Hi.  Don't chah just hate it when historic folks, not yet dead, document
idiosyncratic behavior that probably isn't idiosyncratic at all???  On the
other hand, maybe that's why I choose historical archeology as a/the path
to one set of truths.

At 06:04 PM 10/16/2004, you wrote:
>Jim Gibbster wrote::
>>I can't imagine someone going through the trouble of digging a pit in a
>>cellar to discard trash
>
>
>I can - sorry Jim.  When I was a kid I used to vacation on a friends
>well-preserved mid-19th century farm not far from Lake George.  At the end
>of one summer's stay of several weeks my friend and I were given the chore
>of disposing of the latest batch of kitchen garbage that Ma & Pa did not
>want the animals getting into the garbage and they sent us off to bury it
>... in a hole in the middle of the dirt-floored woodshed.  In digging the
>hole we encountered at least two places (that I recall) where garbage from
>a few years previous had been interred.
>
>To look at that site from an archaeological perspective, should it have
>been abandoned and rotted away (with useful items taken out of course) or
>had it burned down (and metal and such recycled) then I would have to say I
>would have a difficult time distinguishing the woodshed site from a
>dwelling site - what with all the old furniture and dishes stored there,
>bottles of all sorts and ages stuck in between the studs, old pots and pans
>hanging in the rafters, and all but the kitchen sink up in the attic.
>
>Throw in a few sub-floor refuse-filled pits and I would be even more
>mightily confused.
>
>         Dan W.

Mr. Leslie C. "Skip" Stewart-Abernathy, Ph.D.
Arkansas Archeological Survey
P.O. Box 8706, Russellville, AR 72801
479 968-0381