Content-transfer-encoding: |
7bit |
Sender: |
|
Subject: |
|
From: |
|
Date: |
Wed, 26 Apr 2000 13:04:12 -0400 |
MIME-version: |
1.0 |
Content-type: |
text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" |
Reply-To: |
|
Parts/Attachments: |
|
|
Suzanne M. Spencer-Wood wrote:
>Was this a site for creating potash by burning trees? It was a very
>big product of the frontier, used in making glass and soap.
There is considerable literature on the potash or "pearl ash" trade on the
frontier, as Dr. Spencer-Wood notes. It was a first "cash crop" for a
homesteader clearing the woods. Here in Delaware we have archaeological
evidence of ash pits in farmyards, possibly associated with soap making. I
suspect that with analysis, many more ash-making operations would turn up
among the population of unidentified holes.
April is Maryland Archaeology Month!
____
__(____)_ Heite Consulting
/Baby the|_ Archaeologists and
_===__/1969 Land|| Historians
|___ Rover ___ || [log in to unmask]
O|| . \______/ . \_| 302-697-1789
____\_/________\_/___ fax 302-697-7758
Ned Heite RPA, Camden, DE
|
|
|