Tens of thousands of lead shot, which would have been used in muskets, pistols, and other firearms have been recovered from Jamestown. The shot ranges in size from tiny dust shot (0.04″) to larger musket balls (0.58″-0.79″). While most of our shot are typical round balls, some interesting variations have also been found. Some of these variations are also seen on English Civil War battlefields including dumbbell, cylindrical or slug, wired, and spiked. There are many examples where larger musket balls have been cut into halves, quarters, or more commonly, eighths.
While the overwhelming majority of shot is made of lead, a few pewter shot have been found. Though not a common occurrence, pewter shot shows up on many sites throughout various time periods. Pewter objects found at Jamestown tend to have a more evident corrosion crust and break up more, which can be a visual cue when cataloging.
Much of the lead shot in the collection shows evidence of being cast. Different types of casts were used in the 17th century, including bullet molds and gang molds, both of which were brought to Virginia by the colonists in order to make shot on site. Though there are over 100 bullet molds in the collection, no gang molds have been recovered thus far, despite clear evidence that suggests much of the shot was cast using that method. Thousands of fragments of shot still attached to lines of sprue have been found, as well as thousands of lines of sprue that have had their shot clipped off. However, the smallest shot recovered by archaeologists was likely produced at Jamestown by dripping lead through melting pan strainers, evidenced by the discovery of lead drips and lead waste from the pan strainers.
One interesting thing to note is that there does not seem to be a short supply of lead in the colony. Between waste material from shot production as detailed above and items like lead seals, there was a huge amount of material that would typically be recycled. Because archaeologists still find these items intact, it is clear that not all of the extra lead on site was melted down suggesting that they were not lacking in lead for shot production.
Also interesting to note is that while impacted or fired shot have been recovered in droves from the site, much of the lead shot at Jamestown appears to be unused. Further work on the collection will allow for a more detailed analysis of the lead shot to determine if this statement holds true. Due to the pervasive nature of lead shot throughout time, context information is vitally important when considering potential analyses involving these artifacts. Future studies could include analyzing the distribution of lead shot across the site, sourcing the lead using elemental analysis tools, and ballistics studies.
