Good topic-

lots of activities using foodways artifacts occur in cemeteries....visit a 
modern one and look around.

foodways artifacts were used for meals and celebrations at grave side, also 
by grave diggers, also quite often to hold flowers- especially beverage 
bottles and mason jars. Note also that soils imported with flowers- flower 
pots also come from domestic sites and can include stray bits of household 
materials.  Same thing with grave filling which happens from time to time 
things sink.

In these cases the pieces will be smaller.

Generally grave sites are cleaned so most of the materials for disposal go 
to the edge of the cemetery. Same too with decorations pots etc....most 
older cemeteries find this deposition pattern creating a small raised area 
on the edge of the cemetery.....here you will find remnants of meat, and 
larger things.....lots of containers for flowers so its not all celebration 
meal related....

Conrad

-----Original Message----- 
From: Doms, Keith
Sent: Wednesday, October 19, 2011 10:01 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Foodways artifacts from churchyards?

There is an article by Andrew Stanzeski titled "Post-Mortuary Activities
at Cathedral Cemetery" in The Bulletin of the Archaeological Society of
Delaware #38 Fall 2001 in which he documents numerous artifacts
including glass wares and some ceramics from around burials c.1840-1925.
He interoperates them as post burial memorial deposits.

Keith

-----Original Message-----
From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
Megan E. Springate
Sent: Tuesday, October 18, 2011 8:23 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Foodways artifacts from churchyards?

Greetings,

I did some work in the past at the Wesleyan Chapel in Seneca Falls, New
York, site of the 1848 Women's Rights Convention. We recovered a
significant amount of foodways-related artifacts (food remains, ceramic
plates, etc.). Interestingly, the dishes we found generally were older,
as
though people didn't bring their best dishes to church.

I am curious if others who have excavated churchyards have found similar
deposits, particularly in the mid-nineteenth century (though I'd be
interested in other examples as well).

Regards,
Megan.

Megan E. Springate, RPA
Doctoral Student
Department of Anthropology
1111 Woods Hall
University of Maryland
College Park, MD 20742
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www.wiawakaproject.com