6.2 EURO-CANADIAN ARTIFACTS

6.2.1 Nail Analysis

Jonathan Ferguson

In total, 117 nails were recovered from the La Vase Island Site during the 1992 and 1997 field seasons, making nails one of the most common artifact types. As discussed in the introduction of the nail analysis for CbGu-1 above, the chronological study of nails is fraught with concerns of overlapping periods of production. However, nails still act as general temporal indicators for site interpretation.

The same methodology used for the La Vase North Bank Site nails will here be employed, distinguishing between 'Wrought Nails', 'Machine Cut Nails', 'Unclassifiable Wrought or Machine Cut Nails,' 'Wire Nails' and 'Unclassifiable Nails'. Again, it should be kept in mind that some percentage of the wrought, cut and wire nails are included in the unclassifiable classes. The distinction between the 'Unclassifiable Wrought or Machine Cut Nails' and 'Unclassifiable Nails' groups is that the former exhibit square or rectangular shank cross-sections, which eliminate the possibility that they were wire nails.

Again, frequencies are included in the catalogue number lists for each type, because nails have often been grouped under a single number with other nails or other artifacts. The comment "3 of 9" in parentheses means that three nails of that class were identified among a group of nine artifacts.

WROUGHT NAILS

Cat. Nos. 5-92-32 (2 of 2), 97-300 (1 of 9), 97-348 (1 of 2), WS-7 (1 of 2), WS-62 (1 of 1)

Wrought nails were hand-made in the blacksmithing tradition, by being hammered into shape from a heated rod of iron. Nails made with this technique usually have shanks tapering on all four sides towards a sharp point. The heads of these nails are also hand-hammered; the most common type of wrought head found here is the 'rose', with a number of oblique hammered facets. Generally, wrought nails are dated to before 1800, but this should not be regarded as an absolute terminus ante quem (Karklins 1983: 162-63; Noble 1973: 124-25; Rempel 1980: 100, 367). Late examples of wrought nails are found up to c. 1830, as at Rocky Mountain House in Alberta (Noble 1973: 127; Adams 1995: 94).

Six nails from the 1992 and 1997 excavations at the LaVase Island Site can be confidently classified as having been wrought. These identifiable wrought nails are described in Table 12.

Table 12. Analysis of wrought nails from the LaVase Island Site (CbGu-5).
'>' indicates the present length of broken nails.

Rose heads are seen on four wrought nails from Bothwell Island: 97-300, 97-348 and both nails included in 5-92-32. Example 97-300 is a square nail with a fairly thick (almost 4 mm), uneven rose head. The longer 5-92-32 item appears to be a wrought tack, with a square shank that is quite thick (4 mm) for its length (34 mm). The head of this specimen is mostly exfoliated, but appears to have been of the round rose variety. The other 5-92-32 nail has a rose head, which peaks in the centre and takes the shape of a rounded rectangle. The shank of 97-348 is very badly rusted, but its head is mostly visible. This head has been hammered quite flat and thin (between 1 and 2 mm), and appears to have been rectangular in shape.

WS-62 CbGu-5

97-300 CbGu-5

WS-7 CbGu-5

An L-shaped head is found on WS-62. The term 'L-head' is used for heads which have been formed by simply bending the blunt end of the nail over at a 90 angle on one side. On wrought nails from the Hudson's Bay Company post at Nottingham House in Alberta, these heads protruded from 1 to 2 mm from the shank (Karklins 1983: 162). On WS-62, however, the head projects 4 mm from the shank. One explanation for such differences is the natural variation found in hand-made products.

Artifact WS-7 has been interpreted as a wrought tack because it appears to have tapered sides and a sharp point despite its short length. The head of this tack is roughly square and relatively flat.

