
DATE: Tuesday, July 1, 1997                 TAG: 9707010276

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY NANCY LEWIS and ROY A. BAHLS, STAFF WRITERS 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:  132 lines

UNEARTHED ARTIFACTS WON'T STOP NORFOLK MALL SITE'S SIGNIFICANCE IS DISPUTED, BUT CITY DECIDES NO FURTHER DIGS ARE NEEDED.

Excavating and treasure hunting at the MacArthur Center mall site have unearthed thousands of artifacts, but the city has concluded that there is no reason to do any more archaeological studies of the area.

A Hessian gold coin, 4,000-year-old spear points and pottery shards from America's Colonial past are among the objects unearthed at the 17-acre downtown tract.

One consulting firm recommended further excavation of 12 ``extraordinary'' locations representing a ``significant archaeological resource.'' The locations could qualify for the National Register of Historic Places, the company said.

But a second consultant hired by the city said there was nothing to be gained by more digging.

Chief Deputy City Attorney Bernard Pishko, who is handling legal matters involving the mall, said last week that after considering the opinion of the second archaeology firm, city officials decided that further underground investigations were not warranted.

It was unclear who specifically made that decision.

``The question we had to answer was whether there were any sites that might contain artifacts of significance,'' he said. ``There is no reason to believe'' that is the case.

Pishko did not have a precise figure but said the city had invested ``over $200,000'' on environmental studies, including archaeologists' digs and preservation of nearby historic buildings.

The eight-block area on the outskirts of the city's original plot has seen many changes in 300 years. As it developed, the area flourished with its many streets, brick buildings, small stores, factories, apartments, homes and warehouses. The postwar urban renewal project that began in 1958 turned the site where the MacArthur Center will go into a parking lot.

In a February 1995 report, MAAR Associates, the first researchers hired by Norfolk, advised more digging at 22 of 300 urban properties they said stood at the end of the 19th century.

MAAR wanted to test several hypotheses and document urban life in a younger United States of America.

In a recent telephone interview, MAAR president and principal investigator Ronald A. Thomas said, ``We found evidence of prehistoric occupation in the form of flaked ballast flint and local cobbles and . . . evidence that earlier excavators in Norfolk had uncovered prehistoric deposits.'' He said his team discovered cultural resources ``significant to the historical past of Norfolk and the development of the New World.''

MAAR wanted to begin recovery operations immediately after completing its report, said Thomas.

Pishko said he wasn't sure whether more digging would have held up the shopping mall project.

At the time of the studies, Norfolk wanted the federal government to guarantee a $33 million loan for part of the project. The research was one of the requirements. The city later quit pursuing the guarantee.

In a letter dated Jan. 30, 1996, Randolph Stokes, a lawyer employed by the city to help with environmental and historical issues on the mall, told state officials the city had concluded that no further archaeological investigations were needed.

A second team of experts agreed with the city, saying they saw no reason to dig deeper.

After investigating three 18th- and 19th-century sites, Louis Berger & Associates of Richmond, the second company, said nothing of historical significance was likely to be discovered by more extensive excavation.

Berger researchers also found many artifacts when they dug trenches about 6 feet deep at three sites - the Moses Myers House and the locations where the Gatewood house and the Lyceum theater once stood.

Kay Simpson, a senior archaeologist for Berger, said, ``we only looked at three properties. . . . We didn't go down very deep.''

Artifacts are ``all out of context, they've all been churned up,'' said Simpson. ``So other than just, `it's a pretty bottle,' there's not much additional worth in looking at them.

``A previous investigator to us had done more of a historic context research,'' she said. ``What we were put under contract to do was the properties we investigated.''

Though Berger found no reason to probe further, MAAR archaeologists found artifacts that allowed them to establish likely dates for periods of occupation in the layers of earth, their report says. For example, ceramics recovered at one test site included ``a nearly whole gray, salt-glazed stoneware jug with blue, smeared decoration'' and other ceramic and pottery shards that could be traced to manufacture in England between 1828 and 1842. Elsewhere on the site, they found creamware, pearlware and an ``Egyptian black'' teapot in undisturbed deposits, indicating dates from 1780 to 1800.

In another trench, archaeologists discovered American Indian artifacts from a time before the first European settlers landed at Cape Henry in 1607, said the MAAR report.

Since construction work got underway at the mall site last year, at least 6 feet of soil from two-thirds of the site has been hauled away.

The MAAR report said large areas of the MacArthur site had been undisturbed barely a foot beneath the then-paved surface. One of their investigators wrote in the report:

``Most of the historically sensitive archaeological resources encountered across the site were exposed within three feet of the present surface. . . . Even shallow grading of a foot or so in depth would impact adversely on existing . . . historic occupation surfaces or sealed artifact deposits.''

Amy Yarsinske, president of the Norfolk Historical Society, emphasized the importance of probing the past.

``Sometimes the only way we find out about ourselves is to go digging,'' she said.

It remains unclear how many artifacts recovered from the two MacArthur site digs will be returned to Norfolk or where they will be housed and displayed if they are sent back.

MAAR's finds are in Delaware, and Berger's are in Richmond, awaiting cleaning, sorting and cataloging.

Pishko, the city attorney, said, ``We can't find a museum to take them . .

Stokes said, ``There's nothing of significance'' anyway.

MAAR's Thomas said last week, ``We remain convinced that deeper excavations will reveal undisturbed materials.''

Mayor Paul Fraim said he was unaware that a single artifact of archaeological significance had been discovered by anyone at the MacArthur Center site.

As to the city's debt to history, he said, ``That's a hypothetical.''

But, he added, ``In the broad, sweeping sense, we want to preserve history.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo

KIRN MEMORIAL LIBRARY

This photo shows how the MacArthur Center mall site looked in 1905.

Thousands of artifacts have been found there, from pre-Colonial

times onward.

Photos

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Ronald A. Thomas is the president of MAAR Associates, the first of

two research firms hired by Norfolk to determine the historical

significance of the mall site. The mid-19th century key he holds was

found on the site.