Mary and Julia,
 
Hi, this is Linda Derry in Alabama.
 In response to your "Cleaning house" question:
 
I was just reading the abstracts for the Southeastern archaeological
conference (Nov '98) and noticed a paper by Mark Groover, Univesity of
Tennessee called "Linking Historic Artifact Assemblages to household Cycles:
An Example from the  Gibbs Site.   the abstract looks like the paper will be
right up your alley and Mark always gives a good paper so it will probably
be worth your time to contact him.  I don't have an email address for him
but maybe someone else on line will be able to contribute this
information?????
 
My  thought is that it seems that many sites seem to have a major house
cleaning when the Mother-in-law  "kicks the bucket."  Time for the new wife
to get rid of all that old stuff and exert her own personality in the house
hold.     I've also often wondered if a similar deposit might be found on
sites where families were pulling up roots and moving "out west."   ( I
mean, how much can you put in one of those covered wagons?)  Can't say that
I've seen this anywhere but I 've often wondered about it.
 
Also,  how about this:   At the very first SHA meeting I attended, way back
in 1975 or 76 (Philadelphia meeting).  I heard a great paper on this very
topic by Marley Brown  ( Mott farm)  - or at least that's how I remember it
anyway - my memory not so good any more.    I thought this was so
fascinating  and that was really the moment I decided historical archaeology
was for me.
 
And , hey, doesn't Deetz have some theory about the Georgian Mind set gone
global that produces this deposal pattern world-wide?