Nassau Mills Research Project

Cristian D’Archi

On May 19 of our excavation of OA-12, I found a wheat penny while sifting one of the buckets from our extension unit. I was super interested in the penny and was hoping that it wasn’t a modern penny. Upon further investigation I found that the penny was from 1944 and unlike what I had previously thought it was an American penny.

When I had first found the penny, I had assumed it was a Canadian penny because it was found on a Canadian site, I was quite shocked when I discovered it was actually an American penny. When Kate inspected the penny, she noted how it was a wheat penny and how this is now the third wheat penny found on BcGn-15 as the Fox squad at OA-11 had found two wheat pennies before this one. 

What is a wheat penny you may ask? A wheat penny is a penny minted in the years 1909 to 1958 and is distinctive for their use of two wheat stalks on the reverse end of the penny instead of the Lincoln memorial, which is the common minting on modern pennies. 

Interestingly, according to coincollecting.com, there is an error with some of the wheat pennies from the year 1944. The error involves the use of steel in 1943 pennies as a way of saving copper during World War 2 but these steel 1943 pennies were then replaced with normal copper pennies beginning in 1944, but there was an error with some 1944 pennies being still produced using steel and because the penny I found was a 1944 penny it leaves the possibility that this could have been an error wheat penny but I cannot confirm this as it is now in artifact processing and I haven’t seen it since May 19th when I put it in the artifact bag. Maybe one day I will see the penny again and can check on this fact.

Moving on, so what is the importance of this wheat penny and the other wheat pennies being found on our site you might ask? Well, the importance is it indicates that American currency was present in the area due to some reason, such as possible American visitors, trade, or the site resident could have even worked in America which is how the possession of American currency on site occurred. Either of these ways the penny serves as an indicator of American presence on a Canadian historical site.  

Jocelyn Sharko

When I was a kid, I did not dream about becoming an archaeologist. It felt like something I watched on TV but not something that could be a future career. I think that has been one of the biggest takeaways from this course that I have experienced.

Throughout the course we have had multiple people and organizations visit to see what we were doing and to tell us about avenues to think about in the future. These included Grad/master’s students at Trent and the Ontario Archaeological Society or the OAS. They all talked about avenues that seem very accomplishable and how archaeology plays a role in modern day society. As well as how the job market for archaeologists is decent and not impossible to get into. This made me feel really relieved because I really enjoyed the field course and want to consider archaeology as a career. James and Kate were also really helpful in providing reality to what it actually is to be an archaeologist.

Archaeology is so diverse and there are so many ways to get into it. I really enjoyed the field school so much it was so hard to take a break and stop excavating. I am really excited now that the field school is over to continue my archaeology journey this summer as a paid field technician.

Hazel Oddson

This past month flew by so swiftly, it’s hard to pinpoint exactly when the experience shifted from all new and unfamiliar to the comfortable ease that I think we all felt by the end. I wish we had more time as a group! Everyone I’ve met during my time on BcGn-15 has been kind, fun, and an invaluable part of the project. I’m so grateful to have many great memories to hold onto from my first archaeological field experience. 

As a member of the Bears unit, OA8, I was immediately excited to get to work on the area we were assigned because of how complex it seemed. It had been previously partially excavated, there were crazy boulders to traverse, and many unanswered questions. I knew it might be a challenge, but I anticipated rising to it and did not doubt that my team and I could unravel some of the mystery. 

Right off the bat, our operation area proved to be all that I hoped it would be; we struck gold! In the very literal sense, on our second day of excavation, I found a man’s 10k gold signet ring with a red garnet while sieving the first bucket I was handed of the day – I couldn’t believe my eyes, it was such a memorable experience pulling it out of the dirt it was caked in and realizing what I’d found. We assume that the ring dates to around the 1940’s-1950’s, based on the type of ring’s popularity at about that time. My favourite detail about the ring is its inscription on the inside, “All My Love”, really informing that this ring had a lot of emotional value to the wearer at one point, a true token of past human connection, which I adore thinking about. I can now say forever more that I found gold during my first time in the field! How cool is that??

My group and I overcame many challenges. I feel I should highlight the immense collection of maps that we drew after more and more layers were uncovered. So, so many rocks were drawn. Excavating around those rocks also proved to be a task, but we worked around it (literally). Hot days and laborious digging can’t be overlooked, but I think we’re all stronger for it. I can’t wait for where the trowel brings me next! 

