this area had constant problems with runoff - and they show you what the individual property owners in the 18th century had to do to make these lots suitable for building."

Funded by SunTrust Bank, which plans to erect a new building on the lot, the excavation also uncovered two previously unknown trash pits that could shed new light on the character and lifestyle of Wray's household.

Though a nearby dig in 2002 produced significant evidence regarding the nature of his extensive building trades complex - which supported the third largest household in Williamsburg - the fragments of wine bottles, ceramics, tobacco pipes and animal bones provide the first glimpse of the types of food and consumer goods that might have been found on the busy contractor's dining table.

Bits ofEnglish delftware and German salt-glazed stoneware show that Wray was a man of means as well as some social ambition. He also had a taste for wine, oysters and meat as well as Virginia tobacco.

"This leads us to believe that we're in the side yard of his dwelling - where most of the everyday household activity was taking place and the waste discarded," Kostro said.

"It's a typical domestic assemblage. We're not seeing many artifacts that indicate high status. But they are what you'd find in a well-appointed household."

The dig is scheduled to continue through the end of October, with most of the work focusing on the newly discovered 17th-century structure in the middle of the lot, Kostro said.

Interested observers can get a good view of the features from