The deposit that I found was clearly not a rat's mother lode as we found
plenty more of them in subsiquent renovations. They tended to have mixed
and shredded wads of cloth, chewed up newspaper, insulation, hop blossom
petals, grass, and the occasional bauble.
The amount of material in the hoard that I mentioned, as well as the size
and placement of everything and the access to the place of deposit made it
clear that someone had placed it all there on purpose. Very little of it
was gnawed or degraded (several dozen corn cobs [ with the wooden hand
spike used to remove the kernels], some still rather prickly teasles, clean
tufts of wool, etc.) in any way and all the corset ribs were still in
association and the 3 dozen bottles of cough syrup still had their corks
and labels. The space which contained it was only about 6 inches across
but 2 feet deep and 6 feet high - pure junk and like no other rat or racoon
or crow treasure cave I've ever seen (as kids we had a pet raccoon and 3
pet crows who stole everything they could get their hands on; not to
mention the usual field rats who were quite adamant about sharing our
country abode all winter long.).
dan W.
At 09:30 AM 10/28/99 -0500, you wrote:
>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.
>
>^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
^^^
>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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