Revealing matters: an archaeology of building deposits from the Bacon’s Castle site, Surry County, Virginia

Abstract

SUMMARY As a rare surviving example of a 17th-century Virginian house, Bacon’s Castle is often glossed as an isolated architectural artefact, and a backdrop for historical events and ghost stories alike. Yet, the complex life-history that lends it this evocative, distributed character remains underexplored. Likewise, building deposits – like those rediscovered during ongoing reassessment of Bacon’s Castle’s archaeological collection – elicit excitement when associated with ‘magic’ or ‘ritual,’ while their specific contexts and unique materiality go unexamined. Drawing on Peircean semeiotics and assemblage theory, I propose a holistic, contextual archaeology of building deposits from recent historical sites – particularly pluralistic or contested spaces, like colonial plantations.