B.J. Long
 
A privy with artifacts dating to the early 1840s and associated with a Jewish
household was excavated in lower Manhattan a couple of years ago.  we have
just finished the analysis of the artifacts -- including the animals bones
and it appears that the household was indeed "keeping kosher".  the head of
household later became the grand rabbi at a near by synagogue.  a second
privy from the 1860s was associated with both Polish Jews and Italian
immigrants.  both are notable for the large quantities of fish recovered.
 
Another site, considerably more remote (than 19th-century new york city) was
written up in the journal Historical Archaeology -- in that case the site was
in rural Arkansas, and documentary research showed the head of household to
have been prominent in southern Jewish society before moving to Arkansas.
 However, the artifacts recovered there did not necessarily reflect Jewish
heritage.  For some reason I can not lay my hand on that citation just now,
but it will turn up shortly and I will send it on, unless someone else does
first --
 
claudia milne
  CUNY