The topsoil over the entire area had been disturbed to a depth of at least 1 foot, presumably by deep plowing. Over the cellar fill, humus and a sandy loam extended to a depth of 1 foot 8 inches at the south edge and to 2 feet 1 inch in the middle. The bottom of this stratum contained nothing but late 17th-or early 18th-century artifacts, including an important and well-preserved latten spoon.[16] A small 19th-century disturbance cut into the south cellar edge towards the west end of the excavation, but caused little disturbance to the main fill. Another, much larger, late 19th-century trash deposit had been dug into the fill to the northwest of the chimney and this had reached to a depth of 3 feet 6 inches below the modern grade. The removal of the walnut tree had created a similar disturbance immediately south of the refuse deposit, while a trench for a 20th-century water pipe had cut yet another slice through the same area. None of these disturbances had caused any damage to the lower filling of the cellar. DATING EVIDENCE FOR THE CELLAR The majority of the excavated artifacts were scattered throughout the cellar fill and were of similar types from top to bottom of the deposit. These objects included wine-bottle and drinking-glass fragments, potsherds of English and perhaps Portuguese tin-enamelled earthenware, and more that 600 tobacco-pipe fragments, all of them indicating a terminal date of about 1700. A quantitative analysis of the tobacco-pipe stem fragments using the Binford formula[17] provided a mean date of 1698. Method of Excavation Digging was initially confined to the immediate vicinity of the chimney foundation (Area B on fig. 3) and to the previously described test trench (A). An east/west trench (D) was next dug to link the two and to isolate the disturbed areas of the tree hole and 19th-century pit in Areas C and G. Owing to a shortage of labor and the rigors of the weather, it was necessary to confine the digging to small areas which could be completed in a single day's work. Consequently, it was not possible to clear the whole area, as one part would be back-filled during the digging of the next. Mr. and Mrs. Jenkins, the owners of the property, were extremely tolerant of the damage that was done to their gardens, but after the clearance of the large area E, they indicated that the project had gone far enough. Nevertheless, they were persuaded to permit the cutting of another smaller test area to the west (F), but when this, too, failed to find the westerly extremity of the cellar, the project was abandoned. Subsequently, relatives of the owners cut into the exposed north face of area E and extracted a number of potsherds and other fragmentary objects from the sand filling.[18] The undercutting of the bank extended to a distance of 1 foot 6 inches without encountering the north edge of the cellar, thus showing that the total width was in excess of 14 feet.