One of the most distinctive feature types recovered during excavation of the Clampitt Site was the stockade trench. This feature consisted of a narrow trench which encircled the village and was presumably used in the construction of a wooden post stockade. The trench appeared just below the plow zone as a dark linear stain which varied between 50 and 90 cm in width. The stockade line was traced at intervals around the site using test trenches of one and two meter widths and block units (Figures 13a,13b,13c,13d). A total of 50 meters of the trench feature was exposed in this fashion. The complete stockade is estimated to have been 225 meters long and to have enclosed and area of 3,612 square meters.
At all exposed (i.e. excavated) intervals along its length, the stockade trench was mapped in plan and, in several places, completely excavated. The fill of the trench consisted of dark, organic soil which contained all of the typical debris found in the pit features. In several places, the stockade trench was found to contain dense clusters of pottery sherds that appeared to represent discrete episodes of disposal (see above and Plate 3 ).
In profile, the stockade trench appeared as a flat-bottomed basin that ranged in depth from 20 to 60 cm below the plow zone (roughly 50 to 8S centimeters below the surface). Excavation of the trench fill invariably revealed either a single line or (more rarely) a double line of post molds. At certain intervals, the stockade trench appeared to have been plowed almost completely away leaving only a single line of post molds. In Units D and E a second line of posts appeared to run just outside the edge of the trench (see Figure 25). This second line of apparently free-standing posts may reflect the rebuilding or repair of one section of the protective wall at this point.
The individual stockade posts ranged from about 10 to 30 cm in diameter and penetrated from 35 to 100 cm into the subsoil beneath the trench. The posts were spaced between 4.5 and 23.2 cm apart and occurred at a frequency of about five posts per meter of trench length. In trench segments where double rows of posts were defined, the lines were roughly parallel and varied between 10 and 35 cm apart. Using the estimated frequency of five posts per meter of trench, it has been estimated that the complete inner stockade wall at the Clampitt site incorporated about 1,125 posts (single line only).
Evidence of a second (i.e. outer) stockade was discovered during the 1992 field season. Test trenches placed along the southern periphery of the village exposed a combined twenty-six meters of a wide linear stain which appeared to parallel portions of the first (i.e. inner) stockade line (Figures 13a and 13b). One well-defined segment of this feature was uncovered in Trench 15 and designated Feature 51. Upon excavation, Feature 51 was found to consist of a basin-shaped trench which measured between 100 and 125 cm wide at the top (point of definition below plow zone) and 90 cm deep (below surface) (see Figure 26). Six shallow post molds were identified in the bottom of this feature and ranged from 10 to 20 cm in diameter and protruded between 10 and 25 cm into the subsoil beneath the feature (Figure 27).
Feature 51 was initially interpreted to be an unusually wide stockade trench which functioned solely as a support for the stockade wall. However, recent work at another fortified Oliver phase village site, the Cox's Woods site (12 Or 1), revealed a wide and shallow ditch feature which closely resembled Feature 51 at the Clampitt site. The primary ditch feature at the Cox's Woods site ran between two earthen embankments, measured about two meters across, and extended to about 50 cm below the surface at its lowest point (Redmond and McCullough 1993, Redmond 1994). This ditch contained post molds and was accompanied by a second (inner) ditch and as many as four additional lines of stockade posts. The overall similarities between this feature and Feature 51 at the Clampitt site suggest that the latter may have functioned as part of a similarly complex set of defensive walls and ditches which have been nearly destroyed by agricultural activities. Other late prehistoric, but poorly documented (Oliver phase?), village sites, which appear to have included earthen enclosure and ditch fortifications, are the Strawtown site (12 H 3) (McCullough 1991:53-54) and the Valeene site (Redmond and McCullough 1993: 13-14).
One, and possibly two, openings were recognized in the inner stockade wall. In Unit FF, at the southeast corner of the village, the stockade trench abruptly terminated. It reappeared about l.5 meters to the southwest in Unit EE. The two ends of the stockade trench were connected by a single line of post molds (without a trench) which began at the tip of the northeastern terminus of the trench and intersected the adjoining trench segment at a point about 2.0 meters west of the opening (see Figures 13b and 28). The offset ends of the inner stockade trench and the connecting post line created the impression of a deliberately constructed gate or door in the wall which had been closed sometime in the past by a wooden post screen. Careful excavation of the "doorway" itself, confirmed that no trench features had ever closed this opening. Stockade openings of similar construction (i.e. offset or overlapping ends) have been recorded for late prehistoric and early historic Iroquoian sites in the Northeast (Heidenreich 1971).
Evidence of a possible second opening was encountered at the northern edge
of the site. Excavation of the inner stockade near the edge of the terrace (i.e.
in Trenches 31 and 32) revealed a right angle turn in the line which appeared
to connect two offset segments of wall trench (Figure
13d). The connecting portion of the line consisted (once again) of a
single line of post molds. These post molds ran into the west wall of an extension
of Trench 31 and the line reappeared as a linear trench feature (Feature 74)
in Trench 32. A shortage of time prohibited the excavation of the area between
these trenches, thereby preventing the confirmation of a second opening in the
inner stockade.
