4.2 HISTORIC PERIOD ARTIFACTS

4.2.1 Nails

Jonathan Ferguson

Nails are one of the most common types of artifacts found at the LaVase North Bank Site. During the 1992 and 1997 archaeological investigations, 78 nails were recovered. The value of nails as chronological indicators is debatable. In one case, it was found that "The nails from Rocky Mountain House are extremely useful for dating purposes" (Noble 1973: 124). At the other extreme, it has been argued that "Indeed it is practically impossible to date nails with any degree of certainty since various manufacturing methods were in use at the same time in various parts of the province [of Ontario]" (Rempel 1980: 100). This caveat of overlapping periods of production should always be considered when carrying out the chronological analysis of nails.

For the purposes of this discussion, nails have been divided into five classes: 'Wrought Nails', 'Machine Cut Nails', 'Unclassifiable Wrought or Machine Cut Nails,' 'Wire Nails' and 'Unclassifiable Nails'. While most of these classes are self-explanatory, the unclassifiable groupings here deserve some consideration. Both of these classes include those artifacts which could be identified as nails, but were too corroded or fragmentary to be confidently attributed to any one type. The 'Unclassifiable Wrought or Machine Cut Nails' could, however, be identified as not being of wire manufacture, usually on the basis of square or rectangular shank cross-sections. 'Unclassifiable Nails', on the other hand, were too poorly preserved for any identification whatsoever. When considering wrought, machine cut or wire nails, therefore, it is important to keep in mind that some proportion of these types are included in the unclassifiable classes.

WROUGHT NAILS
Cat. Nos. 1-92-37 (2 of 2), 1-92-39 (1 of 1)

1-92-37, CbGu-1

1-92-39, CbGu-1

Because nails have often been collectively catalogued with other nails or other artifacts, frequencies have been included in the list of catalogue numbers for each type. For example, the notation "2 of 5" would indicate that two nails of that class were identified among the five artifacts included in that catalogue number.

Wrought nails, those hand-made by a blacksmith from a rod of iron, are generally dated to the period before 1800. They are most easily identified by a tapering on all four sides, converging towards a sharp point. The heads are also distinctive, the most common form being the multi-faceted 'rose' head formed by a number of oblique hammer-blows (Karklins 1983: 162-63; Noble 1973: 124-25; Rempel 1980: 100, 367). While the use of wrought nails began to decline at the beginning of the nineteenth century with the introduction of machine cutting, later examples are also found. Wrought nails were slightly more common than machine cut nails at the Rocky Mountain House trading post in Alberta, which dates from 1799 to 1834. It appears that wrought nails continued to be the dominant form in frontier areas and for certain purposes (Noble 1973: 127). A date of c. 1830 has thus been suggested as a more appropriate terminus ante quem for wrought nails, overlapping with cut nails (Adams 1995: 94).

Unfortunately, few of the nails recovered from the LaVase North Bank Site survive to a sufficient length or in a adequate condition for such judgements to be made. Only three nails recovered from CbGu-1 in 1992 can be identified with relative confidence as having been wrought; none were found in 1997. These wrought nails are described in Table 9.

Table 4. Analysis of wrought nails from the LaVase North Bank Site (CbGu-1). '>' indicates the present length of broken nails.

The two nails catalogued as 1-92-37 are quite similar in length and other dimensions. Tapering of the shank in both planes is visible on both specimens. The head of the shorter of these nails appears to have be of the 'rose' variety: its head surface shows a number of hammered facets. The head of the second nail, by contrast, now has a relatively flat surface, but may have suffered from exfoliation.

Artifact 1-92-39 might be better described as a spike rather than as a nail. Spikes can generally be differentiated from nails as having cross-sectional dimensions around 10 mm square (Grange 1980: 68); the rectangular shank of this example measures 10 by 8 mm. The head of this specimen is formed by the flaring of the sides of the shank. The surface of the head is relatively flat, but is roughly bevelled at its edges. The abrupt and relatively straight end of the shank suggest that the spike was deliberately cut. The dating of spikes is more difficult than for nails, because the former continued to be hand-wrought well past 1800, almost until the introduction of the wire nail (Rempel 1980: 102).

No wrought nails have been identified from other archaeological excavations at the LaVase North Bank Site (Archaeological Services Inc. 1996: 106; Defonzo 1997: 10).

MACHINE CUT NAILS
Cat. Nos. 97-1-38 (1 of 1), 97-82 (1 of 5), 97-112 (1 of 18), 97-167 (1 of 8), 97-230 (1 of 4)

Machine cut nails are perhaps best identified by the presence of two parallel and two converging shank surfaces, ending in a stub point. The first machine for cutting nails from iron strips was patented by J. Pierson of New York in 1794. However, the heads of nails continued to be hand-wrought until 1807, when Jesse Reed of Boston received a patent for a nail cutting and heading machine. The heads of earlier machine cut nails therefore resemble those of wrought nails, while later examples have the characteristic flat head. Cut nails remained the dominant form until they were surpassed in production by wire nails in the late nineteenth century. Beyond this time, they were produced in very limited quantities (Rempel 1980: 101-2, 368).

