Perhaps this has already been resolved, but I wonder whether the recent
discussion of Ned Heite's soap-making pit--with associated hogs' heads
and trotters--might shed some light on the puzzling dearth of pig bones
in Williamsburg (and other 17th and early 18th century Tidewater) trash.
 
As I've heard it described, the faunal evidence for early English
foodways is heavily/preponderantly weighted in favor of beef.  Yet the
written record (and place names like that of Jamestown's Hog Island)
suggest pork was by far the most common meat.
 
Might the relative absence of pig bones in such trash be related to soap
manufacturing activities?  Would pig bones--either before or after
cooking--somehow be reserved for future soap-making activites?  In other
words, did pig bones usually end up in pots of lye instead of in the
ground?
 
Brian Siegel