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Dauphin Island, AL
Archive of Historical Data, Books, Maps
And Other Materials
UNIV OF SOUTH ALABAMA
DEPT OF ARCHAEOLOGY
EXCAVATE AND RESEARCH
PORT DAUPHIN
(March 26, 2006)
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| Port
Dauphin, a
French village on Dauphin Island
and port for Mobile (1702 to ca. 1725),
has been the scene of recent excavations. The site lays protected
under a thick layer of sand; we shoveled it aside, since mechanical
equipment could have damaged the fragile site. |
Trowelling the Site
Click on photo for an enlarged version
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| Because this
may be our only opportunity to excavate at Port Dauphin, we took
great care to retrieve as much information as possible. The professional
staff and field school students "piece-plotted" every
major artifact -- that is, each potsherd and pipe stem fragment
was left in place after its discovery so the exact locations could
be precisely mapped. The resulting distribution maps indicate
where particular activities of the colonists took place in relation
to the architectural features. In the lower left photo, you can
see Matthew Cooper digging inside the foundation trenches (white
stains) of a small square room. |
Click on photo for an enlarged version
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Hurricane Danny
temporarily halted our excavations when it inundated the island
with an estimated 42 inches of rain in July 1997. A hurricane
in 1717 closed the entrance to the harbor, then located on the
south side of the island, which eventually led to the abandonment
of the village. |
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Some surprisingly large artifacts were
found at Port Dauphin. Contrary to popular belief, archaeologists
seldom find treasure. Instead, we typically find people’s
trash, things considered useless by their owners because they
were either broken or obsolete. Consequently, most archaeological
artifacts are quite small. Cushioned by the soft sand, however,
some of the Port Dauphin artifacts have remained relatively intact,
instead of being trampled to small fragments as were most of the
broken Old Mobile artifacts. This nearly complete serving
plate was made in France.
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Even more astonishing was the discovery
of three intact English wine bottles. These had been placed,
probably intentionally, upside down in the sand outside one
of the doorways. We don’t know why the colonists did this.
The abundance of wine glasses associated with the structure
suggests that it may have functioned as a tavern, so perhaps
the wine bottles were deposited by an inebriated patron.
Many
of the Port Dauphin artifacts came from England and Spain, not
France, presumably because all sorts of ships stopped at Dauphin
Island and their crews conducted some private trading with the
enterprising islanders. |
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Archaeological excavations
at Port Dauphin were made possible by a grant from the Alabama
Historical Commission's Historic Preservation Trust Fund, and
matching funds from the University of South Alabama. |
| Copyright
© 2006 by The University of South Alabama
Updated:
Tuesday, March 21, 2006 |
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