Perhaps part of this there in Newport?  http://www.saintonge.org/

Also the Pentagon was just delivered a white paper on the French in
the American Revolution as many states re researching what became an
American victory with the aid of the French. (see for their role in
New York State http://www.hudsonrivervalley.net/AMERICANBOOK/Main.html)
I've excavated near and by many of the 45 known sites listed there.

George Myers


On Thu, 10 Feb 2005 11:26:27 -0500, Lauren Cook <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> We find Rouen faience in the northeast as well, sometimes in 1750s contexts
> in places like Newport, probably smuggled by merchants trading with the
> French islands in the Caribbean. Occasionally, it turns up in small
> quantities on later sites as well.  Possibly the all-time prize for ballast
> artifacts though, may be from Newburyport, MA, where I seem to remember
> hearing that Alaric Faulkner found a Paleolithic hand axe in what was pretty
> definitively a WWII-era fill deposit.  This was back in the '70s.
>
> Lauren J. Cook, RPA
> Senior Archaeologist
> Richard Grubb & Associates, Inc.
> 30 North Main Street
> Cranbury, NJ 08512
>
> Ph: 609 655-0692 ext 312
> Fx: 609 655-3050
> email: [log in to unmask]
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Carl
> Steen
> Sent: Thursday, February 10, 2005 8:21 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Heirlooms or ballast
>
> In a message dated 2/10/2005 7:55:30 A.M. Eastern Standard Time,
> [log in to unmask] writes:
>
> I saw a  sherd of medieval Saintonge ware (probably pre-1500- it wasn't
> recognisable  as Saintonge at all to the Parks Canada ceramacists) in
> Quebec City a few  years back. I suppose it had probably arrived as
> ballast or just possibly  as a very archaic hierloom. I know Roman sherds
> have turned up in the  Chesapeake as ballast. I was wondering out of mere
> curiosity if there any  further such archaic finds from north America
> apart from later  collectors.
>
> paul courtney
> Leicester
> LE2  1WJ
>
> Paul - We get ballast artifacts here in the southeastern US. I've  seen more
> stone tools than anything else. But we also find Saintonge  wares, (red
> earthenwares with bright green glazes) in archaeological contexts.  These
> usually
> date to around the time of the American Revolution (fourth quarter  of the
> 18th
> c.). We also find Rouen Faience in similar temporal  contexts... Is it
> possible that what you saw was not medieval? But if it  is, again, it
> wouldn't be
> that big of a surprise.
>
> Carl Steen
>