Gallery of Artifacts

A Dutch harvesting tool with which a farmer would grasp grain stocks together, then slice with a sith and drop the grain for binding into sheaves.

Leaded glass filled casement windows at the Flatts.

Brass book clasps indicate Arent's household possessed books.

The pipkin was an all-purpose vessel.

This complete undated fire back resembles the surviving piece of a fire back from the Flatts. It is incscribed "hollandia" and "Pro Patria." A woman holds a lance topped with a hat. A crowned lion crouches before her. She sits within a fenced enclosure representing the "Dutch Garden." Through such symbols a household like Arent's tied itself to the Dutch Republic and the House of Orange.

Fire tongs with which Arent would have tended his hearth.

This surviving section of this iron fire back from the Flatt's hearth was cast with a torso and upraised arm holding a staff. The design closely resembles the complete fire back in the next image.

A Delft tile found by Bobby Brustle in cellar #2.

These sherds of Chinese porcelain in the Wan-Li pattern are a sign of wealth and status.

Nursing shields were used by nursing mothers to protect sore nipples when breast-feeding extended to long after children cut their front teeth. They appear in medical literature of 16th century France. This one from the Flatts is nearly identical to those excavated in Amsterdam. Modern mothers sometimes use shields made from soft plastic rather than metal.

Pewter tops screwed onto glass bottles. One was found at the Flatts with AVC scratched as a monogram onto it.

An adze was used to trim and smooth wood.

These artifacts from the horseshoe pit at the Flatts were situated with the ring over the stake as though someone had walked away from a game.

This Jesuit ring probably came from a Frenchman in contact with the Dutch and the Indians.

Native American beliefs may have been intentionally reflected in the serpent imagery of this sideplate from a flintlock pistol.

Copper liners were inserted inside wooden pipes.

Bale seals were attached to bolts of cloth or bales of merchandise to certify origin, quality and quantity of goods. These seals indicate the origin was the city of Campen.

This gun barrel, typical of what the Flatts would have traded, was excavated at the Ganondagan site, a Seneca Indian village in the 1670s and 1680s located southeast of Rochester.

Tinkler cones were decorative objects made from brass cut from European trade kettles. Native Americans used them to decorate hair, clothes and other objects.

Whelk are native to the Atlantic coast. This shell was discovered in the 17th century archaeological level at the Flatts.