Late Eighteenth Century Artefacts from Phillipsburgh, Norfolk Island
Robert V J P Varman Ph D
ABOVE: SITE OF PHILLIPSBURGH, BEING THE FLATTER AREAS IN THE MID AND FOREGROUND OF THE PHOTOGRAPH. THE FORD INDICATES THE LINE OF THE PRE-1990 ROAD. THE TALLER NOROLK PINES TO THE RIGHT ARE ABOUT 140 YEARS OLD.
The following is presented in illustrations with minimum text to give workers and enthusiasts in the field of colonial archaeology an idea of what may be expected from a late eighteenth century site. As 100% of the material was imported to the Island and probably more than 95% exported from Britain, the artefacts have relevance to any site of British influence of the same period.
Documentary evidence suggests that the bloom period the Phillipsburgh township from 1791 to about 1796. Less is heard of the township after 1796, as the flax industry was wound down and the area became less important as a government farm and place as regiment accommodation (NSW Corps).
Norfolk Island became depopulated in stages, particularly in 1804 and 1807. By 1808 only 255 men, women and children remained from a high 1,115 in 1791. By 1808 the bulk of the population lived on farms or at Kingston.
An account of surface archaeological material retrieved from the Phillipsburgh township site
1984 - 1997
During the years from 1984 to 1990 several hundred artefacts were salvaged from the site, the bulk of the material being small glass and ceramic fragments with dates centring on the 1790s. The following is a summary of the material examined:
Introduction
The site of the Phillipsburgh township was confirmed by the discovery of surface material in 1984 when I was conducting an archaeological survey of the Island for the Australian Heritage Commission.
Age, function and significance
The bulk of the material centres on a 1790s date but some of the material may be earlier because of transportation and shelf-life and some may be slightly later. The artefacts are unlikely to have a date of manufacture later than 1803, considering the state of the Island population as from 1804 and the decline of the township after about 1796.
Modern materials found were retained to maintain a complete record of finds. There was no material which could be dated from between the 1820s to the 1930s: so the material collected was either very early or very late.
The artefacts fell into a number of function-based categories: domestic, industrial, military, naval and agricultural. The documentation revealed the following types of former site activities: flax dressing and weaving, agriculture, military, storage and by implication, domestic. Nothing was found that could only be attributed to the flax industry, except perhaps a small sickle: this is not surprising as most of the flax dressers' equipment was basic and make-do. Weaving apparatus remains have not been found to date (though Peter Horrocks reported that a small wheel had been found in the bank and lodged with the Museum). A very similar range of material was excavated at Kingston in deposits of the same era, excepting perhaps for agricultural artefacts.
The significance of the site is enhanced by the fact that it was a site with a limited number of years of development and was not intensively used for anything thereafter except for agriculture and grazing.
Artefact fabric categories
Ceramics
Chinese Export Porcelain
One of the most common wares found on the site. Several basic types were identified:
(1) Underglaze blue was the most common form with both very fine detailed and more careless hand painted designs. The fine and careless forms have been found together on other sites I have examined on Norfolk Island and Australia. The glaze always has a bluish tinge.
PRESS HERE FOR MORE
EXAMPLES (Page 1).
HANDPAINTED UNDERGLAZE BLUE PLATE EDGES. TWO MATCHING PLATE FRAGMENTS (UPPER LEFT) SHOW DISTINCT EVIDENCE OF DRILLING. THIS IS EVIDENCE THAT THE PLATE WAS REPAIRED. TWO HOLES WERE DRILLED AND AN IRON CLAMP, OR BRIDGE, INSERTED TO UNITE THE TWO HALVES. (Scale: top left shard approx 30mm wide).
(2) Underglaze dull or greyish blue designs, resembling some Ming wares but not of such an age.
(3) As (2) in design colour but associated with a granulated white crazed glaze.
(4) Overglaze multicoloured designs. The glaze is nearly always clear rather than having a blue tinge. There are several varieties from rough floral blobby designs to carefully painted scenes One example seems to incorporate a European heraldic design and may have been part of a 'made to order' set.
As examples found at Kingston of oriental design, many, if not all examples were found to be water soluble (great care needed when cleaning). The painted design does leave a mark even if the colour has come off but one needs to have a light source at a particular angle to trace the design. Small tea cups without handles are often in this style of decoration.
