Homer,
 
I can't answer your questions, but I share them. In excavating a series of
mid-18th-century slave quarters at Curles Plantation in Virginia several
years ago we encountered on that had obviously been a blacksmith's shop.
There was a large rectangular floor pit intruded by a smaller one. Both
contained large quantities of slag and some iron strap and other iron
artifacts. They also contained the sorts of materials we are used to
finding in slave-quarter "root cellars," including ceramics, beads, food
remains, coins, gunflints, etc. The walls of the pit indicated some heat
or burning, so I assumed the pit was near the forge. Like I said, no
answers, just more questions. Perhaps Ned Heite can help out here.
 
Dan Mouer
http:/www.freedomnet.com/~dmouer/homepage.htm
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On Tue, 22 Apr 1997, Homer Thiel wrote:
 
> Recently the merits of pits and soap making were discussed.
>
> How about pits in blacksmith shop floors? Recently, we excavated parts of two
bl
> acksmith shops. One (dating from 1895 to 1906) had at least five pits in its f
lo
> or. The pits contained cinders and scrap iron. Some edges were reddened by exp
os
> ure to heat.
> We also found a posthole for an anvil and a partially buried wooden barrel, pr
es
> umable used for a cooling barrel. A wooden "trough" was set into the floor of
th
> is shop, leading to the area next to the anvil posthole.
>
> A second shop was poorly preserved, however we had several pits in its floor a
re
> a, again filled with cinders and iron artifacts.
>
> Any ideas about what the other pits might be? One possibility is that the forg
e
> was over the pits. What about the wooden trough? Could this have been used to
br
> ing air to the forge, possibly with a bellows attached to one the other end (w
hi
> ch would have been outside of the blacksmith shop)?
>
> Homer Thiel
>