Of the 223 nails found on Bothwell Island in 1995, at least 12 (found concentrated in two excavation units) have been identified as wrought nails. This number includes one L-head nail (Cat. No. 4363), as was encountered with WS-62 above. The 1995 wrought nails, some of which are illustrated in the 1995 site report, appear to be generally consistent with the 1992 and 1997 examples (Archaeological Services Inc. 1995: 135-36, cf. Plate 9). One nail, on the far right of Plate 9 in the 1995 report, however, more closely resembles a machine cut nail. Unfortunately, the identification and comparison of nails is more difficult and more limited when dealing only with photographs.

MACHINE CUT NAILS

Cat. Nos. 5-92-88 (1 of 5), 97-288 (1 of 1), 97-300 (5 of 9), 97-321 (1 of 1), 97-325 (1 of 1), 97-444 (1 of 1), 97-445 (2 of 5), 97-448 (2 of 5), 97-450 (1 of 1), 97-452 (1 of 5), 97-474 (1 of 1), 97-488 (2 of 6), 97-510 (1 of 1), WS-23 (1 of 3), WS-59 (1 of 3), WS-122 (1 of 29)

Machine cut nails, as implied by their name, were cut by machines from iron strips. This type of machine was first patented by J. Pierson of New York in 1794. The nature of the manufacture of these nails resulted in their most characteristic attributes: two parallel and two tapering sides, and stub points. This shank and point combination is found with hand-wrought heads until the invention of a nail cutting and heading machine by Jesse Reed of Boston in 1807. Later machine cut nails have regular, flat heads which are usually rectangular in shape. Machine cut nails are generally dated from the beginning of the nineteenth century until late in that century, at which time they were replaced for most uses by wire nails (Rempel 1980: 101-2, 368).

The 1992 and 1997 archaeological excavations on Bothwell Island unearthed 23 identifiable machine cut nails. This frequency makes this the most common type of classifiable nail found at CbGu-5. Table I shows the data of the 23 identifiable machine cut nails from Bothwell Island.

Table 13. Analysis of machine cut nails from the LaVase Island Site (CbGu-5).
'>' indicates the present length of broken nails.

5-92-88

Three nails from the LaVase Island Site have the same bright red coating seen on the two nails from the LaVase North Bank Site (97-112 and 97-230). One (5-92-88) is a small nail or tack with a rounded head and a square shank that is bent 90 at its tip. The other two are machine cut and headed nails, both included in the catalogue number 97-300. One of these is very well preserved for its entire length, while the shank of the other is broken. As at CbGu-1, it appears that this coating is red iron oxide, which is produced when iron is exposed to high temperatures. At Rocky Mountain House in Alberta, three machine cut nails were similarly discoloured (Noble 1973: 135). The Bothwell Island nails were, therefore, fired, whether separately or as part of a wooden object. While there are historical references to the burning of structures for the recovery of nails (Rempel 1980: 371), more evidence would be required before such a scenario could here be postulated.

97-300 CbGu-5

One of the other nails included in 97-300 is worthy of note because its tip has delaminated. A 12 mm long and 1 mm thick strip has peeled away from the main body of the shank. This type of delamination shows that the iron fibres run parallel to the shank, a characteristic of cut nails after the 1830s (Noble 1973: 125). The nail has a square head and shank, and is bent near its middle.

The remainder of the examples fall within the normal range of characteristics for machine cut nails, with square to rectangular shank and heads. One interesting possibility can be found: similarities in the dimensions and appearances of 97-325 and 97-510 suggest that they are of the same type. However, corrosion hinders any firm conclusion that they might have been of the same manufacture.

Many machine cut nails were unearthed on Bothwell Island during the 1995 archaeological excavations, but little analysis was carried out on them other than basic measurements (Archaeological Services Inc. 1996: Appendix D). Cut nails (e.g., 96-408) were also found during the 1996 field season (Patrick Julig, Laurentian University 1998: personal communication). However, little information about these nails is available for comparative purposes.

