Hi All,

There's a lot of behavior that can be gleaned from things as mundane as window glass. For example, instead of lumping window glass in with the bricks frags, nails etc. and "architectural refuse" how about classifying it in the lighting category along side chimney glass, etc.?> fenestration is likely corrrelated with the amounts of other lighting-related artifacts in household deposits.

Karl Rohnke pointed out that window glass could also be reclassified as a medicinal artifact, since bluish tints were thought to be thereputic during the "blue glass mania." Once it fell out of fashion some this blue glass ended up out west and sold cheap.

And then there's looking at post-abandonment processes, vandalism, rates of repair, window salvage prior to demolition.... I guess my point is that those big variables that make status-related statements using window glass so risky are exactly the kinds of things we should be looking at, rather than the classic dating formulas, etc...

my two cents,

Dave Moyer

--- On Wed, 5/11/11, Mark Branstner <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> From: Mark Branstner <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: Early 19th Century window glass
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Date: Wednesday, May 11, 2011, 3:58 PM
> Daniel,
> 
> I have absolutely nothing useful to add to this discussion,
> but the 
> general idea of quantifying window glass and correlating it
> with any 
> status measurement seems so fraught with unknown variables
> that I 
> can't imagine how it could possibly work, or even if it
> looked like 
> it did, how you could possibly verify your conclusions.
> 
> Respectfully,
> 
> Mark
> 
> 
> 
> 
> >These sites are all adjacent to one another along the
> same road, so
> >availability due to transport shouldn't have been a
> primary factor in
> >the amount of flat glass on each site. I suspect the
> most likely route
> >would have been overland via the Maysville Road and to
> the road via
> >river traffic on the Ohio, though some glass could have
> come via the
> >Kentucky River and Frankfort - there aren't many
> options for river
> >travel where the sites are located. Our first railroad,
> the Lexington
> >and Ohio, wasn't operational until 1833 and didn't
> actually go to Ohio.
> >It eventually found its way to Louisville but that
> wasn't until 1850 or
> >so and by then, my sites were pretty much abandoned.
> I've found
> >references for glass factories in Louisville, but they
> post-date site
> >abandonment as well. There were glass factories in
> mid-Ohio by the early
> >1800s, but I don't know if they produced flat glass -
> they seem mainly
> >to have been involved in bottles.
> >
> >Anybody ever compare CCI values to frequencies of
> window glass on
> >multiple historic sites?
> >
> >Daniel B. Davis
> >Archaeologist Coordinator
> >Kentucky Transportation Cabinet
> >Division of Environmental Analysis
> >200 Mero Street
> >Frankfort, KY 40622
> >(502) 564-7250
> >
> >-----Original Message-----
> >From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> On Behalf Of
> >Doms, Keith
> >Sent: Wednesday, May 11, 2011 4:30 PM
> >To: [log in to unmask]
> >Subject: Re: Early 19th Century window glass
> >
> >Cost is one factor.  Also it might be a measure of
> availability due to
> >ease of transportation Viz. Improving road networks,
> regular river boat
> >traffic, canals, and early railroads  
> >
> >KRD
> >
> >-----Original Message-----
> >From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> On Behalf Of
> >Davis, Daniel (KYTC)
> >Sent: Wednesday, May 11, 2011 3:40 PM
> >To: [log in to unmask]
> >Subject: Early 19th Century window glass
> >
> >Good afternoon!
> >
> >Can anyone direct me toward references for early 19th
> century window
> >glass in the eastern US - that aren't for dating the
> associated
> >structures? Specifically, I'm looking for information
> on price and
> >availability and operating under the assumption that
> more window glass
> >on a site for this time period will directly associate
> with a higher
> >socioeconomic status for the site's occupants. I've got
> 4 sites in
> >central Kentucky that date from around 1790 to 1840 and
> based on the
> >excavations to date, there is significant variance in
> the amount of
> >window glass from each site. I'm guessing the window
> glass types would
> >be blown plate, crown, or cylinder glass though I don't
> think there's a
> >good way to separate the types.
> >
> >
> >
> >Thanks,
> >
> >
> >
> >Daniel B. Davis
> >Archaeologist Coordinator
> >Kentucky Transportation Cabinet
> >Division of Environmental Analysis
> >200 Mero Street
> >Frankfort, KY 40622
> >(502) 564-7250
> 
> 
> -- 
> 
> Mark C. Branstner, RPA
> Historic Archaeologist
> 
> Illinois State Archaeological Survey
> Institute of Natural Resource Sustainability
> University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
> 209 Nuclear Physics Lab, MC-571
> 23 East Stadium Drive
> Champaign, IL 61820
> 
> Phone: 217.244.0892
> Fax: 217.244.7458
> Cell: 517.927.4556
> [log in to unmask]
> 
> "I hope that was an empty bottle, George! You can't afford
> to waste 
> good liquor. Not on your salary, not on an associate
> professor's 
> salary!" Elizabeth Taylor (1932-2011) as 'Martha' in 'Who's
> Afraid of 
> Virginia Woolf'
>