TECHNIQUES
FOR
THE
PERIOD
1780s - 1990s
The following are short outlines of dating techniques based on the morphology of artefacts. Dating with the Carbon 14 technique is not useful for this period because there is often a plus or minus provision of, say, 90 years. So a real date of 1820 might read as 1730-1910, using the Carbon 14 technique +/- 90 years.
It is hoped to include more detailed studies eventually. Those placed here were just conveniently at hand.
1788 - 1810
These are invariably unmarked bricks, often with poor edges and badly shaped. The bricks can be large or small, sand-stock or slop moulded, depending on the brickmaker. The mortar of the early period is often only a loamy clay mixture, the later period is a similar mix but with estuarine shell mortar.
MACQUARIE BRICKS 1810-1821
Although during the earlier period similar to the previous period, improved quality seems to be the result of the many large-scale building projects. For Sydney, mortar is often the distinguishing feature-a lighter sandy mixture from about 1817. Accidental features such as plant outlines, animal foot prints, rain drop marks, brick impressions and kiln flash marks tell us how and under what conditions the bricks were made.
BROAD ARROW BRICKS 1822-1830s
The result of the Bigge Commission which investigated quality; convicts making better bricks in their own time than during government time. Theft had been a problem, so it was recommended to mark Government property with the broad arrow--this was extended to bricks. The Sydney bricks tended to have wide arrows, Parramatta had small narrow ones.
FROGGED BRICKS 1830s - 1870s
Depressions on one side of the bricks to make them bind with mortar more efficiently. Different gangs or moulders had different shaped frogs for the purpose of identification. Bricks became more spotty with time (mixture of timber or coal dust with the clay to assist burning). By about the 1840s moulds were sometimes metal-lined for a better surface.
EXTRUDED MACHINE BRICKS 1860s - 1880s
These became more common in Sydney from the 1860s. They were more dense than the hand moulded ones and had better surfaces. The clay often mixed with timber and coal dust resulting in black dots and burn marks (even holes). Superseded by dry-press bricks.
DOUBLE PRESSED BRICKS 1860s - 1930s
Bricks put in the press after initial moulding by hand or machine to achieve a very smooth surface and sharper edges. Mainly used for 'front work' (fronts of buildings) and often colour sorted so as to make patterns in the brickwork. The colours of the bricks are often good date indicators.
DRY PRESS BRICKS
The large machines imported mainly from Britain produced bricks so efficiently and cheaply that all the smaller brick yards closed or moved to country areas. Victory was complete by the early 1890s. These until recently were the most common bricks. The bricks were made of clay and shale dust and put under tremendous pressure and fused using steam, hence the term dry-press.
MODERN EXTRUDED BRICKS
Popular for a softer more 'colonial look'. These were first made when the supply of old bricks from demolished houses (mainly terraces) during the 1960s and early 1970s began to run out. From the late 1970s (to the present) these bricks became to be used for nearly all housing construction and many new varieties were introduced during the 1980s.
SYDNEY, PARRAMATTA , NORFOLK ISLAND
SITE ABSTRACTS
INTRODUCTION SUMMARY
The presence of Chinese Export Porcelain (CEP) found at archaeological sites in Australian is generally an indication of early activity. I propose that the CEP wares from such sites would have been manufactured during the 1780s and 1790s because the British (East India Company(EIC)) lost the monopoly for these wares by the close of the 1790s, though old stock seems to have continued to arrive in New South Wales during the first few years of the 1800s. Judging by the large number of CEP shards discovered to date, the ware was imported in vast amounts (and is not an indicator of wealth, as some suppose). This very sturdy ware survived well and is found in some dated contexts as late as the 1820s, however the designs do not exhibit the simplification typical of the later CEP ware. The situation is vastly different in the United States of America, as the ware continued to be imported throughout the 1800s. The Australian finds may be useful to those interested in CEP, as it captures aspects of the Chinese output of the mid to late 1780s up until the late 1790s.
[Expand above, add manufacturing processes, location of factories, ports, EIC trade, routes to NSW, distribution etc].
The CEP finds from Norfolk Island of the First Settlement period (1788-1814) come from very well documented, relatively undisturbed, sites. These finds are useful for comparison with New South Wales assemblages because of the 1814-1825 break in settlement there.
It should be mentioned that for the purpose of dating archaeological contexts, the other 1780s/1790s wares must be taken into consideration (Creamware, Salt-glaze 'Scratch Blue', English hand-painted copies of CEP, coarse glazed and unglazed terracotta etc.; these are all found together in early Norfolk Island sites).
NORFOLK ISLAND
Although the First Settlement officially ended in 1814, the Island was close to having been depopulated during the years 1807 and 1808. It is unlikely that domestic goods would have been imported on any significant scale after 1807. The bulk of the population arrived during the early 1790s. Excavations I directed from 1984 uncovered discrete datable deposits from the initial clearing in 1788 to the burning of the township in 1814.
The chief early sites on Norfolk Island are to be found at the Pier Area, Kingston and at Harpers Road, Cascade (Phillipsburgh township site). Chinese Export Porcelain shards were common on both sites. I also found CEP on sites of 1790s-1807/1808 sites elsewhere on the Island. In contrast, Second Settlement (1825-1856) archaeological sites do not contain CEP.
Fragments of CEP were found on the 1790 Sirius wreck (1788 flagship).
PARRAMATTA
Parramatta Park preserves underground material relating to the earliest settlement of Parramatta. Such sites at the park date from 1789 to about 1815, when residential, farming etc., land was resumed for the Government Domain and most structures were demolished. I have found or excavated CEP and early ceramics in general from most of the resumed sites (and early sites in and around the present city of Parramatta).
FIRST GOVERNMENT HOUSE, SYDNEY.
Although the site has a history spanning from 1788 to 1845 onwards, there are several deposits with CEP which fairly safely predate the Macquarie period (1810)--though these and other deposits deserve further study. CEP has been found in later deposits (post-1810) but can be explained by 'long life' (often showing considerable wear) and because of the disturbance of early pits and strata. One early (privy) pit seems to date to the 1790s and contained largish fragments of CEP (in the process of further analysis).
CEP has been found on many early Sydney sites but awaits systematic analysis.
DRAFT: Dr Robert V J VARMAN
Archaeologist/Heritage Consultant
31 Wombat Street, Berkeleyvale, Central Coast,
NSW 2261.
November 16, 1994