Central Trust Site, Halifax
Ceramics from the Eighteenth Century
Introduction
During construction of the Central Trust Tower in downtown Halifax in 1984,
structural debris and numerous eighteenth century artifacts were uncovered.
Most of the site was already heavily damaged before archaeologists were
contacted. Archaeologists and volunteers were given permission to
conduct a rescue recovery of archaeological deposits in the northwest corner
of the construction area. Approximately 1,000 artifacts were recovered,
many dating to the first decades after the founding of Halifax in 1749.
It became apparent that much of the eighteenth century archaeological deposit
had been trucked to a landfill site just outside of the city. With
the approval of funding from Summer Works Canada and Environment 2000 programmes,
a secondary rescue project at the landfill site was put into motion. Thirteen
students were hired for a two-phase project: six weeks in the field and
six weeks in the archaeology laboratory at Saint Mary's University. Approximately
25,000 artifacts were recovered. With the aid of a grant from the "Challenge
85" programme awarded to Saint Mary's, seven students were hired for a
second year to conduct the artifact analysis. The results of this research
have been published in a full report titled: Artifacts from Eighteenth
Century Halifax, by Stephen A. Davis, Catherine Cottreau and Laird
Niven.
The largest artifact group in the Central Trust collection is ceramics,
represented by 18,673 specimens. Although their original context was lost,
the ceramics and other artifacts recovered from Central Trust offer us
a rare glimpse into the material life of the occupants of 18th century
Halifax. This web page will present a small representative sample of the
most common ceramic types recovered.
