Linda,
Quite right...all of the bottles were broken, hence of no value to the people who put them into the pit. Whole, they would have had cash or barter value. They come from an oval pit measuring approximately 4.8 ft and 3.8 ft along its major and minor axes. Most of the material came from a thin stratum (.25 ft), with lesser quantities (mostly some glass sherds and nails) from an underlying stratum (aprx. 1.2 ft below cellar floor grade). The pit had near vertical sides. It was located near the southwest corner of the cellar. An adjoining pit was quite shallow and about one-foot square: it yielded a bottle base, a brass keg tap, and some bone.

The bottles are early 19th-century, occur as large sherds intermixed with some faunal remains, colorless glass vessel fragments, nails, and some bricks. The soil matrix in both pits appeared to have formed around the sherds and likely originated in the surrounding floor deposits. There is no clear evidence of a wood floor, but we did recover a fair number of badly rusted nails and it is possible that such a floor might have been removed during an early to mid-19th century renovation.

The cellar almost certainly was used to store and decant wine, and the filling of the pit must have occurred after the building was constructed and in use. Several correspondents have suggested an abandoned cooling or drainage pit (the underling sand is quite porous), and both are reasonable suggestions. Of course, neither explains why the trash wound up in the pits. One might argue that someone picked up broken wine bottles in the cellar and placed them in the hole to promote drainage and/or to clean up the mess, but what are faunal remains, two tumblers, and a glass dessert cup doing in the cellar?

As soon as I get the chance, I will bang out a brief piece for Maryland Archeology that I can then distribute more widely. The technical report is too unwieldy to conveniently share.

Jim


----- Original Message -----
From: Linda Derry
Sent: Monday, May 03, 2004 8:30 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Underhouse Archaeology

But Jim, didn't you say they were broken wine bottles?  So,  they were no
longer valuable.  

I found a similar feature in the back yard of Alabama's first statehouse.
Circa 1820.   We found it during some preliminary testing, so we don't know
a lot about the larger context, but I don't believe it was under a
structure.  It seems to have been located in the far back corner of the lot
against a fence.   It contained no ceramics or food remains, but many broken
wine bottles, one pharmaceutical bottle, one London mustard bottle, pieces
of a three ring whiskey decanter, a couple of broken tumblers.  In many of
the broken bottle bottoms, we found broken window glass, so I'm interpreting
it as a clean-up action after a party.  (perhaps they drank what was in the
many bottles, got a little rowdy and broke some windows in the statehouse?!)
We do have a historical reference that says the legislators passed a law
decreeing that there would be no more "parties of pleasure" in the
statehouse because too much furniture was being broken.  In my case,  Ron
May's idea about a builder's party could be another possible explanation.
Although, I have plenty of references for other famous parties having been
held on this lot.  

Cahawba in 1820 was a frontier capital and it was struggling to develop a
steady supply of food and other supplies to the site, so bottles were
probably valuable items here too. Residents often went hungry waiting for
the rivers to rise so the first steamboats could come up the Alabama river,
but when the boats arrived, everyone seemed to dine on champagne and
oysters. At Cahawaba, it seemed to be either feast or famine.  

I also suspect that this pit did begin life as cool storage for the wine or
cordials that were in the bottles originally.  Jim, what were the dimensions
and the form of your pits? (rectangular, square?)  How deep were they?

In Williamsburg behind the Peyton Randolph House, we found planting beds
neatly lined with glass, so we need to also consider the possibility that
these items could have been placed in these features for drainage.   

Please let me know what you finally conclude about your features.   


Linda Derry
Site Director
Old Cahawba Archaeological Site
719 Tremont Street
Selma, AL 36701-5446
334/875-2529
[log in to unmask]


> -----Original Message-----
> From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On  
> Behalf Of James Gibb
> Sent: Saturday, May 01, 2004 11:36 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Underhouse Archaeology
>  
>  
> Ron and Fellow HistArchers:
> Given the range of materials recovered and the number of what  
> would have been valuable bottles in the early 19th century,  
> an after work fling seems improbable. (But thank you for that  
> insight into your approach to project completion.) I think  
> that this pit was part of the legitimate or  
> illegitimate/clandestine functioning of the cellar. Grant Q.  
> suggested an abandoned cooling pit of some sort, and that  
> idea has some merit. We might also consider the possibility  
> that the pit was dug by one or more individuals with the  
> intention of hiding that which they preferred not to be  
> seen..evidence of clumsiness or theft. Jim Gibb Annapolis, MD  USA
>  
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Ron May
> Sent: Friday, April 30, 2004 8:55 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Underhouse Archaeology
>  
> Had the pit only contained wine bottles and the pit cut into  
> otherwise sterile soil, then a builder's pit seems  
> reasonable. But with other artifacts of different classes, it  
> just sounds like a dump. Perhaps it was a "builder's party"  
> associated with laying the foundation?
>  
> Ron May
> Legacy 106, Inc.
>