Thimbles through Time, Space and Life

The Fort Hunter field season has wrapped up and now artifact processing is in full swing. As we clean and process the artifacts we are able to see more clearly what is present in the collection. It is important to examine the types of artifacts present in a collection as they help tell the story of the landscape and its use. In order for archaeologists to develop an accurate timeline for sites, several methods are used including stratigraphy, radiocarbon dating, dendrochronology, and artifact typologies based on datable artifacts.

This year at Fort Hunter, we found the most complete example of a thimble to date. Thimbles may not be the first artifact type you think of when contemplating the kinds of artifacts that can help date a site, but in fact thimbles have a long and well documented history, though not widely published.

There is documentation of leather thimbles as early as the medieval period in Europe. Bone, horn and wooden thimbles have also all been found on early archaeological sites (Hill 1995). The earliest metal thimbles in England appear in AD 1350 (Hill 1995). At this time thimbles were being made and decorated by hand, using various techniques including hammering, stamping and pressing. Like many other objects, later period thimbles were produced via mechanical methods of casting. During the 17^th century some of these machine made thimbles were made through a slightly different process, making them from two pieces by attaching the separately made crown to the body. This process of manufacture is another clue to dating them.  

Various forms of thimbles through time: 14^th century (left), 2-piece 17^th century (center), 19^th century pronounced rim (right) (from UK Detector Finds Database 2005).

Just as the process for making thimbles changed, so did the form or shape and design on thimbles. It wasn’t until the fifteenth century that thimbles became taller and similar to their current form, while previously they were a short shallow cup-like shape (Hill 1995, UK Detector Finds Database 2005). The height of the thimble sides as well as the height of the dome varied between manufacturers as well as through time. Designs on thimbles also changed, beginning with hand punched “pits” or indentations in the medieval period and later changing to mechanically indented or knurled indentations (Hill 1995, UK Detector Finds Database 2005). The indentations or designs are most often small round indentations or can also be a waffle pattern. These varying patterns on the body or crown of a thimble can also indicate its age. Finally, the rim of a thimble can be indicative of a specific time period as some rims were left flat, whiles others were rolled.

18^th Century thimble found at Fort Hunter (36Da159) during 2016 State Museum of Pennsylvania field season.

With this brief understanding of why thimbles are considered datable, we can now look at the thimble found this year at Fort Hunter. As can be seen in the image, the Fort Hunter thimble is a one piece cast thimble with knurled indentations and the waffle-patterned crown. Based on historical research this form and design is often called a “Lofting” type of thimble, named for John Lofting a Dutch thimble maker, who produced large quantities of thimbles for export from England (UK Detector Finds Database 2005). It is believed that the Fort Hunter thimble represents the final development in the “lofting” form, which was quickly copied and exported by other European manufacturers throughout the 18^th century. 

Lofting thimbles found at Fort Loudon

 

Other types of thimbles found at Fort Loudon:  2-piece 17^th century (left), 19^th century crown with concentric design (right)

Top of other types of thimbles found at Fort Loudon:  2-piece 17^th century (left), 19^th century crown with concentric design (right)

Another important aspect of having good datable artifacts on a site is that comparative analyses can be done between sites. In order for archaeologists to develop the most accurate picture of past life, how artifact and site types were used and to determine whether sites are contemporaneous, comparisons are made using as many examples of specific artifact and site types as possible. For example, there have been thimbles found at other French and Indian War period forts in Pennsylvania, such as the five 18^th century Lofting thimbles, one 17^th century two-piece thimble and one 19^th century thimble with a concentric crown design found at Fort Loudon.  Other examples of thimbles from Pennsylvania forts include two 18^th century Lofting type thimbles from Fort Augusta and Fort Morris each. Fort Morris also has an example of a 17^th century two-piece thimble. Having this information allows archaeologists to see that there are similarities in the form, decoration and ages of this artifact type which not only helps date these sites, but may also lead to further conclusions about who in these forts were using the thimbles: was it soldiers, a designated tailor or women (Gale 2007)? These are just some of the questions that can be explored by further analyzing the thimbles.

18^th century Lofting thimbles from Fort Augusta

 

Thimbles found at Fort Morris: 18^th century Lofting thimbles (right and left), 2-piece 17^th century (center) (image from Warfel 2010).