97-510 CbGu-5

UNCLASSIFIABLE WROUGHT OR MACHINE CUT NAILS

Cat. Nos. 5-92-71 (2 of 2), 97-295 (1 of 1), 97-300 (2 of 9), 97-348 (1 of 2), 97-445 (3 of 5), 97-452 (4 of 5), 97-468 (2 of 2), 97-477 (1 of 2), 97-485 (1 of 1), 97-488 (4 of 6), 97-495 (1 of 1), WS-2 (3 of 19), WS-43 (6 of 6), WS-59 (2 of 3), WS-75 (3 of 4), WS-122 (12 of 29), WS-132 (3 of 5)

A large number (51) of the nails from Bothwell Island are either wrought or machine cut, but are too badly corroded or too incomplete to be assigned to either category. Because these nails are so poorly preserved, little can be said about their age or type. The shanks and heads (where present) of these nails, however, range from square to rectangular. This group of nails can, therefore, be generally dated to before the late nineteenth century, when wire nails became the most common form.

One of these unclassifiable wrought or machine cut nails (97-295) is worthy of further consideration, because of its provenience. This nail was recovered from unit 312/398, in direct association with the possible foundation timber (Cat. No. 97-538), but at a slightly lower depth. It would clearly be advantageous for this nail to be identified, in order to facilitate the dating of this wooden footing and, by extension, its superstructure. It is, therefore, extremely unfortunate that nail 97-295 cannot be confidently classified as either wrought or machine cut. This having been said, it is clearly not of drawn wire manufacture and so can be dated to before c. 1890. Furthermore, if it is indeed a machine cut nail, it most likely pre-dates the 1830s, since the grain of the iron is perpendicular to the shank (Noble 1973: 125). It can be concluded, then, that this nail is consistent with the expected LaRonde Post occupation phase (about 1795 to 1821), but cannot by itself define the date of the foundations any more narrowly than before the 1830s.

97-295 CbGu-5 After 6 days in approx. 16% HCl

WIRE NAILS

Cat. Nos. 5-92-88 (4 of 5), 5-92-100 (1 of 1), 97-311 (3 of 3), 97-344 (1 of 1), 97-359 (3 of 10), 97-408 (1 of 1), 97-499 (1 of 1), WS-122 (5 of 29)

Wire nails are the most recent type of nail recovered from the LaVase Island Site. The manufacturing process of these nails differs from the above in that it involves drawing the metal into wire rather than cutting or hand-working it. This technique was first used in France in 1834. Wire nails were being produced in England around 1840, in the United States a decade later and in Montréal by 1870. Wire nails, however, were not considered reliable enough for common use until the end of that century (Rempel 1980: 102, 369). By c. 1890, wire nails had become the most common nail type, and they continue to be the preferred kind of nail. In form, wire nails are characterized by sharp points, round, untapering shanks and round heads (Adams 1995: 94).

The 1992 and 1997 field seasons unearthed 19 wire nails from the LaVase Island Site. The data for these nails are summarized in Table J. Wire nails were identified primarily by round cross-sections of the shanks.

Table 14. Analysis of wire nails from the LaVase Island Site (CbGu-5). '>' indicates the present length of broken nails.

Table J shows that all these nails share round heads and shanks and sharp points, where these elements are present. As at CbGu-1, the nails from the LaVase Island Site can be divided into three basic size categories. Unfortunately, many of the nails are very fragmentary and their original lengths cannot be determined. Small nails, while present, are therefore sometimes difficult to distinguish from broken nails. Four examples can be generally classes as being medium nails between 53 and 67 mm in length. There are also four large nails measuring over 76 mm (this is the present length of a broken nail).

5-92-88 CbGu-5

Three of the medium nails included in 5-92-88 are almost certainly of the same type and manufacture. Differences between their dimensions and appearance are negligible. All have a series of parallel depressions on the shank near the head. Such similarities are reinforced by their shared provenience along the beach in front of the cabin on Bothwell Island.

Wire nails were also recovered from the LaVase Island Site during the 1995 archaeological excavations (Archaeological Services Inc. 1996: Appendix D). Unfortunately, no information is available on these finds other than their catalogue descriptions.

