Underwater Archaeology

at

Port Royal, Jamaica

A TAMU/INA PROJECT

QUESTIONS TO BE CONSIDERED

1. How was the site found?

2. How was the site excavated?

3. What was found?

4. How were questions answered?

---- Keeping in mind that any excavation of an

underwater site is going to be more complicated

than expected, more expensive than expected,

and the analysis will go on much longer than

expected and require the assistance of a number

of different specialists!

Catastrophic Sites

Archaeological sites that are created

in a matter of minutes preserving in

situ a wide array of artifactual

material.

Port Royal,

JAMAICA Largest English town in the New World

when it sank in an earthquake on

June 7, 1692.

The only submerged town in the New

World

Located at the tip of a 18 mile long

sand spit makes for a precarious

location subject to the whims of

nature.

10 years were spent

excavating the 17th-century

submerged remains of Port

Royal. More than 150

students particpated in the

project.

Some sites

such as the

sunken

town of

Port Royal

are so well-

known they

are never

lost. There

is an

abundance

of historic

documents

and maps.

Taylor’s 1688 map of Port Royal.

Of course the significant thing about Port Royal, is that

much of it sunk into Kingston Harbor during an

earthquake on June 7, 1692, ca. 11:40 A.M.

In Historical

Archaeology the

documents and

even the frozen

hands of a

recovered watches

reveal details on

everyday life in

Port Royal in the

late 17th Century.

Broadside

published in

London in

August 1692

Map of

Port

Royal,

1807

Assumption was

that liquifaction

sunk the town

with little

horizontal

displacement

Land Support -- Living Quarters, Work Headquarters

Aerial View 0f Port Royal

ca. 1960

Barge anchored over excavation

Barge Activity

The shallow diving is conducted from a support barge and is

done during 3 hour or longer dives using HOOKA.

Land view of dredges used to

excavate underwater

In shallow water, all excavations are done

with a water dredge that control the

direction of the exhaust across the bottom

through a hose

Stratigraphic

Layers at

Port Royal, Jamaica

Artifact

Numbering

System

Total Area

excavated

1981-1990

Air Lifts such as

used in earlier

excavations are

not effective in

shallow water for

they dump the

sediments on top

of your head,

destroying all

visibility

Port Royal- Sunken City, Brick Buildings, Shallow Diving,

HOOKA, Poor Visibility, Water Dredge

2 divers working in two 10 ft squares inside

Building 5

All Catastrophic sites are characterized by the great abundance

of well-preserved artifacts - pipes, pewter, porcelain, bottles!

Array of

Artifacts on

floor being

excavated

Building 1 -

- built in

two stages -

- housing a

Cobbler, a

Tavern and

a Pipe/

Wine Shop

Brick

Architecture

Features

Artifact Distribution in Building 1

Building 1, Architectural Details

Each

excavated

building

becomes a

chapter in

the story

of the

daily life

of the

town

Artist

vision of

Building

1

Building 3

Following are sequential stages

in the excavation of Room 1in

Building 5

Sequential Excavation Stages

21 pewter

plates in

stairwell

Earthenware

Pot in fallen

doorway

Cistern, Privy and Walls

Pots, pewter plate,

coconut &

Wicker Fish

Basket

Mapping in Poor Visibility

Errors always creep in and accumulate, but

modern science has provided

instrumentations that allow us to overcome

some of the difficulties.

The difficulties of plotting the building and artifacts were facilitated

by SHARPS - Sonic High Accuracy Ranging and Positioning System.

3-D computer generated drawing

The excavations of

Building 4/5

revealed a first -- a

building rammed

by a ship during

the earthquake!

Built in two stages.

Bldg. 4 was added

to it.

Note the pattern

of hearths and

sharing of

cisterns.

Drawing of 1666 London -- Interpretations

Hogarth Lithograph

The excavations

of 8 buildings

allow us to

reconstruct the

alignment of

houses along the

intersection of

Lime and Queen

Street

Street View of Excavated Houses

Land Excavations at Port Royal

New Street Excavations

Lime Street Excavations

St. Paul’s Church

New Street

Excavations

Water Pipe Trench

cut down housing

block on landward

end of Lime Street

Intersecting House

Walls

Houses

along

Lime

Street

in Socer

Field

Excavation of St. Paul’s Church

Wellpoint System

Underwater Archaeology has shown how densely packed

the multi-storied brick building were in the town.

The area at the NW end of Line street at

intersections of Queen and High Streets

was excavated.

Artifact Analysis

Append

DBF

Assist

Sheet

Artifact Distribution

Contour

Distribution

Map of All

Kaolin Pipes

With the 10 year

excavation completed,

the detailed analyses of

the thousands of

recovered artifacts is

started

Slipware Posset Pot

Delftware Vase

and drawing

Chinese Export Porcelain: Blanc de Chin, Batavia

Lighting in a Port Royal House

. A late 17th-century pewter candlestick with a wax catcher

Pewter, because of the presence of maker’s marks and

ownership marks are particularly useful for identifying

occupants of building. Pewter is seldom found on land sites

Summary of X-Ray Fluorescence Data

Port Royal Jamaica Pewter, Test Performed by Janice Carlson

Winterthur Musuem, Delaware

Object Acc.# Part Sn Pb Cu Sb Zn Bi

Spoon -1035 BR 94.57 3.58 1.16 0.00 0.00 0.30

HR 95.50 1.95 1.28 0.00 0.00 0.32

HO 93.30 4.35 1.06 0.00 0.00 0.31

Tankard -167-1

Side 93.39 5.41 0.46 0.00 0.00 0.32

Charger-509-6 Rim 94.85 1.90 2.55 0.00 0.00 0.25

Obv. Ctr. 96.75 1.68 1.45 0.00 0.00 0.27

Charger-255-5 Obv 87.40 11.34 1.36 0.00 0.00 0.21

Rev 90.98 7.50 1.05 0.00 0.00 0.16

Plate-688-18 Obv 84.98 3.54 11.41 0.00 0.00 0.08

Rev 95.26 3.32 1.29 0.00 0.00 0.13

Plate-688-19 Obv 91.40 1.81 6.41 0.00 0.00 0.38

Rev 93.83 4.58 1.51 0.00 0.00 0.01

Tankards & Pewter Bowls

A Stuart Tankard

with cherub

thumb piece

Historic Documents

Wills, Inventories, Land Patents, Deed

Records, Guild Records, Shipping

Records, Law Suits, Northern Colonies

Records ---

Begin to put everything into

context!

The maker’s

mark of

Simon

Benning

And the NCI

ownerships marks

of Nathaniel Cook

and his wife, Jane

Simon Benning’s Will

Simon Benning’s Jamaica Inventory

Broadside

published in

London in August

1692

SUPRISES

Skeletal Material

Unexpected artifacts

Two of three skeletons of

children in Building 5

Burial Crypts in Church Yard

Middle America

Three-legged

metate encrusted

onto a cast iron

cooking pot

Three-legged metate with King Vulture head and

mano made from the broken leg of a similar metate

Port Royal and other underwater

archaeology project conducted by Texas

A&M University and the Institute of

Nautical Archaeology are highlighted

on the Internet at:

http://nautarch.tamu.edu

A variation of this PowerPoint can be found at:

http://nautarch.tamu.edu/class/313/