So, through using previous archaeological evidence as well as the historic record these little artifacts have proven to be an important tool in helping archaeologists understand the period of occupation and activities for many sites. As a common domestic object, thimbles can help date a site or a component of a site through the artifact typology, as our Fort Hunter thimble helps us develop a better understanding of the landscape around the Fort Hunter Mansion.

   

References:

Gale, R. R.

2007    "A Soldier-Like Way": The Material Culture of the British Infantry 1751-

1768. Track of the Wolf, Elk River, Minnesota.

Hill, Erica

1995    Thimbles and Thimble Rings from the circum-Caribbean Region, 1500-1800:   Chronology and Identification. Historical Archaeology 29(1):84-92.

Hume, Ivor Noel

1969   A Guide to Artifacts of Colonial America. Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. republished by University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia.

           

UK Detector Finds Database

            2005    Thimbles. http://www.ukdfd.co.uk/pages/thimble.html.

Warfel, Steven

2010    The Discovery of Fort Morris: A Report on 2009 Archaeological Investigations at the 333 East Burd Street Site, Shippensburg, PA.

For more information, visit PAarchaeology.state.pa.us or the Hall of Anthropology and Archaeology at The State Museum of Pennsylvania .

Excavations of a Frontier Fort

Our review of the last 50 years in Pennsylvania Archaeology continues with a project that was conducted in the late 1970s at historic Fort Augusta in Northumberland County. Fort Augusta is located at the confluence of the North and West branches of the Susquehanna River in the present town of Sunbury, Pennsylvania. This fortification was part of a line of forts and blockhouses constructed during the Seven Years War, also known as the French and Indian War, in the mid-eighteenth century.

By the early eighteenth century, an Indian village, Shamokin, was established at this location. Shamokin was home to the famous Indian negotiator Shickellamy and his family and later also housed Moravian missionaries. In the mid-1700s, fear of attack by the French and their Indian allies led to the abandonment of the village and a request from the local natives to the British to place a fort in this location. During July 1756, construction of a large, fortified log structure was initiated by Colonel William Clapham, but it was not completed until 1757 under the command of Colonel James Burd.

The fort was constructed mainly of logs and earth and plans show that it was in the form of a square with diamond-shaped bastions in each corner. A wide, dry moat and stockade surrounded the fort and provided protection for the barracks, powder magazine, water well, and other interior structures. An outer stockade with four blockhouses along the Susquehanna River provided a protected area for boats coming upstream with supplies from Harris’s Ferry and Fort Hunter to land.

Artist’s Rendition of Fort Augusta (Photo: Northumberland County Historical Society)

Schematic Plan of Fort Augusta (Map: Busch 1896)

Although frequent raids by French-allied Indians occurred, Fort Augusta was never attacked by the French and it provided protection to the local inhabitants, friendly natives, and soldiers until the hostilities ended in 1762. The fort was utilized again during Pontiac’s Rebellion (1763) and the Revolutionary War but was demolished by the end of the eighteenth century. A later fort commander, Samuel Hunter, eventually retained a portion of the property and built the Hunter Mansion. (Please note, this site is not to be confused with Fort Hunter Mansion & Park in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania.)   Hunter Mansion became a museum and headquarters for Northumberland County Historical Society in 1989. The only remains of the fort that are visible today are the well and the powder magazine.

The general location of Fort Augusta was known as early as 1896, when the Report of the Commission to Locate the Site of the Frontier Forts of Pennsylvania was published (Busch). This report attempted to locate and document all of the early frontier forts in the state. A Works Progress Administration (WPA) investigation of the fort was conducted in 1938 in the front yard of the Hunter Mansion. In addition to locating the remains of Fort Augusta, work included the construction of a large-scale model of the fort and the renovation of the Hunter Mansion. Unfortunately, excavation records from this investigation have not been located. Although French and Indian War-period artifacts were recovered and portions of the fort structure were identified, as well as Native American burials uncovered, there is little record of the results except for a short article in Pennsylvania Archaeologist (Godcharles 1938:75). The archaeological site of Fort Augusta was assigned the trinomial designation of 36Nb0071.

