Corotoman (44LA13)
Site History
The Corotoman site (44LA13) is the early 18th-century home site of Robert "King" Carter (c. 1664-1732) on the north shore of the Rappahannock River in Lancaster County, Virginia. While no descriptions of the house survive, archaeological investigations revealed that Corotoman was a two and a half story 90 by 40 feet Georgian brick house. The house contained a full English basement and arcaded gallery, both paved in stone imported from England. Carter was a planter who served as Speaker of the House of Burgesses and Treasurer of the Virginia colony. He was one of the wealthiest and powerful men in the Virginia colony in the early 18th century.
The house was destroyed by fire in 1729 and was not rebuilt. The Carter family scavenged the burned ruins as a source of building materials in the second half of the 18th century and into the 19th century.
Archaeological Investigations
In the 1930s and 1950s, treasure hunters conducted non-scientific excavations on the site of the house (Hudgins 1979; Noël Hume 1963). Hundreds of unbroken wine bottles were found in the cellar and the stone floor pavers were removed for resale. Also recovered were many pieces of architectural hardware, including the complete frame of a casement window. Fortunately, only half of the house was excavated at this time, leaving the remaining portion of the cellar to be excavated by professional archaeologists.
Archaeologist Carter Hudgins and the Virginia Department of Historic Resources undertook excavations at Corotoman in 1977 and 1978 (Hudgins 1984). This work confirmed the 40 feet by 90 feet dimensions of the house and revealed an additional 10-by-90-foot loggia. The excavation discovered large quantities of melted lead, the material perhaps used for gutters and/or roof flashing. Other architectural artifacts found during this work included tin-glazed earthenware tiles, white marble floor tiles and fragments of carved stone.
References
1979 Archaeology in the "King's" Realm: A Summary Report of 1977 Survey at Corotoman with a Proposal for the 1979 Season. Virginia Research Center for Archaeology, Williamsburg.
1984 Patrician Culture, Public Ritual and Political Authority in Virginia, 1680-1740, Ph.D. dissertation, Department of History, The College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia.
1963 Here Lies Virginia: An Archaeologists View of Colonial Life and History. Knopf, New York.
