Flint debitage from Cabildo excavations.
This file appears in: The Cabildo: The Archaeology of a Colonial-Era New Orleans Prison
An unexpected find from the ESI excavations was flint debitage, created when flint nodules were shattered and worked on site. While it is possible that this was just intended as hard, manual labor for punishment, it is more likely that prisoners were also engaged in creating gunflints for use in the city’s arsenal.
This file appears in: The Cabildo: The Archaeology of a Colonial-Era New Orleans Prison
The Cabildo: The Archaeology of a Colonial-Era New Orleans Prison
The excavations at the Cabildo represented a rare opportunity to recover archaeological evidence of Colonial era governance, particularly in the realm of punishment. Modern conceptions of the prison…