Plan view of Stone House Foundation, 44PG64

Reconstructing the Manor House

Visual reconstructions are often the primary means by which archaeologists and architectural historians make past buildings and landscapes comprehensible to the public. While invaluable in a museum setting, the digital reconstruction of a site like Flowerdew Hundred’s “Stone House Foundation” also enables researchers to study the dynamics of space in three dimensions, in ways that are not possible in a two-dimensional representation. 

Rendering of the “Stone House Foundation” Manor, 2011

Using modern architectural design software, this 3D reconstruction provides a visual representation of the building and its relationship to the surrounding landscape. With this new perspective of the site, archaeologists can begin to ask new questions about the use of space. Beyond this, 3D visualizations help make visible the physical and social strategies people probably used to cope with the 17th-century Virginia environment.  

Plaster fragments with finish and organic impressions, ca. 1618-1650    

The visualization of the “Stone House Foundation” manor was created drawing on a variety of sources, such as contemporaneous architecture, physical limitations of space and structure based upon its archaeological footprint, and the site’s recovered architectural artifacts.