Kiln Discovered at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello

News April 9, 2026

Archaeologists excavate the extant remains of a brick kiln on the Monticello East Lawn in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Crystal O'Connor and Fraser Neiman
SHARE:

ALBEMARLE COUNTY, VIRGINIA—CBS 19 News reports that an eighteenth-century kiln has been uncovered on the East Lawn of Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s estate in central Virginia. The kiln is thought to have been used to make bricks to expand the residence after Jefferson returned from Europe, where he served as the second United States Minister to France from 1785 to 1789. “It wasn’t recorded on any maps, or plats, or drawings, or letters, so archaeology was really the only way we were able to rediscover it,” said Crystal O’Connor, Monticello’s archaeological field research manager. For more on excavations at Monticello, go to "Close Quarters."

  • Features March/April 2026

    Pompeii's House of Dionysian Delights

    Vivid frescoes in an opulent dining room celebrate the wild rites of the wine god

    Read Article
    Frescoed panels in the House of the Thiasus portray a satyr (left) and a woman (right)
    Courtesy Archaeological Park of Pompeii
  • Features March/April 2026

    Return to Serpent Mountain

    Discovering the true origins of an enigmatic mile-long pattern in Peru’s coastal desert

    Read Article
    Courtesy J.L. Bongers
  • Features March/April 2026

    Himalayan High Art

    In a remote region of India, archaeologists trace 4,000 years of history through a vast collection of petroglyphs

    Read Article
    Matt Stirn
  • Features March/April 2026

    What Happened in Goyet Cave?

    New analysis of Neanderthal remains reveals surprisingly grim secrets

    Read Article
    The Third Cave, one of the galleries in a cave system in central Belgium known as the Goyet Caves
    IRSNB/RBINSL