If you happened to take a tour of our dig this summer, you may have had the pleasure of meeting one of our grad students. In a room, just right of the conservation laboratory is JD Archer. JD is studying at MUN working on his Masters in Historical Archeology with a 5-year undergraduate from Simon Fraser in BC. JD’s goal this summer was to study the differences between the Sir George Calvert era (1620s), into the Sir David Kirke era (1638) surrounding the main kitchen (built in the 1620s) up behind the mansion house. While the research continues, here’s one example to show the difference between both periods. As you can see from the pictures, there are two different types of Earthenware. One picture shows the brown coarse Earthenware while the other picture shows refined Earthenware with a tin glaze. Because David Kirke’s reign in Ferryland while short was very profitable, he became a very rich man through his taxation on foreign vessels, rent on fishing rooms, and tavern licences. So, the artifacts with the Tin Glaze are clearly fancier, more fragile and more expensive. This leads us to believe that the tin glaze items were what the Kirke family could have afforded!