Five nails from the 1992 and 1997 archaeological investigations at the LaVase North Bank Site can be reasonably identified as being machine cut. These are described in Table 10.

Table 5. Analysis of machine cut nails from the LaVase North Bank Site (CbGu-1). '>' indicates the present length of broken nails.

1-92-38, CbGu-1

Nail 1-92-38, an otherwise ordinary machine cut nail, is remarkable because its lower half has been curled about 270, with the tip also pointing slightly away from the shank. The reason why this nail has been deformed is uncertain. The nail would be useless as a hook, because the shank has been curled near the point, so that it almost forms a complete circle. One possibility is that this nail might have acted as an eye for some improvised latch assembly. Alternatively, perhaps the curl was intended to anchor or blunt the nail through a relatively thin plank. Similarly curled nails were found at Île-aux-Noix, Québec, although these appear to have been wrought rather than machine cut (Grange 1977: Plate 182).

97-112, CbGu-1

Two nails (97-112 and 97-230) have a bright red coating on their surfaces, extending under patches of rust. Because this coating is found on the end of 97-112, which appears to have been deliberately cut, this coating was not deliberately applied before use, as one would expect with paint. Rather, it seems that this coating is red iron oxide, resulting from exposure to high temperatures. This phenomenon was found on three machine cut nails from the Hudson's Bay Company period of occupation at Rocky Mountain House in Alberta (Noble 1973: 135). The same red discolouration is found on three nails from Bothwell Island. These two nails, therefore, were at some point exposed to fire. It cannot be determined, however, whether these nails were burned as part of a wooden construction. The historical scarcity of nails occasionally resulted in the burning of old buildings or objects to recover nails, as was recorded in colonial Virginia (Rempel 1980: 371). However, nails became more plentiful with the advent of machine production. Moreover, if it was intended that they should be recovered, the burner(s) was unsuccessful in retrieving these two nails. One of the nails (97-230) is too poorly preserved for additional commentary. The top surface of the head of 97-112 is missing, but its form can be identified as L-shaped by the fact that only one side of the shank flares towards the head.

Fragments 97-82 and 97-167 have the flat heads and parallel shank sides typical of machine cut nails. However, both examples are heavily corroded and allow no further analysis.

Machine cut nails were also found at the LaVase North Bank Site during the 1995 (5 examples) and 1996 (e.g. 96-180) field seasons (Archaeological Services Inc. 1996: 106; Patrick Julig, Laurentian University 1998: personal communication). More details on these assemblages would be required before any comparison could be carried out with the 1992 and 1997 finds.

UNCLASSIFIABLE WROUGHT OR MACHINE CUT NAILS
Cat. Nos. 97-23 (1 of 1), 97-31 (1 of 3), 97-40 (1 of 6), 97-207 (11 of 29), 97-230 (1 of 4), 97-246 (2 of 12)

This category of 'Unclassifiable Wrought or Machine Cut Nails' includes 17 nails which are either hand-wrought or machine cut, but cannot be confidently attributed to either type. These nails are heavily corroded and often very fragmentary. This degraded condition not only prevents their secure identification, but also hampers any discussion of them. However, it remains that these 17 nails all exhibit square to rectangular cross-sections for their shanks and heads, where present. Given this limited information, these nails can only be dated to before the widespread adoption of wire nails in the late nineteenth century.

WIRE NAILS
Cat. Nos. 97-6 (3 of 3), 97-12 (1 of 1), 97-13 (1 of 1), 97-39 (5 of 5), 97-82 (3 of 5), 97-99 (1 of 2), 97-103 (1 of 5), 97-111 (1 of 11), 97-112 (4 of 18), 97-163 (1 of 3), 97-167 (1 of 8), 97-178 (1 of 7), 97-179 (1 of 1), 97-187 (2 of 11), 97-205 (1 of 1), 97-207 (2 of 29), 97-213 (1 of 1), 97-239 (1 of 1), 97-266 (1 of 2)

97-6 CbGu-1

The most common type of nail found at the LaVase North Bank Site is the wire nail. First made in 1834 in France, wire nails soon came to be produced in England (c. 1840) and the United States (c. 1850). The first Canadian-made wire nails were manufactured in Montréal in 1870. However, because these nails were drawn as wire rather than cut or wrought, their strength was not trusted and they were not produced in large numbers before the late nineteenth century (Rempel 1980: 102, 369). Since about 1890, wire nails have become the standard type, recognizable by their round heads, sharp points and round, untapered shanks (Adams 1995: 94).