Jay Riganelli

With the class coming to a close I can say we found a lot of artifacts. At the start of excavations every discovery was exciting, but by the hundredth piece of window glass the novelty had worn off. One interesting artifact we found was a glass bottle stopper in the shape of a crown.

After finding so much broken glass finding something complete and distinctive was immediately interesting. In researching I quickly stumbled upon a photo of the same stopper intact bottle included. The image led to What the Victorians threw away an online database of artifacts. With a likely match discovered the embossing on the bottle drew my attention ‘The Crown Perfumery Company, London’ and upon a quick search it became clear that many of their perfumes had similar crown shaped bottle stoppers.

The Crown Perfumery Company quickly led me down a rabbit hole exploring the history of the perfume house. The company was founded by William Sparks Thomson. He first became known for his corsetry. He was the first to manufacture crinolines in America and the first to manufacture corsets by machine and “Thomson’s Glove-Fitting Corset” was hugely successful on both sides of the pond.

Thomson catered to the London’s high society with corsetry and perfumes, including his most famous customer queen Victoria. In 1872 The Crown Perfumery, London was established, and Queen Victoria allowed the royal crown to be used on the bottles which then became a signature feature. This endorsement from the queen herself certainly set the perfumery out for success. In 1885 and 1886 respectively the crown perfumery released their most iconic items; lavender smelling salts which came in a stout green glass bottle with the iconic crown stopper, and Crab-apple Blossoms perfume which came in a colourless glass bottle also with crown stopper, similar to the one we found.

The perfume house was extremely successful. By 1895 they had won 16 medals at international shows and sold across the globe. However, after Thomson’s death the company was sold, and the perfume house was later closed in 1939. That was until the 1990s when Clive Christian reproduced and sold some of Crown’s most successful scents and later original perfumes. To this day the brand maintains their unique crown stopper on all of their bottles.

Lucas O’Neill

While excavating context 108 of OA11 on May 21^st 2026, I noticed a strange metal piece sticking out of the wall of the northern wall of the pit. What made this piece of metal unique amongst the many pieces of scrap metal found in OA11 was the greenish colour and lack of rust. I simply slowly pulled out this piece of metal from the wall to reveal an entire intact fork that simply fell out of the wall.

     While a cool find, nothing was originally thought of the dining ware, and it was simply placed in the artifact bag. That was until Kate looked at the fork (identifying it as possibly pewter) and pointed out a series of five (at the time of unreadable marks). The fork itself was a fiddle backed fork with a raised ‘dognose’ on the end. The markings quickly caught my interest and slowly led me down the rabbit hole of studying the hallmark system of metal stamping. This rabbit hole included far too much time over the course of days looking through databases and personal collections of silver and pewter items from Britian, Canada, and America. 

For brief background context, the legally required British hallmark system was a series of 4 to 5 stamps placed onto valuable metals, as graded by an assay office. These marks give information on the grading office, quality of the metal, the date it was graded, and the initials of the smith who made it. What makes our identification difficult is that these regulations did NOT apply to Canadian smiths. This leaves us with the question of what metal our fork is made from? Kate’s original theory of pewter holds as a strong possibility, as pewtersmiths did attempt to mimic the hallmarks of British silver smiths and Pewter does slowly become green over time. The second option which I suggested was silver plated, as I had found a handful of examples of silver-plated forks with a similar second symbol to our fork (the “male” symbol). Due to other metals found even in sterling silver, silver also slowly oxidizes to green. 

On May 27^th, my last lab day, I found the cleaned and processed fork and photographed the cleaned-out hallmarks.

Using this photograph, we can finally establish our hallmarks; a c with a spike through the middle, the “male” symbol, and the gothic letters J E H. What is most interesting about these marks is the lack of any attempt at the sterling lion (the British symbol representing quality silver), this completely proved that the fork was not pure silver (and probably not plated silver). The mark that appears like a “male” symbol is an example of a pseudo hallmark, which is a mark with no legal meaning used by a smith or organization as a calling card of their work. The final three gothic letters were in all probability the initials of the smith (J.E.H.). Although I cannot currently find any noticeable smiths with these initials. This leaves us with the c, which I originally believed might have been a letter of the grade of metal quality [Kate — or it could be mimicking a letter date code often found on real sterling silver pieces].