(5) A very fine ware, also found at Kingston, with a thin dark blue band along the edge with small golden stars painted overglaze. This ware has been associated with porcelain made especially for the export market to the U.S.A., common during the 1790s.
A VERY TYPICL BORDER FOR PLATTERS OF THE 1780S
AND 1790S WITH A RAIN AND CLOUD EDGE AT THE BASE OF THE EDGE DESIGN.
(Scale: Aust. $2 coin, 19mm wide).
PRESS HERE FOR MORE EXAMPLES (Page 2).
English Wares
English Creamware (Queensware)
By far the most common form of ceramic found on the site. Distinctly cream hued. Mainly plate fragments but also bowl and jug fragments. Some plates are plain others have scalloped rims. Several had a narrow band of a brown colour, overglaze, near the plate rim.
English earthenwares
These are soft bodied but fine wares, coated with a white glaze. There are several distinct varieties which can be distinguished by the type of decoration:
(1)Examples with carefully painted designs - mostly floral - in various vivid colours.
(2) Decorated with underglaze blue, hand-painted, Chinese scenes and border patterns or English patterns done in a pseudo-Chinese style. Some designs are quite abstract.
Only one makers' mark was detected out of all the ceramics examined, a blue painted V but more in the shape of a flying bird. The mark is inside a lightly impressed circle.
(3) Decorated with transfers of Chinese or European designs - tend to be fine and linear.
(4) Feather-edged, often with impressed edges, overglaze blue or green 'feather' strokes along the edge. PRESS HERE FOR EXAMPLES
Basalt ware
Earthenware with a black matt glaze. Not common but also found at Kingston.
Comb ware
A possibly beaker shaped vessel found on a number of early sites elsewhere with a scratched design as if a comb had been pressed near the rim while on the wheel. The combed areas are generally green in colour and the rest yellow. A small lid was also found in this ceramic style.
Incised ware
A hard greyish stoneware with perhaps a lighter slip. Incised patterns were cut and the inner fields given a blue colour. A very distinctive ware also excavated in First Settlement contexts at Kingston.
VARIOUS INCISED AND COMBED PATTERNS. THE TOP
RIGHT (WHITE) ARE FRAGMENTS OF MEDICAL SUCTION CUPS - THESE WERE ALSO
MADE OF GLASS. (Scale: Aust. $2 coin, lower left, 19mm wide). FOR A
MORE DETAILED VIEW, PLEASE CONTACT ME.
Suction cups for medical purposes
White bodied with a high white glaze. Several fragments seen with the typical rolled edge. Glass and ceramic examples have been found at Kingston dating from the 1790s to 1840s (conservative design). A few tiny fragments were excavated from the Sirius wreck at Kingston.
Coarse terracotta
Of uncertain origin but have been found in many colonial contexts in different parts of the world. Some wares of a similar nature were made in Sydney but Sydney would have been one of many places producing such wares.
(1) A mixed light pinkish/tan hued body resembling biscuit, without glaze. The surface seemed to have been burnished.
(2) A reddish, soft terracotta ware - various types of largish bowls, some with high or low base rings, others without. The most distinctive feature is the mixed pink, green and yellow glaze of abstract blob patterns.
(3) Rarely glazed but do have some form of slip and sometimes the odd dribble design. One had glazing only on the interior (for liquids). The fragments found were once parts of huge storage containers of a type often found in early shipwrecks.
(4) Various jug or container fragments of a hard terracotta.
PRESS HERE FOR EXAMPLES OF THE ABOVE
Salt glazed stoneware
Not at all common, some was similar to that commonly found from the early nineteenth century, some fragments resembled German salt glaze wares (also noted at Kingston.
Kaolin smoking pipes
A few pipe bowls: two impressed with a D, one was in the shape of a man's face and another of a dull fabric was octagonal. Two bowl fragments had marks impressed on the spurs but they were not easily decipherable. Some of the pipe stem ends showed signs of having been whittled, others had been worn smooth due to long use.
Glass
The most common form of glass was composed of dark olive (black) wine/spirit bottle glass; the next most common glass was gin bottle glass.
