A series of stains in the soil left from a rectangular configuration of holes from long decayed structural wooden posts and a cellar that became a clay pit were uncovered near the southeastern bulwark. Earlier seasons of excavation indicated that these features comprised the remnants of a small post supported building and a clay quarry but recent digging determined that a long lightly constructed structure with a small cellar on the east stood within the palisaded James Fort. After the building went down or at least part of it, the cellar expanded apparently to acquire clay material for plastering (daubing)the walls of a building. These pits were probably used for mixing the daub as well, with the central shaft supplying ground water. In the central shaft we found the impressions of marsh grasses that would have been used to mix with the clay as a binder.

The most spectacular thing about the cellar/pit was the large number of artifacts found in the soil used to back fill it.. Over 44,000 objects were found in the sealed contexts of the pit. This material is the oldest extensive collection of English artifacts found in America. A complete Cabasset helmet (the first helmet found at Jamestown and only the fifth in Virginia) was found in the bottom of one of the sub pits. A large proportion of the artifacts found was military or industrial in nature.

The artifacts from Pit I also illustrate trade relations with the Powhatan people and early industrial trials at James Fort. Large amounts of scrap copper and scrap glass were found in Pit 1. The copper would have been for trade and the glass for the "trial of glasse" in 1608.