Sean:
Over the past decade I have tested or excavated at least a dozen rural cabin sites in 3-4 different locations throughout the Sierra Nevada foothills in northern California.  The sites date from the Gold Rush (1849-1852) through the 1870s.  Some cabins had stone walls or stone half-walls, while others were constructed entirely of timber.  

I have always tested their interiors with the idea of locating an earthen floor or some sign of an occupation surface, but have not (yet!) had the opportunity to find such a feature.  In fact, the floors of these structures have always been surprisingly devoid of artifacts, save for nails and other structural debris from roof or wall fall.  I have tried placing test units in corners, just inside the door, and even inside the bases of stone chimneys.  Instead, domestic artifact scatters associated with the cabin tend to be located directly outside the door, to either side of the door (mixed with ashes from cleaning out the stove), and around the well or other exterior features.  Larger quantities of debris are found scattered a short distance from the structure, often in one location just out of its viewshed (which makes sense).

From this patterning I have interpreted that these cabins probably had raised timber flooring or puncheon placed directly on the earthen interior (ie., lacking an earthen use surface), or, were simply not occupied long enough to create a visibly compacted floor-surface.  Since frontier settlement during the California gold rush was extremely transient, I've concluded that either scenario may be correct.  While it is very possible that these cabins were occupied intermittently by different persons, the total use period seemed to be less than 20-30 years in all cases.  So far, I have not been able to make any distinction between different occupants based on artifacts or feature modifications.     

I've observed similar artifact patterns at other frontier settlement sites tested in California and other western states.  For comparative purposes, I would be interested to know if you (or anyone) have been able to identify a "good" earthen cabin floor, via artifacts or soil character or both.  If so, what was the total length of structure use or occupation?  

Leslie R. Fryman
Jones & Stokes, 2600 V Street, Sacramento, CA  95818
(916) 737-3000
[log in to unmask] 


>>> [log in to unmask] 05/04/01 06:45AM >>>
Greetings,

I have had the opportunity to test a couple mid-nineteenth century cabin sites on Lake Superior.  One of these was apparently built and occupied for a couple years by a family (ca. 1847).  The cabin appears to have then been periodically occupied for a number of years by a variety of persons.  I was curious if anybody on the list, or otherwise, had dealt with similar transient use patterns in a frontier setting.  In a related question, has anybody worked with artifact patterning within structures with earthen floors or perhaps comparing those patterns with the pattern of deposition within cabins with floors.

Thanks in advance.

Sean Dunham
Commonwealth Cultural Resources Group, Inc.