Archaeologists discovered a 250-year-old kiln at Thomas Jefferson‘s Monticello residence.
The kiln was first discovered in Monticello’s East Lawn in 2018 as part of the Plantation Archaeological Survey, according to Artnet. Researchers who conducted more extensive excavations earlier this month found “two uniform segments of bricks, each two bricks wide.” Further excavations revealed the artifact was a disassembled kin dating back to Monticello I, which was built between 1768 and 1782, according to Artnet.
Crystal O’Connor, manager of archaeological field research at Monticello, told Fox News Digital that the kiln was a temporary oven used to harden bricks. O’Connor said the archaeologists found brick channels “filled with overcooked brick rubble, and the soil beneath them had been baked hard by intense heat.” They “immediately started hitting brick,” and subsequently discovered “a series of low parallel brick walls, evenly spaced about a foot and a half apart, with channels running between them.”
“While the team and I weren’t sure of what we were looking at initially, that pattern is a telltale sign of a brick kiln. When the firing was done, workers took the kiln apart and carried the finished bricks to the house.”
“This kiln was crucial to building the home of the author of the Declaration of Independence,” O’Connor continued.
Jefferson was aware of the kiln but would not have participated in baking the bricks, according to O’Connor. She said Jefferson kept records in 1774, detailing which was more efficient–hauling bricks uphill or producing them onsite. (RELATED: US Court Strikes Down 158-Year-Old Home Distilling Ban)
Not many artifacts were found at Monticello besides “several bricks shaped in special molds to match the design of the house,” according to O’Connor. The decorative bricks were used in the “exterior brickwork of the dining room wall,” she said.
The kiln may have been used by brickworkers employed on the plantation or by some of the more than 600 people enslaved by Jefferson, archaeologists said, according to Smithsonian Magazine. Jefferson renovated and expanded the home, which became known as Monticello II, in the mid-1790’s, according to the magazine.
The kiln was not recorded in Jefferson’s maps, drawings, notes, or letters, according to Fox News Digital.
“The discovery has already changed how we understand the building of Monticello,” O’Connor told the outlet.