Thanks Mary, I was about to remind everyone that rats sometimes create little hoards of interesting objects between walls and in burrows. Fortunately I read through all my e-mails first and saw that you had already done so. It should also be noted that rats are not the only ones that do this. While spending time in the wilderness a few years ago I witnessed a crane making repeated trips to an area at the edge of a small lake. While the crane was out, I inspected the location and found several objects for which the crane obviously had no use, a gold (colored) lipstick, a small mirror, some of those little metal disks they put behind nails when putting up tarpaper and other small assorted bits and pieces - all were shiny. My dog also has preferred spots in the yard where he hides things, and frequently things a dog would presumably have no use for. What fun we have trying to solve the puzzles presented to us by all manner of creatures living in the past.
Diane Dismukes
>>> "Mary C. Beaudry" <[log in to unmask]> 10/28/99 08:05AM >>>
Some "deposits" like Dan W. describes appear at close inspection to consist
of items like corn cobs etc. that rats have dragged into chimney cavities,
subfloor areas, etc., to gnaw on--we found lots of such items beneath the
floor boards and in chimney cavities at the Spencer-Peirce-Little House in
Newbury, MA, almost all with rodent tooth marks on them (items included
shoe leather, corn cobs, bone-handled cutlery, pipestems, etc.) I don't
know whether rats chew on glass but I have the feeling they'll drag just
about anything into their hidey-holes--we even found one a pair of girl's
black stockings (the kind you see them wearing in 19th-century photos) in
one of the many rodent burrows beneath the kitchen floor. All this said, I
have also seen many examples of ritual protection of houses or parts of
houses, among them a shoe incorporated into an ell foundation at one of the
Lowell boardinghouses.
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Mary C. Beaudry, Associate Professor
Department of Archaeology
Boston University
675 Commonwealth Avenue
Boston, MA 02215
tel. 617-353-3415
fax. 617-353-6800
email [log in to unmask]
http://www.bu.edu/archaeology/www/faculty/beaudry/beaudry.html
Field School:
http://www.bu.edu/archaeology/www/faculty/beaudry/fs_heb.html
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