Construction for new archaeology lab unearths 17th-century building

By Ellen Ice

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    WILLIAMSBURG, Virginia (WTKR) — Archaeologists are digging up the past at Colonial Williamsburg, and their most recent find was a house that dates back to 1660.

They found it while they were building a new archaeology lab that will inform what life was like in the late 1600 to early 1700s.

“It really reminds us that everywhere we go, there’s something literally under our feet in this town,” said Director of Archaeology Jack Gary.

The house pre-dates the city of Williamsburg by decades.

“It allows us to tell the story of what was here before the city of Williamsburg was even here, and the artifacts that are coming out of it are just a fantastic snapshot of daily life in this area in the early 18th century,” said Gary.

In the nearly 100 years they’ve been doing digs, they’ve found more than 60 million artifacts in Colonial Williamsburg, including the recent discovery of a site that was believed to be Revolutionary War barracks.

“It’s a very rewarding process for us to be able to take what’s in the ground, what we study here in the lab and then know that that information is actually going out there to tell a really accurate story of what life in Williamsburg was like in the past,” said Gary.

The new lab is expected to open in 2026.

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