The book Dr. Schuyler is referring to is "Pillars on the Levee:
Archaeological Investigations at Ashland-Belle Helene Plantation, Geismar,
Ascension Parish, Louisiana," 1989, Midwestern Archaeological Research
Center, Illinois State University, Normal, Illinois.  Chuck Orser is the
principal investigator, but I am the author.  We had oral history evidence
of a Sicilian-American occupation, c. 1900-1930, on the plantation we were
investigating, but the most probable Sicilian quarters site was
unavailable, as subdivision of the property had severed it from the 1988-89
A-BH property.  The quarters we surveyed were most probably
African-American (from both material culture and historical maps), though
there was some evidence of exchange with the Sicilians living nearby, as a
crucifix, identified as Sicilian by a Sicilian-American descendant of an
inhabitant of the general area, was found in one of our test units.  Our
best interpretation was that the crucifix was acquired by an
African-American inhabitant of the quarters we worked with, removing it
from its primary context.  Yet, this could be questioned--crucifixes are
common enough in Louisiana, and generic enough to be used by
African-American, Sicilian-American, French-American Catholics, etc.
Intriguing, but not conclusive.

Copies of "Pillars on the Levee" should be available in xerox from the
Louisiana SHPO, which is the Dept. of Culture, Recreation and Tourism in
Baton Rouge.  I don't have the proper address (from 1989!) to hand, but
will post it here if I can find it.  Another excavation was conducted on
the same site by a CRM firm in the early 1990s, as the quarters and
sugar-mill area of the property were taken for a chemical plant.  I'm still
waiting to see a copy of that series of reports--I don't know if they
covered the Sicilian quarters area(s), or not.




At 03:37 PM 8/18/99 -0400, you wrote:
>I think Julia Costello did some Italian-American sites in California (bake
>ovens in the backyards) (??). Also is it the Orser book on tenant farmers
>in which the non-African American site occupants are Italian American (?).
>O'well, that's what happens to the old memory after you pass the 50th
>birthday.
>
>This is an interesting question and I suspect there is a fair amount of
>material out there (archaeology). Can anyone else help Bob Fitts?
>
>                                Robert L. Schuyler
>
>PS. Jim Deetz is Italian American but am not sure if he has been excavated
>yet (?).
>