Items belonging to this functional group were subdivided into two classes: (1) construction fasteners, which consist of iron nails, tacks, nuts, and bolts/spikes; and (2) construction materials, which consist of brick, glazed brick, and flat window glass.
Construction Fasteners
All nails (n=232), tacks (n=3), bolts (n=3), and nuts (n=2) were made of iron, and most were extremely corroded, which restricted identification by type and manufacture (wrought cut, machine-made, etc.). Despite this fact, all nails recovered from undisturbed contexts (i.e., burials and features) were wrought and possessed "T," "L," or "Rose" heads (see nails from Burial 3 and Feature 53). Each type of nail was manufactured to serve a particular purpose. Rose-head nails, for example, were employed as an all-purpose nail; L-head nails were used to fasten trim and flooring; and T-head nails, usually also used for flooring, had a flattened disc head hammered over opposite sides of the shaft (Noël Hume 1969:252). Wrought nails date from the beginning of European contact to as late as 1790, when cut nails became popular. The presence of wrought nails in undisturbed contexts at the Fredricks site suggests that they were available as a trade good by at least 1700. Another explanation for the presence of these nails is that they may have functioned as primary fasteners on wooden crates or boxes used to ship trade goods. It is unlikely that the Occaneechi used these nails as construction fasteners; rather, they probably used them as punches for leather working, or as engraving tools. Later varieties of nails (machine-cut and wire nails) were recovered from plowzone contexts.
Building Materials
Flat window glass fragments (n=49) were distinguished from mirror glass by several criteria: (1) the absence of silver backing, which, according to Polhemus (1987:947) "is very fugitive and is frequently eliminated during water screening or artifact processing"; (2) thickness of the glass (panes usually are thinner); (3) surface finish of the glass (polished or not); (4) edge color (typically smoky gray for mirror and more green to yellow-green for pane); and (5) edge treatment (typically mirrors have ground or smoothed edges). All window glass fragments were found in the plowzone and likely postdate the Occaneechi occupation.
Bricks (n=232) also needed careful examination. During preliminary laboratory processing, daub, fired clay (possibly chinking), rocks, and even unglazed or slightly glazed coarse red earthenware potsherds were inadvertently classified as "bricks." During analysis, however, care was taken to discriminate real brick fragments from these other items. Attributes for brick identification included: (1) composition of paste (iron and quartz inclusions) for brick as opposed to a typically gritty or sandy paste for daub; (2) edge treatment (most bricks of this period were hand-made in a press-mold box and smoothed over the top edge with a board or trowel, which resulted in linear striations and some edge lipping); and (3) weight (typically bricks are slightly heavier per cubic inch than daub or pottery). Glazed brick fragments (n=20) were readily identifiable with all specimens exhibiting at least one flat surface. The glaze appeared to be a thin salt glaze, which is more likely to have resulted from hearth burning than from kiln burning. Historically, salt has been used to clean out built-up residue in a chimney, with the result being a thin salt-glaze deposit on the interior bricks of the hearth and chimney. Although the use of brick within the Eno Valley likely coincides with the settlement of Hillsborough in the mid-eighteenth century, three small brick fragments were recovered from the upper fill of three Occaneechi burial pits: Feature 1, Feature 2 (Burial 4), and Feature 7 (Burial 9). Their occurrence in these contexts is probably a result of post-depositional disturbance.
