Daniel-

Years ago, as a field tech, I witnessed the excavation of a cavity in what had been a fairly informal stove platform in a later addition to an Irish workers' tenement associated with a paper mill in Saratoga County, N.Y. In the cavity was a plain, overturned flowerpot containing a sherd of transfer-printed whiteware, a large cut nail and a couple of other items of just plain rubbish (I no longer recall exactly what, but I can probably find out next week if anyone is interested). Knowing that the residents had mostly been Irish, I asked an Irish immigrant friend who is very knowledgeable about Irish customs whether it meant anything to her. She immediately answered that throughout the south and west of Ireland it was and sometimes still is a custom to bury something of the former home under the hearth of a new one. She said it didn't really matter what it was, as long as it was a piece of home.

What is the reference for this "volume of 4,000 folk beliefs"? 

Marty Pickands
New York State Museum

>>> [log in to unmask] 11/04/05 8:25 AM >>>
Sounds like a possible case of ritual concealment of objects, which was once
commonplace. The following link has some additional information on concealed
artifacts, and a check of any historic folk beliefs in a particular study
area may provide additional information on both types of artifacts concealed
and why the objects may have been hidden in the first place. In Kentucky,
for instance, we have a volume of some 4,000 folk beliefs that were
collected in the early 1900s. In this volume was listed the belief that a
piece of "Indian flint" placed in the chimney or hearth was thought to keep
hawks away from your chickens. Suddenly, I was able to make sense of several
points and bifaces found in chimneys over the years. We've identified a
possible witch bottle at one site and I'm currently looking for evidence of
additional concealed items at previously excavated sites. 

http://www.oldhouses.com.au/docs/ritual.html 

Daniel B. Davis
Archaeologist Coordinator
Kentucky Transportation Cabinet
Division of Environmental Analysis
200 Mero Street
Frankfort, KY 40622
(502) 564-7250

-----Original Message-----
From: George Myers [mailto:[log in to unmask]] 
Sent: Friday, November 04, 2005 2:00 AM
To: [log in to unmask] 
Subject: [WW Spam: medium] Fwd: marbles and jacks


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: George Myers <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Nov 4, 2005 1:59 AM
Subject: Re: marbles and jacks
To: [log in to unmask] 


I have a picture of artifacts found at the excavations of the
Augustine Heerman Dutch West Indies Warehouse in lower Manhattan, New
York City in the winter that if I recall correctly were from a basket
found in the excavations. In the bottom of the basket was a board that
might have been part of the marbles game to go with the three (3)
large shooters and fourteen (14) smaller clay marbles found along with
bones, a piece of Dutch tile corner some Dutch "chinoiserie" plate
fragment, fish bones, some hardware, etc., perhaps a purposeful "time
capsule" someone left. The block bounded by Whitehall (across from the
former induction center) Bridge, Pearl and sort of Broad St. has been
referred to as the "Broad Street Site". Augustine Heerman was an
ambassador from Maryland and an interesting house there near where his
domicile was is today, maybe (in 1950's magazine) with bricks all lain
on end, I once mentioned in this forum. He is credited sometimes with
introducing tobacco in then New Amsterdam, however the Virginia colony
runaways George Holmes and his indentured servant Thomas Hall are also
said to have been allowed in New Amsterdam because they could grow
tobacco.

At the block bounded by 9th and 10th Streets and Avenues B and C I
think, where "Batteries Not Included" was filmed by Steven Spielberg
et al a circa American Civil War "water control feature" was excavated
and a number of clay marbles were found in a stone lined feature (once
apparently under two tailors and adjacent to a "ship furniture shop"
(all not hull and decks apparently) and part of an early "tenement"
house, along with twelve (12) liberated chamber pots (assumed the
sewer line was then in) along with "abolitionist currency" coins that
reminded the populace to end slavery introduced into circulation as
one might perhaps "counterfeit" coins.

For all the marbles Alex,

George Myers