View of the Original Fort Augusta Model at the Museum along the Susquehanna River (Photo: Bucknell University)

In an attempt to reveal the construction and layout of the fort, archaeological investigations were conducted in 1978 and 1979 on a vacant property (called the Charles Cobler property) just north of the Hunter House. Trenches placed on the Cobler property indicated the presence of large amounts of fill materials associated with the fort construction and its demolition. Below this, archaeologists uncovered the remains of the earlier Indian occupation of the town of Shamokin and even earlier prehistoric occupations. Portions of the palisade wall, trench, and the dry moat were discovered and fort-period artifacts such as animal bones, musket balls, gun parts, buttons, cannon balls, and colonial ceramics as well as earlier Indian objects were recovered. In addition, fragments of iron and brass, slag, charcoal, worked gun parts, stone from a foundation, and highly oxidized soil indicated the presence of a “smithy” or blacksmith shop. This shop was identified as that constructed by the Moravian missionaries, who lived at Shamokin from the 1740s to 1755 (Nichols 1979). 

Cannon Ball, Musket Balls, and Shot Recovered from 1978/1979 Excavations (Photo: PHMC Collections)

Subsequent investigations were conducted in 1981, 1992, and 2005/2006 in attempts to better define and locate the structures identified in historic documents. In 1981, trenching was conducted in a parking lot, which would be impacted by a construction project, and in the probable location of the fort’s northeast bastion. Excavations in this area of the parking lot yielded mainly Indian artifacts while excavations in the supposed bastion uncovered the remains of a log footer, the dry moat, and a fort-period pit feature in conjunction with minor amounts of military artifacts (Lewis 1981). The 1992 excavations concentrated on the powder magazine, which was to be repaired. Investigations established the relationship of the magazine to other features of the yard and determined that much of the artificial fill over this feature was due to a nineteenth century tower placed in this location (Warfel 1992). In 2005/2006, testing was conducted in conjunction with a proposed new library and reconstruction of the large-scale fort model on the front lawn of the Hunter Mansion. Large amounts of fill were also found during this investigation as well as additional remains of the fort wall, dry moat, and other fort-related features (Delle 2006).

Excavations of the Powder Magazine during the 1992 Excavations (Photo: PHMC Collections)

 Taken as a whole, the various excavations at Fort Augusta have allowed investigators to position the fort on the landscape of modern Sunbury, determine construction methods, locate elements of the earlier Shamokin town and Moravian blacksmith shop, and match physical evidence to the written accounts of this period of Pennsylvania history. In 2013, the large-scale model, which had been previously dismantled, was reconstructed at the Hunter Mansion. For more information on Fort Augusta or the Northumberland County Historical Society, please check out their website at http://www.northumberlandcountyhistoricalsociety.org/default.asp.                     

 Reconstructed Large-Scale Model of the Fort (Photo: Northumberland County Historical Society)

Sources Cited and Additional Reading

Bucknell University

2015 Bucknell University website. As found at www.departments.bucknell.edu.

Busch, Clarence

1896       Report of the Commission to Locate the Site of the Frontier Forts of Pennsylvania, Vol. 1. Harrisburg: State Printer of Pennsylvania.

Delle, James A.

2006       Phase II Archaeological Investigations at Fort Augusta, Sunbury, PA; Preliminary Report on 2005 Excavations. Prepared for the Northumberland County Historical Society in cooperation with the Bureau of Historic Preservation.

Godcharles, Frederic A.

1938       Valuable Recoveries at Fort Augusta – Work Done by WPA Project. The Pennsylvania Archaeologist VIII (4): 75-78.

Hunter, William A.

1960       Forts on the Pennsylvania Frontier, 1753-1758. Harrisburg: The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.  

Lewis, Thomas

1981       Fort Augusta: 1981 Archaeological Field Investigation. Manuscript on File, Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.

Northumberland County Historical Society

2015       Northumberland County Historical Society website. As found at http://www.northumberlandcountyhistoricalsociety.org/default.asp.

Warfel, Stephen              

1993       Archaeological Investigations of the Powder Magazine at Fort Augusta. Northumberland County Historical Society Proceedings 31:7-56.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                For more information, visit PAarchaeology.state.pa.us or the Hall of Anthropology and Archaeology at The State Museum of Pennsylvania .