I am interested in more detail on this 'break date' of eight years. On what
basis was this assigned? Do you have references that you can share? We have
recently had this same discussion involving the use of mean ceramic dates.

Julie L. Brodeur
Lab Technician/Research Department
Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center
860.396.6951    [log in to unmask]


        -----Original Message-----
        From:   Ron May [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
        Sent:   Friday, March 02, 2001 1:51 AM
        To:     [log in to unmask]
        Subject:        Re: dates; was: 2nd Hand Ceramics, was Privies

        In a message dated 3/1/01 4:36:05 AM Pacific Standard Time,
[log in to unmask]
        writes:

        << I've always felt that mean ceramic dates were one of the more
perversely
         silly methods of quantification to have grown out of the New
         Archaeology.  Surely it only tells you what combining a decent
knowledge
         of stratigraphy and ceramic manufacture dates would let you know
anyway?
          >>

        Several archaeologists have proposed a break date of eight years
following
        maker's marks as a method of dating ceramics. I applied this to
marker's
        marks on whiteware ceramics at the Roeslein Homestead, CA-SDI-316,
and
        compared the results against glass, square nails, and a few other
classes of
        artifacts. We knew the house was built in the mid 1880s, based on
99% square
        (or cut to the purists) nails. Glass containers dated to about 1890
to 1920.
        The marked ceramics fell in the mid 1880s to 1910. The historical
information
        places William Roeslein as homesteading the land in 1895 and selling
to in
        1917, where upon the buyer demolished the house and used the water
rights in
        a water district. In this instance, adding 8 years to the maker's
marks
        worked out pretty well.

        Ron May
        Legacy 106, Inc.