Site 22

The identification of Site 22 required a variety of site detection methods. From analysis of Jefferson documents it was known that enslaved African American James Hubbard lived in the area. Research had shown that James Hubbard was an unmarried and worked at Monticello for less than a decade. The standard shovel test pit program of excavating test pits every forty feet missed the site entirely. A second series of 40-foot interval test pits offset by twenty feet east and south (to form a checkerboard pattern) was excavated but came up empty as well. A metal detector was brought in and employed on 20-foot transects through the suspected site location. A number of metal hits were marked and covered an area approximately 150-feet north/south and east/west. Only by excavating test pits on 10-foot centers in this area were four wrought nails recovered. This site, and the effort required to detect it archaeologically raise important questions about the archaeological visibility of short-term occupations by single males.