Wine/spirit bottles
The bottles are similar to those found throughout the nineteenth century except that the form is more squat, often slightly irregular and the base slightly wider. The lips are typically late eighteenth century and vary from bottle to bottle. Most of the bottles appear to have been made in Britain but some might have other origins.
Gin bottles
These are also of dark olive glass and are distinctively square. They invariably have pontil marks on the base and crude looking flared lips. Some have lines and crosses on the base. Although Britain produced gin at the time, most of these bottles had a likely Dutch origin. The export of gin from the Netherlands stopped during the Napoleonic era.
Medicine bottles
One small rounded yellow/green base, one green rounded base with a very high kick-up and a small clear square base. All bases had pontil marks of some sort.
Lips found were crudely flared. Most of the medicine bottle fragments were found at the north-east end of the site.
Window glass
Very thin, from a fraction over 1mm thick to 2mm thick in most cases. The glass had a greenish tinge. Not a lot of window glass was recovered which may suggest that most of the houses had wooden shutters.
Decanter and wine glass
Apparently crystal, or lead, glass. A small decanter stopper with cut facets and a wine glass base were among the finds.
Beads
One large blue bead and a thin elongated bead were found. There were not many objects found that could be described as purely female.
PRESS HERE FOR EXAMPLES OF THE ABOVE
Metals
Iron
Mostly hoop iron and plate iron fragments but not in any quantity. A thick iron hoop was found, possibly from a cart or a post. Two tools were recovered; a hoe and a small sickle, the latter possibly connected with flax processing. One flooring brad was found.
Copper and copper alloy
Off-cut slithers were found and one thicker piece with thick cut marks reminiscent of what a bolt cutter might achieve. Several small squarish copper sheets with nail holes were noted, one with the remains of carbonized timber on the back (possibly to block rat holes).
Several badly corroded coins were found, including a farthing and a half penny. Included in the finds were buttons which had once been gilt gold and silver with loops for threading: one had a very decorative pattern on it and another, evidently a naval button, had a silver gilt anchor design.
Other objects included nails, most seem ex-naval; two copper bolt-like objects with thick washers, one had a small kings broad arrow cut in one end (now in the Museum).
PRESS HERE FOR EXAMPLES OF THE ABOVE
Lead
Mainly sheet lead off-cuts. Only one example of lead shot was found. A very fine lead sheet was recovered, less than 1 mm thick; it is believed that this was an early type of foil to wrap ships biscuit in.
Organic
Mainly carbonized wood, often found in association with artefacts when newly emerged out of the ground, possibly the remains of a disturbed rubbish pit. One carbonized corn cob was found near the bird bone layer - similar to those found in early deposits at Kingston.
A few shells were found, perhaps collected by children. A number of pieces of a large chunk of decomposing (powdering) coral was found scattered over a fair distance at the east end of the site, possibly used for some practical purpose?
Bones
A few very badly decomposed cattle bone fragments. A surprise find was some bird bones, resembling the Bird of Providence bones found by the thousand at Kingston in early 1790s contexts, (the Phillipsburgh bones were in the Museum but could not be found).
One or two bone or horn buttons were found of the type with a central hole. Saw marks on the surface reveal the process of manufacture. Buttons such as these were fastened to clothing with a knot larger than the hole.
Stone
The odd fragment of rubble calcarenite originating from Kingston was found but not in any quantity. A number of unusual Norfolk Island stones were recovered, suggesting that they had been collected from various places and eventually discarded. One small green stone does not originate from the Island; the rough squaring of it suggests that it formed a part of an item of jewellery.
Post Script
The material was retrieved by surface collection, 1984-1990, on and in the vicinity of Harpers Road, particularly after heavy rains or after a long spell of dryness. The road was unsealed at the time. I was later assisted by Doug and Peter Evans and members of the Horrocks family, in particular, Mrs Horrocks and Peter Horrocks.
The road was altered during May 1990 and well over half of the site where the finds had been collected was bulldozed. Soil and fill from two or three sites elsewhere on the Island were dumped on the bulldozed material and thoroughly mixed together. The mix was further bulldozed after heavy rains flooded the area, as shown in the photographs on the following page. Harpers road was subsequently asphalted. Some objects could be provenanced to a definite specific site but it soon became apparent that vehicles travelling the road spread material from one end of the road to the other
As of June 6,
1997. . . . . . . . .Last Updated: March 4, 1998
