There is an really old report you might want to dig up by Marley Brown
(perhaps his dissertation). I think I heard him report on it at a 1975 SHA
meeting and remember thinking, it was a brilliant report.  It was about Mott
Farm.  As I remember, and it was a very long time ago, they found these type
of deposits related to the  death of a mother-in-law!  Daughter-in-law
finally gets to throw out the old woman's stuff  and pull out her own china
as she takes over the household.    (Marley, if you are out there and I am
not doing your work justice - sorry). 

Anyway, even if I have the story wrong, you might ( like Jay suggests) try
getting a handle on lifecycle data on the nearby household to see if there
is a correlation.  I have seen this same phenomena on other sites.

Linda Derry

-----Original Message-----
From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Jay and
Beth Stottman
Sent: Thursday, July 22, 2010 5:22 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Questions about residential deposit

Perhaps it was a house cleaning episode associated with a change in 
occupancy.  I have seen such deposits (mostly with privies) where large 
amounts of household debris, such as sets of dishes, glassware, etc. were 
dumped when a change occurred in the function of the property (from 
residential to commercial) or in occupants (a long term resident moves and 
downsizes).  The deposits coincided with documented changes in occupancy 
found in the archival record.

Jay

M. Jay Stottman
Staff Archaeologist
Kentucky Archaeological Survey
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "John M. Foster, RPA" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, July 22, 2010 2:51 PM
Subject: Questions about residential deposit


We have recently excavated a tightly dated deposit (1890s) of residential
artifacts. The majority of the deposit appears to be ceramics from at least
four British makers. Other items include pressed glass, glass candy dish,
perfume caddy, horse shoe (one), one French toothbrush, one large comb, 
couple
of decomposed cans of indeterminate size, pickle jar, several Prosser 
buttons,
condiment bottle, sets of glass stemware, window glass, and one ceramic doll

or
figurine face. There was no cutlery, cooking ware, tools, and very little
bone.

Based on weathering of broken edges, it appears that the items were broken
elsewhere, as opposed to fresh fractures from excavation, and then deposited

in
a prepared pit (3 x 3 x 2 feet). Only one whole bottle was recovered. All 
the
ceramics were broken and appear to be from several sets of plain white
earthenware dishes. The artifacts appear to be average or slightly above in
cost. We are investigating the possibility that the artifacts may have 
resulted
from a single episode of deposition. The question is what might have 
occasioned
mass destruction of a collection of dining ware? We are investigating
earthquakes which are well-known for the area but would be interested in 
other
possibilities, which brings us to this list. Any comments or suggestions 
would
be appreciated.

John M. Foster, RPA Greenwood-Associates.com 310.454.3091 tel/fax 
310.717.5048
cell