hey. I tried earlier this year to email you but it didn't work? I am in your
T-Th 4-5:30 class. Intro. to Arch.
>From: Carol McDavid <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: Sub-Floor Pits/Root Cellars
>Date: Thu, 09 Oct 2003 09:55:32 -0700
>
>I suppose I will add my two pence worth now...
>
>It would seem to me that the point wouldn't be to use these pits to
>identify "ethnic markers", per se, but to examine whatever deposits there
>were, with an eye towards *multiple* functions/uses. If, from your study
>of other materials associated with the site (historical and oral historical
>data for example), you are pretty certain that the site was occupied by
>African Americans for all or part of its use life, it would seem to be
>important to keep any eye out for things of so-called "ritual" nature that
>might have been buried inside the pit/hole -- perhaps alongside, below,
>etc. other items that reflect other functions (like food storage). You
>might find nothing of this nature, obviously, but I am thinking of the
>materials that were found in Annapolis in a basement (sorry, I don't
>remember the citation offhand, I'm sure you know what I'm referring to) as
>well as some of the material that Patricia Samford identified as "shrines",
>that came from cellar contexts. Samford was particularly careful about
>close attention to very tight contexts in her analysis, and I think she
>makes some persuasive arguments for both the shrine idea and the use of
>contextual archaeology.
>
>In Houston, we had one of the oldest houses built in Houston, possibly
>built by Germans in the mid 1800's, but occupied for most of the last 125
>years by African American individuals, in a neighborhood known as
>"Freedmen's Town". A developer, who was building fancy townhouses on the
>site, donated the house to a "historical park" (don't get me started on the
>destruction of context or the whole preservation/gentrification/developer
>problem here!). When the house was lifted, there was a 10'x10' brick lined
>space located below a trap door in the house -- filled with dirt when we
>saw it. We begged for time to investigate this, for free, but our requests
>were denied. However, we do know (from an archaeologist who was allowed on
>the site for a couple of days before we found out about it, but who was not
>trained to identify African or African-American related materials) that
>about 50cm down in one corner of this pit there was a lens of burnt bone,
>shell, metal, and ash. Now we will never know, of course, what else might
>have been there, or indeed what this lens of burnt material might have
>indicated -- though from similar material found at other sites, by Ken
>Brown for example, it is very suggestive. We also think it's possible that
>the hole might have been used as part of the Freedom Train, because we know
>that Houston was a stop on the way to Mexico for some people. Now we just
>use the site as an example of what is being lost every day to the developer
>mentality around here.
>
>carol
>
>* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
>Carol McDavid, Ph.D.
>Co-Director, Yates Community Archaeology Project
>1638 Branard, Houston, Texas, 77006, USA
>(713) 523-2649
>[log in to unmask]
>www.webarchaeology.com
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: John McCarthy
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Sent: Thursday, October 09, 2003 5:45 AM
> Subject: Re: Sub-Floor Pits/Root Cellars
>
>
> Dan-
>
> Thanks for your note. I am begining to think that these may represent a
>Creolized practice with perhaps different functions by different groups.
>Figuring out the function then is the "nut to crack." These do not often
>have primary use-related deposits that would help in that regard.
>
> Take care,
> John
>
> "Daniel H. Weiskotten" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Has anyone ever heard these sub-floor pits called "grabbling holes"?
>Twice in recent months I've heard reference to these pits as "grabbling
>holes" but am unable to find any reference to them called such.
>
> I know, and the 'net confirms this, a grabbling hole as a eddy in a
>creek where you can find large catfish and either grab them with a hook or
>if they are big enough to get them with your hands.
>
> As for sub-floor pits or root cellars, I envision the diet and the
>economic status of the inhabitants being important in whether a site has
>these or not. Lower class marginal subsistence people more likely to have
>things they have grown themselves or foraged and being suitably stored
>under ground needing pits, while higher class (and yet not really very
>high) having a diet that consisted of foods that were better stored in
>other ways such as salting meats, barrels of flour, ...
>
> So, not necessarily enslaved or only African Americans, but economic.
>I think a lot of these sites we have called slave houses are simply very
>low class, including whites, blacks, Indians ...
>
> Catselwood, an 1817 plantation house in Chesterfield Co., VA, has
>(had) a relatively large (5 x 8 x 3 ft) wood-lined storage pit under the
>ball room, but we sure wouldn't liken it to the ones found at the sites of
>the outbuildings behind neighboring Magnolia Grange.
>
> Dan W.
>
>
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