As part of a $51 million project, archaeologists have conducted a search for traces of Washington-on-the-Brazos, also known as the “birthplace of Texas”.

Washington-on-the-Brazos was a small town along the Brazos River in Washington County, Texas.

The town is best known for being the site of the Convention of 1836 and the signing of the Texas Declaration of Independence from Mexico in the Texas Revolution.

The declaration officially established the Republic of Texas, however, no other government or nation recognised the newly declared nation.

The town went into decline due to poor transport links and competition from surrounding towns and cities. This resulted in Washington-on-the-Brazos being mainly abandoned by the townsfolk in the late 1800s who relocated to Brenham or Navasota.

Archaeologists have recently completed a $51 million excavation along the La Bahia Road, the main highway through the town that carried goods and travellers across the state from Goliad to Nacogdoches.

Researchers used tax records and official documents to identify where former buildings were situated, followed by geophysics to detect anomalies beneath the ground in preparation for exploratory excavations.

Image Credit : Texas Historical Commission

This led to the discovery of where the Houston’s presidential office once stood, revealing the footprint of a 16-by-16-foot building along with objects such as nails, buttons, ceramics, and window glass.

Archaeologists also uncovered the brick floor of a house from the 1830’s, in addition to the remains of an old brick fireplace.

Over 10,000 artefacts have been recovered during the project, which include the key to a gold pocket watch, gun flints, buttons from a soldier’s uniform, and an 1831 U.S. dime.

According to a press statement by the Texas Historical Commission (which manages the site), several buildings from the town will be faithfully (partially or fully) recreated to enable visitors to visit the buildings that once lined the La Bahia Road.

Header Image Credit : Texas Historical Commission

Sources : Texas Historical Commission

This content was originally published on www.heritagedaily.com – © 2023 – HeritageDaily

Archaeologists from MOLA (Museum of London Archaeology) have uncovered a moated medieval windmill during construction works of the National Highways A428 Black Cat to Caxton Gibbet improvement scheme in Bedfordshire, England.

According to the researchers, the mill dates from between 1066 to 1485 during the medieval period.

Owning a mill would have been a great position of power for the local lord of the manor. The lord received money for the flour and rent from local tenants who farmed the land around it.

Excavations have revealed that the mill had a large central post used to orient the sails towards the wind. The post was found partly buried in a large mound used for support, making it a sunken type of Post Mill that first appeared in Europe from the 1100s to 1200s.

No physical remains of the mill survives above ground and the mound it stood on was levelled for farming. However, upon removing the topsoil, archaeologists found traces of a moat ditch surrounding the structure.

A moat is not unusual for sunken type Post Mills, as the excavated soil from the ditch was used to build the mound where the larger mill structure was situated.

According to a representative from MOLA: “Because this area is naturally very wet, the deep ditch would have collected water and become a moat. We could see evidence for this during our excavations because it was full of shells from water snails!”

Cut trenches called ‘slots’ were sunk into the ditch, revealing various pottery sherds, including medieval green glazed ware, in addition to animal bones, iron nails (likely from the wooden mill building), farming tools, clay tobacco pipe stems, and 17 pieces of millstones.

Header Image Credit : MOLA

Sources : MOLA

This content was originally published on www.heritagedaily.com – © 2023 – HeritageDaily