In response to James Harcourt's questions about privies:
 
I've excavated a few in my career and don't know if what I did was anything
approaching innovative or new. Bisect the thing, excavate stratigraphically, and
get out of there. The up-side of privies is that there's lots of data in a small
space; the downside is that there are often umpti-jillion artifacts. In one
case, at least, I felt I was able to get a substantial amount of information
from excavating just a quarter of one privy.
 
I did try some sampling with limited success. In one project, I put shovel tests
down in a systematic pattern (every ten feet) and succeeded in hitting four of
seven privies. In retrospect, I might have done one every 5 feet, at least in
the areas I suspected the privies. The shovel tests were about a foot in
diameter. You can get some vague notions of artifact density and stratigraphy
(but only in a gross sense) with a shovel test, and the depth you can go has
some limitations as well: about 3-1/2 feet was about the extent. The time spent
doing this could be arguably not worth the while, but it does limit disturbance.
 
If you don't have a lot of rocks in your deposits (like I did), you could try a
coring device of some sort.
 
I would only try these sorts of sampling if you're trying to find the privies,
not if you mean to do any kind of meaningful interpretation of what's in them.
If you can, you should probably try to excavate the entire thing.
 
In terms of information, besides diet, there's the usual good info on diseases,
parasites, and that sort of thing.
 
And of course, you realize that privies tell a lot about what people were doing
that they weren't supposed to be doing. A great example is the huge number of
vanilla extract bottles found in some privies on the Nez Perce reservation from
the Prohibition era. I bet you find your share of liquor bottles and tobacco
smoking remnants in your privies.
 
On ways to protect yourselves: I excavated a 1860's hospital trash pit back in
about 1983 or so, and spent some time researching what the excavators had to do
to protect themselves. I couldn't get any answers except to keep the area well
ventilated. No one even suggested rubber gloves. There was some concern about
tuberculosis hanging around in the soil that long, but no doctor or nurse I
talked to thought anything else would survive. You might try clean overalls for
the crew each day.
 
Contact me off-line if you want some specific references to reports. My privies
have dated to the early twentieth century. (Sorry, no schools...)
 
Cathy Spude
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______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Privies
Author:  "James P. Harcourt" <[log in to unmask]> at NP--INTERNET
Date:    8/8/97 4:26 PM
 
 
I have been asked to post the following query.  Answers not of
general interest can be directed to [log in to unmask] or
I can forward them from [log in to unmask]
 
Thank you,
 
James Harcourt
 
We are presently looking at a series of privies on a rural school site
dating from 1870 through 1920.
 
Other than treating it as a traditional feature and in compliance with
OSHA regulations, has anyone developed innovative or specialized
methods to excavate a privy?
 
Assuming that the collected material is from a community using the
privy for some duration prior to a final filing, what can flotation
and specialized studies contribute to the study of a late historic
school?  Is the data too generalized to go beyond an obvious
reconstruction of diet?
 
Since we are presently working within the limitations of a Phase II
investigation, have sampling procedures been used successfully in the
past to either set research priorities for the privies or to determine
their contents prior to a full excavation?
 
What are the disease dangers involved in such excavations.  Are
inoculations for  diseases necessary or will gloves and a
respirator be sufficient?
 
Thank You in Advance,
 
James