At 02:48 PM 9/27/97 -0500, you wrote:
>Back 35 years ago (that long, really!) Fontana published an interesting
>study of the nails from Johnny Ward's Ranch (Fontana and Greenleaf 1962).
>This subject was expanded in an article that appeared in one of the two
>Conference on Historic Site Archeology proceedings that were published as
>issues of Florida Anthropologist.
>
>Since then, has anyone attempted to quantify nail usage on historic sites?
>As I recall, Fontana showed a house plan to several carpenters and asked
>them to specify the nails. He compared these numbers with the nails from
>the Ward Ranch site.
>
>In trying to interpret the Bloomsbury Site in Delaware, we have quantified
>the nails in hopes of interpreting architectural details, but the only
>similar tabulation we can find is Fontana's!
>
>Has anyone done a similar tabulation during the years since?
>
>Ned Heite
>
>
Ned,
        You might want to look at:
 
Young, Amy
1994a   Nailing Down the Pattern.  _Tennessee Anthropologist_19(1):1-21
 
1994b   Spatial Patterning on a 19th Century Appalachian Houselot: Evidence
from Nail Analysis.  _Southeastern Archaeology_13(1):56-63
 
Young, Amy, and Philip J. Carr
1993            Building Middle Range Theory for Historical Archaeology with Nails.
        _Ohio Valley Historical Archaeology Proceedings from the Symposium on
Ohio Valley Urban and Historical Archaeology_, Volumes 7 and 8:1-8
 
Good Luck!
Blane
 
 
Blane H. Nansel, Cultural Resources Specialist
Office of the State Archaeologist
University of Iowa
Iowa City, Iowa  52242
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(319)335-1966