A turn-of-the-century privy we excavated in south-central Minnesota last   year contained a fill episode near the top we associated with a final   'house cleaning'.  Research indicated that after the man of the house was   killed in a farming accident, his young wife and children left the farm   to go live in town.  The farm was vacant for a while after that.  These   'house cleaning' deposits in the privy were much more fragmentary and   concentrated than the rest of the fill.  The privy probably needed to be   closed up because the farm was to be vacant, so they used it as a trash   pit to clear out items from the house that the young wife no longer   wanted or needed.
 
Holly P. Halverson
Archaeologist
BRW, Inc.
Minneapolis, MN
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