Bobby:
           One of our anthropology seniors a few years back did a senior
thesis on just this topic:

                 Katharine R. Welch  2002

                 THE HISTORY OF JOSEPH JOHNS AND AN EXAMINATION OF THE
POSSIBILITIES FOR
                 ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXCAVATIONS ON THE SITE OF HIS FORMER RESIDENCE

He was an African American "recluse" who lived in his own house (sort of
earth lodge) in Lebanon County, PA
(1850s - 1906). He was considered odd etc. A Boy Scout Troop with
Katharine's help was trying to explore the
house site and possibly rebuild it as a project.

I am trying to get her current email address so you can make contact with
her. I have a copy of her senior thesis but
do not have a clue where it is in my stratified office.

                                                                 Robert L.
Schuyler


At 09:32 AM 3/9/2005 +1100, you wrote:
>I'm a 4th year archaeology student at Sydney uni.  The research for my
>Honours thesis involves a site created by a psychologically damaged
>(highly likely paranoid schizophrenic)  Italian migrant who chose to
>live as a recluse on a steep, rocky hillside on the outskirts of
>Griffith, NSW, between the mid 1920s and 1942 (when he was temporarily
>interned as an enemy alien).  Taking advantage of natural features in
>the landscape and moving hundreds of tons of stone and earth, Valeri
>Ricetti single handedly created a complex of dwellings, terraced
>gardens, water cisterns, dry stone walling and linking bridges,
>stairways and paths that stretch across more than a kilometer of the
>hill side.
>My aim is to determine whether there was a visionary grand design
>underlying this large scale reshaping of the natural environment.  Where
>scant oral histories and government records allude to a homophobic,
>mentally deficient eccentric, I believe the archaeological record can
>demonstrate a vastly contrasting insight to this man's character and
>behaviour.
>I guess the context of my research will be based on landscape
>archaeology and the interpretation of what has been expressed through
>this particular landscape.  I was wondering if anyone knew of any
>similar or parallel studies.
>Regards, Bobby Caillard

Robert L. Schuyler
University of Pennsylvania Museum
3260 South Street
Philadelphia, PA l9l04-6324

Tel: (215) 898-6965
Fax: (215) 898-0657
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