During excavations at Chesterfield Courthouse, VA, I found a feature that
is undoubtedly the pillory and stocks.  Has anyone else excavated or seen
references to similar archaeological finds?

The feature was located 20 feet off the northwest corner of a jail that was
built in 1842 and demolished in 1892.  The north line of the jail is in
line with the front of the site of the original courthouse (and to the
east) and the pillory and stocks were in line with the end of the jail and
front of the courthouse (thus at it was at first suspected of being a fence
post). (see the illustration in the link below)

The feature consisted of a single large post 9 inches square, with 4 foot
long and 4 inch thick wooden pieces running laterally from the east and
west sides.  The wood had long ago rotted, but a small bit was identified
as oak, and as far as I could tell the grain ran horizontally.  The stain
was in nice solid clay, with a clear post hole and shallow trough being
found which had been back-filled around the wooden post and lateral pieces.
http://users.erols.com/weiskotten/ChesterfieldCourthousePillory100dpi5x7.jpg
(pardon the slop - it was two days after the hurricane!  The bricks mark
the location of the post [they were in the post mold], the wooden stick in
the foreground denotes the alignment of the eastern side not yet excavated
but later dug and found to be the same as the west side - 4 feet off the
post.  The structure immediately adjacent is the Civil War Monument).

In searching the 'net for sources I see that pillories and stocks come in a
wide variety of forms.  I did find an illustration that shows exactly the
structure that would have made this feature:
http://www.rm-r.net/~getch/punishments/curious/chapter-3.jpg

No evidence of a bench was found, but I would not necessarily expect it to
be rooted so deeply as the main structure.

Any comments, suggestions or further references would be appreciated.

        Dan W.