During the preliminary survey of the site, a shovel test pit at grid point N150E060 intruded feature fill that included bone, brick, ash and other artifacts.  The initial full-scale excavation of the feature suggested it was an oval cut measuring roughly four feet by eight feet.  Designated F275, this pit was covered by brick, rubble and animal bone.  This feature was bisected from north to south, with the west half excavated in 1990 and the east half in 1993.  Up to a depth of 0.75 feet, the fill of the feature was dark, midden-like soil containing ash and charcoal.  The lack of any adjacent structural remains suggests this feature may have been an exterior storage pit or root cellar in the yard of a nearby dwelling. This interpretation is complicated by the feature’s sloping sides, irregular shape and uneven floor, which argue against any purposeful design in its construction.  It may have originated as a ‘borrow pit’ dug to obtain clay to be used in mortar, daub and chinking of the structure.  This feature also yielded several notable artifacts including a fork with carved bone handle, fragments of a Chinese porcelain ‘Canton’ pattern platter and a wrought iron strap hinge. Given the location of F275 and shovel test pit data, a majority of fieldwork for this site was focused on the area south and west of this feature.  Results from the excavation of the east half in 1993 yielded few artifacts, though no formal report is extant at this time.

Notable Features within the Presumed Structure of KES

Two other features strongly define the domestic usage of this space.  First, F281 was a concentration of limestone rubble that was likely the disturbed remains of a hearth.

Partially below this feature, a large rectangular cut roughly 10 feet by 5 feet was uncovered.  Designated F289, this feature was divided into four adjacent sections, with dividing lines running east-west, based on an apparent outline in Level 2C.   The four sections from south to north, were as follows: section X (two by four feet); balk (one by four feet); section Y (four by four feet); and section Z (3 feet by unknown). Only one level excavated in these sections: Level A.  This feature had two ‘levels with floors at different elevations.  The upper several inches of the entire feature appear to have been scattered by later plowing.  The shallower section, filled with a 1.8 inch layer of dark soil, was interpreted as a possible ‘step,’ or shelf.  The second section was a relatively straight-walled pit four feet by eight feet.  Bone and charcoal were present to the bottom of the feature.  Overall this feature was interpreted as a pit cellar.

According to McKee’s final report, fragments of burned clay with several wood impressions from F289 provide strong evidence that the structure had a catted chimney, made from woven sticks daubed with mud.  An inconsistent pattern of postholes present around F289 and F281 suggests this was a post-in-ground building.  However, heavy rodent burrowing activity greatly disturbed these features complicating their interpretation as postholes.  It is possible that this structure was a log dwelling, a type common to middle Tennessee during the early 19^th century.

Finally, the excavations at KES also uncovered a complete, articulated skeleton of a young pig (sus scrofa), designated F285.  Given its location north of the cellar and at the same stratigraphic level as the top of the cellar, this evidence suggests the pig may have been disposed of, or died within, the abandoned structure.  Another articulated skeleton of a juvenile pig was uncovered in the 1995 excavations of Cabin 3 (F618).  It is likely that, given the amount of meat these individuals represented, they were diseased or unusable for some reason and thus discarded in toto.

Summary of research and analysis

Interpretation of the site as remnants of a domestic structure was supported by the heavy scatter of ceramic, glass, animal bone and rubble fragments found throughout the excavated layers in most of the quadrats.  Three primary features provide insight into the construction and use of this structure.  Feature 275 as a potential barrow pit and trash deposit suggests the usage of clay as an architectural material in the construction of the structure.  Feature 281 as a potential limestone hearth echoes similar features found in other Field Quarter sites.  The large unlined cellar F289 indicates the utility of these features though it lacks the formality of the brick-lined, rectangular cellars in Cabins 2 and 3.  Significant rodent burrowing obscured interpretation of possible postholes and other small features in many cases within the excavation boundaries of this site.  The lack of any cut limestone foundation suggests that the structure was built either of logs placed directly on the ground surface, or by post-in-ground construction.  The highly disturbed nature of possible postholes obscures identification.  Interpretation of the dating of this site suggested that it was occupied prior to construction of the four brick duplex cabins given the difference in structural remains and the artifacts recovered.