Our Experience
CAMP PEARY
York County, VA
Since 1992 JRIA has provided on-call services under contract for Phase I, II, and III archaeological projects and architectural surveys at the Armed Forces Experimental Training Activity (AFETA) Camp Peary. JRIA also has prepared Programmatic Agreements, participated in public meetings, prepared graphics for public presentations, and served as a cultural resources consultant.
Over the past 14 years, JRIA has prepared nearly 50 Phase I, II, and III reports on projects at Camp Peary. All reports met the federal standards and costs were established by regular bill rates.
Cumulatively, the Phase I surveys on the facility have amounted to approximately 100 acres. Approximately 60 sites have been identified, and JRIA has studied more than a dozen of them at the Phase II level. JRIA also 
conducted a sizeable Phase III data recovery at site 44YO1015, a portion of the Rippon Hall Plantation, a large home site owned by Edmund Jenings who served as governor of the colony from 1705 to 1710.
Although the main plantation house was not excavated, site 44YO1015 yielded evidence of several unique structures including one of best examples of an eighteenth-century tobacco barn in the region. Built into the 22 ft. by 60 ft. tobacco barn was a 12 ft. by 26 ft. addition that likely served as a platform for a tobacco prize (the machinery used to pack tobacco leaves into hogsheads). Two additional buildings were excavated near the tobacco barn, as well as a large trash pit associated with a later quarter occupied by enslaved Africans.