In conjunction with the George Washington Birthplace National Monument in Colonial Beach, Virginia, Martin Archaeology Consulting, LLC conducted a multidisciplinary survey in May of 2025. This survey utilized archaeological human remains detection dogs (AHRDD) and ground-penetrating radar (GPR). The purpose of this survey was to gain a better understanding of the areas where burials had previously been recorded and to examine spaces for undiscovered burials near where the family home had once stood.

Under the gazebo, which had been rebuilt as part of the preservation efforts of the 1920s, two GPR transects were collected in the X and Y orientations. The present interpretation of the site is that it is the location of the original well. The result of these two transects indicate a potential well or cistern had been located within the area. Further investigation of the Memorial should be conducted with GPR and test excavations.

Although George Washington was born at a Popes Creek estate now known as the George Washington Birthplace National Monument, the exact location of the house remains unknown. One of the most likely locations for Washington’s birthplace is Building X, first identified in 1930, and fully excavated in 1936. Building X consists of four (possibly five) brick foundations or rooms sitting in some relation to each other and has remained a mystery since it was first discovered. Archaeological work in 2022 included hand excavation of Building X to re-expose and record the foundations. Architectural historians analyzed mortar samples and construction methods and undertook pXRF sampling of foundation bricks and mortar. This information was used to interpret the building phases of Building X and better understand household organization. This paper will present the results of the excavation conducted by New South Associates, Inc. as a consultant to the NPS.

Iron artifacts of the colonial Chesapeake are often too corroded or fragmentary to be identified accurately without expertise in metal material culture and x-radiography to see through corrosion. This project brings new eyes and x-ray technology together for a synthetic study of collections from the 1930s, 1970s, and more recent excavations at George Washington’s Birthplace National Monument. Excavation methods have varied since the 1930s and some of the site has been disturbed, but there is still much to be learned by revisiting assemblages from Building X and its surrounds. Through this study, artifacts that have been misidentified, dismissed as “unclassifiable,” or otherwise absent from site interpretations have emerged as evidence of lighting and fire management, horse hardware, personal adornment, utensils, hand tools, and more. Now these artifacts will better contribute to interpretation of the only site that can boast, “George Washington slept here first.”

Pipe stem dating can be a useful tool to refine occupational chronologies of a site. Most recently, this was applied to the smoking pipe collection at George Washington Birthplace National Monument in Westmoreland County, Virginia, specifically those associated with Building X. More than 3,700 recovered pipe stem fragments were measured and analyzed using multiple dating formulas to establish periods of use across the site. Correlating these dates with the other ongoing studies may help clarify the site's development and construction history. The findings contribute to ongoing efforts to interpret the built environment surrounding Washington’s birthplace and demonstrate how the reanalysis of legacy collections using updated methodologies can yield meaningful new insights.

Well before George Washington Birthplace National Monument became a unit of the National Park Service in 1930, archeological excavations were conducted in an attempt to confirm the location of George Washington’s birth home. Nearly 130 years later, investigations continue as an expanded group of researchers including archeologists, curators, historians, and others seek to confirm the historic layout of the Washington family plantation. In addition to targeted archaeological excavations, recent studies have focused on reanalysis of the park’s existing museum collections as well as integrating modern technologies such as x-ray imaging, ground penetrating radar, GIS, and LiDAR. Combined with the known history of the property and findings from earlier excavations, results of this new research provide fresh insights that both deepen and challenge our understanding of the site’s past.

The George Washington Birthplace National Monument National Park, located in Westmoreland County, Virginia, is a landscape with a long and curious history. One often overlooked feature of this memorial landscape is the Washington Family Burial Ground. Beginning in the 1650s, the burying ground served generations of Washingtons. But over the years it has also been the subject of various commemorative projects seeking to memorialize George Washington’s ancestors. In the 1930s, archaeologists joined this commemorative impulse. Their efforts led to the documentation of burials and the construction of a new memorial edifice which reimagined the landscape in creative ways. This paper is part of a larger project of reassessing past archaeology at the birthplace. It focuses on these layers of memorialization and contemporary archaeological practice at the Washington Family Burial Ground. This paper locates early archaeology of the burials in then-contemporary mortuary practices.