Thirty-two wire nails were found at CbGu-1 during the 1997 field season. Many of this number are heavily corroded or broken into small pieces, but can be identified as wire nails by the round cross-sections of their shanks. Others, by contrast, are in relatively good condition, including some that are quite modern. The data for identifiable wire nails are presented in Table 11.

97-163 CbGu-1

97-239 CbGu-1

Table 6. Analysis of wire nails from the LaVase North Bank Site (CbGu-1). '>' indicates the present length of broken nails.

Three general size classes can be identified amongst the nails, but these categories are not in any way meant to be a typology. The majority can be considered small nails, although it must be kept in mind that most are broken and were originally longer. Two nails can be considered medium size: 97-99 (65 mm) and 97-178 (80 mm). Three large nails (97-12, 97-13 and 97-163) measure between 100 and 108 mm, but are not large enough to be considered spikes.

Two tacks are here included with the nails: 97-239 and one of the items collectively catalogued as 97-82. The flat head of 97-239 measures 11 mm in diameter, while the shanks of both tacks measure 24 mm long. The head of 97-82 has been partially disconnected from its shank and bent 90 (its upper half is now missing). Based on similarities in the appearance and length of their shanks, it would appear that these two tacks were of the same type.

Nail 97-111 is extremely modern; its surface is still quite shiny, suggesting that it is galvanized or made of stainless steel. It is also distinctive in being the only nail recovered from CbGu-1 or CbGu-5 in 1992 or 1997 with a spiralled shank. Found in the topsoil, it was collectively catalogued with a bottle cap, styrofoam and modern glass.

Five wire nails were recovered from the LaVase North Bank Site during the 1995 excavations, while 52 were found there in the Autumn of 1996 (Archaeological Services Inc. 1996: 106; Defonzo 1997: 10). No further data on these nails are available for comparative analysis.

UNCLASSIFIABLE NAILS
Cat. Nos. 97-121 (5 of 14), 97-207 (8 of 29), 97-227 (1 of 1), 97-233 (1 of 1), 97-246 (5 of 12), 97-267 (1 of 1)

Twenty-one nails from CbGu-1 are unattributable to any one type. This category must be distinguished from the 'Unclassifiable Wrought or Machine Cut Nails' above. In this case, it is uncertain whether the nails are of wrought, machine cut or wire manufacture. These nails are extremely poorly preserved, being heavily corroded and often extremely fragmentary. No analysis of these nails is possible.

CONCLUSIONS

Table 12 summarizes the frequencies and percentages of the 78 nails from CbGu-1 for each of the categories discussed above. However, because of the high percentage of 'Unclassifiable Wrought or Machine Cut' and 'Unclassifiable Nails' classes, this method of organization is not particularly revealing. Therefore, in the third column of the table, the nails have been divided into two classifiable types: wrought and machine cut nails combined, and wire nails.

Table 7. Frequencies and percentages of nail types from the North Bank Site (CbGu-1).

The wrought nails point to occupation at the site before c. 1830, while the machine cut nails support the presence of activity from about 1800 to 1890. Construction at the site after that time is represented by the wire nails. It can be seen on Table 7 that the majority (56.1%) of classifiable nails are of wire manufacture and are datable to after c. 1890. The earlier nails (i.e. the combination of wrought and cut nails) still constitute a large percentage (43.9%) of the CbGu-1 nail assemblage. These figures must, of necessity, ignore the present City of North Bay Parks and Recreation buildings, because their nails are separate from the archaeological record. Therefore, while the majority of construction activity on the site took place circa 1890, a significant proportion was of an earlier date.

Inter-site comparison of the CbGu-1 nails with those recovered from CbGu-5 will be reserved for the concluding section of the nails analysis for the latter site.

4.2.2 Daub

Daub refers to the unfired clay recovered from units. Typically, daub fragments are less than 4cm in diameter and are amorphous in shape. These fragments usually have grass, or straw-like impressions on the exterior. The nature of these fragments is purely anthropogenic. The use or function of this material is architectural. Daub has been used historically to create the "wattle and daub" chimney. Also, daub has served the function of insulation between timbers of a house (ASI 1996:136-137).

The North Bank site recovered minor amounts of daub (# of fragments =127) in concentrated areas such as 487/195. The recovery of daub from the North Bank is interesting, since, the aforementioned functions of daub are associated with historic structures.

Future investigations may have to reconsider the functions of this local clay, and its recovery in excavations from the North Bank Site.

Note: Clay Pipes from the North Bank Site are described in Appendix 1.

Back to the Lavase River/Fort Laronde