The New York State Museum Cultural Resource Survey excavated a shaft feature (privy or cistern?) in up-state New York that was stuffed full of late-nineteenth to early-twentieth century household items interpreted as a house clear-out after the owner of the nearby house died. He was a Scottish immigrant who started a very successful soda water bottling business in the community and was well-off and well-respected.  Besides the typical bottles and broken ceramics there were also hundreds of identical white clay smoking pipes barely used, clothing, shoes, buttons, what looks like the contents of a shed or cellar workshop, a pantry, storage trunks, and medicine cabinet.  There was at least one person in the family who died of tuberculosis ca. 1902 and the shaft feature artifacts included lots of bottled lung cures and medicinal paraphernalia related to treating lung ailments (i.e. Charles Marchand Hand Atomizer and Ozonizer) along with glass syringes and drug vials.  

The site report is published as part of the CRSP series as Volume No. 5 available electronically on the New York State Museum website:

http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/staffpubs/docs/20471.pdf



Nancy Davis
New York State Museum
Cultural Resource Survey
Albany, New York

-----Original Message-----
From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Williams, Scott
Sent: Tuesday, April 07, 2015 12:37 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Privies and house abandonment/cleanout

We recently excavated a late 19th century privy that was packed-literally-with artifacts. What is curious to me is the range of the artifact types: besides the usual medicine bottles and broken bits of pottery were whole liquor bottles (some half full), twelve shoes of different sizes, at least one book, a metal pan, lots of metal cans, other household goods such as condiment and perfume containers, and mattress springs.  We're thinking the privy was filled after the house was vacated, either due to the death of the resident or their eviction.  The material doesn't look like it was deposited in the privy over a long period, as if the privy was abandoned and then the hole was used for trash disposal over time.

The privy is located in an area of packed glacial till, meaning that excavating the privy shaft would have taken some effort and filling it with trash while it was still in use seems counterintuitive (and assuming no one stuffs a mattress into a privy they are still using).  A nearby privy of the same age was more "typical", in that it was not packed full of artifacts and had a much more limited range of materials in it.

Has anyone seen examples of privies that appear to have been purposefully used for one large disposal event, such as clearing out a house that became suddenly vacant? My experience excavating privies is limited.

Thanks,

Scott S. Williams
Cultural Resources Program Manager, WSDOT
Ph: 360.570.6651
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WSDOT Cultural Resources Program<http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/Environment/CulRes/default.htm> on the Web

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