Greetings,

I would like to thank everybody who provided information to my question regarding frontier cabins.  I thought I would take the opportunity to expand on our results and observations concerning the cabin site we tested (preliminary results of our testing were also presented in the Winter 2000 issue of the SHA Newsletter, under Michigan)

Based on historical evidence, it appears that the cabin was built between 1847 and 1850.  We believe that it was occupied by a family for a year or two and abandoned.  It was then used, at least occasionally, throughout the remainder of the nineteenth century.  The cabin was repaired and refurbished around 1906 and subsequently used as a summer rental cottage.  A plank floor was built at this time, but we don't know if it replaced an earlier one.  The cabin did/does not have a cellar.

We tested 17.26 square meters on the site - 11.26 square meters on the inside and six square meters on the outside.  Over 1500 artifacts were recovered ranging in age from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day.  The most chronologically sensitive nineteenth century artifacts (e.g., ceramics and glass) were broken into two chronological categories - pre-1860 and post-1860.  Most of the pre-1860 assemblage was recovered from outside of the cabin and most of the post-1860 assemblage was found inside.  The pre-1860 assemblage was almost exclusively associated with two units situated to the right of the cabin door (as one faces out of the cabin).  These units also produced some of the highest artifact densities on the site.  This has been interpreted to reflect the cleaning of the cabin.  The high incidence of post-1860 artifacts inside the cabin may indicate that cleaning was a less important activity than before this date.  Artifact densities varied within the cabin with higher densities recovered from units adjoining the hearth.

Potentially related to the discussion of cabin cleanliness and use was the presence of a number of larger artifacts recovered from inside the cabin (nearly complete bottles and large portions of ceramic vessels).  Most of the large artifacts were recovered from arbitrary level 1 contexts (within 10 cm of the modern ground surface).  All of the chronologically diagnostic large artifacts are post-1860 artifacts and most are post-1870 in origin.  Thus, it appears likely that the larger artifacts were deposited after 1870.  Additionally, the size of the artifacts and the fact they were recovered at or near the surface suggests they were left where they lay.

The extant wooden plank floor was built during the circa 1906 rehabilitation.  This floor may have effectively sealed the mid- to late nineteenth century deposits beneath it (artifacts recovered inside the cabin were overwhelmingly nineteenth century in origin).  If the original cabin had an earthen floor, then regular cleaning (including sweeping the floor) would have led to the collection of refuse (artifacts) that was redeposited outside.  Later, without regular cleaning, larger refuse would have been left on the surface.  This pattern suggests the cabin was better maintained prior to 1860 and may support the transient use of the structure in the later nineteenth century.

Thanks again,

Sean Dunham
Commonwealth Cultural Resources Group, Inc.