UNCLASSIFIABLE NAILS

Cat. Nos. 97-300 (1 of 9), 97-349 (2 of 2), 97-357 (1 of 1), 97-380 (1 of 1), 97-385 (1 of 1), 97-386 (1 of 1), 97-404 (3 of 3), 97-520 (1 of 2), WS-50 (1 of 1), WS-75 (1 of 4), WS-122 (5 of 29)

This informal class includes all those nails from CbGu-5 which could not be confidently attributed to any one of the wrought, machine cut or wire nail categories. In all, 18 nails could not be classified. These nails are poorly preserved and are too small or too rusted for identification or detailed analysis.

CONCLUSIONS

The frequencies and percentages for each type of the 117 nails recovered from the LaVase North Bank Site are shown in Table 15. The third column combines wrought and machine cut nails, because of the high frequency of poorly preserved nails which cannot be firmly attributed to either type. With the exclusion of unclassifiable nails, then, this column gives the frequencies and percentages of wrought and cut nails on one hand, and wire nails on the other.

Table 15. Frequencies and percentages of nail types from the LaVase Island Site (CbGu-5).

The presence of six wrought nails shows that construction activity on Bothwell Island dates back to at least around 1830. The machine cut nails, moreover, show that some building took place there during their period of production, from approximately 1800 to 1890. The wire nails can be dated to more recent activity, after c. 1890. It should be noted that this discussion of construction activity must omit the building of the present cottage on the island, since it still retains its nails. The high percentage of wrought and machine cut nails (80.8%) suggests that the majority of construction activity on Bothwell Island took place before about 1890. Wire nails, by contrast, only constitute a fifth (19.2%) of the nails recovered from the island. The main building phase on the island (other than the cottage) therefore dates to the nineteenth century, with at least some elements being present by 1830. In particular, the wrought or machine cut nail (97-295) found in association with the possible foundation timber probably dates to before the 1830s, supporting the hypothesis that Bothwell Island was the location of the LaRonde Post.

By comparing Tables G and K, it is evident that noteworthy differences exist between the nail assemblages from the LaVase North Bank and the LaVase Island Sites, despite the fact that all nail classes are present at both sites. At CbGu-1, most (56.1%) of the classifiable specimens were wire nails, dated to after about 1890. By contrast, wrought and machine cut nails made up 43.9% of the total. On the other hand, the great majority (80.8%) of nails from Bothwell Island were either of wrought or machine cut manufacture, dating to before about 1890. Wire nails make up only 19.2% of the classifiable nails. This deviation shows that the majority of construction activity is earlier at CbGu-5 than at CbGu-1, again omitting present structures from this discussion. This contrast can be explained by the probable location of the LaRonde Post on Bothwell Island and the considerable modern development which has taken place at CbGu-1 as part of Champlain Park.

Because it provides a wider perspective on the history of the mouth of the LaVase River, it is useful to consider both sites together. Table 16 presents the frequency and percentages of nail types from the combined assemblage from CbGu-1 and CbGu-5. In all, 195 nails were recovered from the two sites in 1992 and 1997, of which 156 can be considered classifiable.

Table 16. Frequencies and percentages of nail types in the combined assemblage from the LaVase North Bank Site (CbGu-1) and the LaVase Island Site (CbGu-5).

The different types of nails recovered from the LaVase North Bank and LaVase Island Sites represent the range of dates for construction activity in the area. Wrought nails date to before about 1830, and overlap with the main period of production for machine cut nails, from c. 1800 to 1890. Wire nails come from building on the sites after approximately 1890. When wrought and cut nails are combined to include those which could not be definitively classified as either type, this class constitutes the majority of nails (67.3%) found at the sites. On the other hand, wire nails make up only 32.7% of the total of classifiable nails. On this basis, it can be concluded that, aside from presently-standing structures such as the Bothwell cottage and the City of North Bay's recreational facilities, the majority of construction activity at the mouth of the LaVase River dates to before c. 1890.

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