Archaeologists finally found the remains of George Washington's boyhood home but didn't find the cherry tree and rusty hatchet, media said Thursday.
The site is located at Ferry Farm, just across the Rappahannock River from Fredericksburg, Va., about 80 km (50 miles) south of Washington.
The house measured about 16-meter(53 feet) by 11-meter (37 feet), with a central hallway and two rooms on each side of the hallway.
The archaeologists found two chimney bases and stone-lined cellars and root cellars. The cellars held a large number of artifacts including pieces of the house's ceilings and painted walls, fragments of 18th century pottery and other ceramics, glass shards, wig curlers and toothbrush handles made of bone.
They also recovered larger objects such as pieces of a tea set that probably belonged to George's mother, Mary Ball Washington.
"If George Washington did indeed chop down a cherry tree, as generations of Americans have believed, this is where it happened," said Philip Levy, associate professor of history at the University of South Florida.
The tale of Washington's chopping down the cherry tree with a hatchet and confessing to his father has never been proven as researchers didn't find a hatchet there.
Washington, born in 1732, was known to swim in the Rappahannock and to take the ferry to Fredericksburg and grew to adulthood at the Ferry Farm. But he spent less time there as he got older.
He eventually moved to his half-brother's estate at Little Hunting Creek, south of Alexandria, Va., later renamed Mount Vernon.
Source:Xinhua/Agencies
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