The vertebrate fauna from a late eighteenth century well: The Bray Plantation, Kingsmill, Virginia

Abstract

A faunal collection consisting of over four thousand bones was analyzed from a well located on an eighteenth century plantation. Many aspects of the sample suggested that not all the material present was of a subsistence nature. Conditions leading to these conclusions are discussed.

In the summer of 1972, the Virginia State Landmarks Commission’s Office of Archæology began excavations of the Bray Plantation. This eighteenth century plantation was dug as an integral portion of the Kingsmill Project funded through an archæological investigation grant from Busch Properties, Inc. On the site, in close proximity with the main house, was a brick well apparently backfilled in the last quarter of the eighteenth century. Upon excavation, a large sample of animal bone was recovered from the well debris and subsequently analyzed.