refuse disposal patterns - nautical …nautarch.tamu.edu/class/313/artifactpatterns.pdf · refuse...
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REFUSE DISPOSAL PATTERNS
Brunswick Town, NC in the 1700’s
The ‘Brunswick Pattern’ refers to the tendency for entrances and exits of buildings to have concentrations of waste nearby.
The theory is that it was common to dispose of some types of secondary refuse (waste not created where it is disposed) by throwing out of the door to form –
Adjacent Secondary Refuse in close proximity to a structure, as opposed to -
Peripheral Secondary Rufuse which is located further away from living structures and have a higher bone ratio in the refuse.
IMPLEMENTATION
Some key things brought up
Refuse disposed of in the yard will not
remain forever untouched
It will likely accumulate in concentration over
time, but it will also be disturbed, scattered,
looted by people and animals, weather, etc…
LAW –LIKE GENERALIZATION
“On British-American sites of
the 18th century a concentrated
refuse deposit will be found at
the points of entrance and exit in
dwellings, shops, and military
fortifications.”
IMPLEMENTATION
This pattern was so firmly established that it points of entry and exit could be determined at archaeological sites where there was no indication of former structures.
This is a dangerous way to go about utilizing predictive models: stating a broad theory based on the evidence gathered from one site, and then instead of bolstering this theory with evidence from other sources, using the theory to create evidence.
IMPLEMENTATION
Paca House in MD: predictions were made based on the pattern, and excavation held them to be correct
Charles Towne, SC: the model was used to predict where the gateway was, and this was used to infer where the road was. This was not verified! They did not excavate! And yet it is presented as a successful implementation of this rule!!!
Fort Moultrie, SC: initial excavations revealed the moat to the fort (which is awesome), and a large midden concentration suggested the location of the gate Architectural plans were used to verify that it was indeed the location of the gate
BRDP DERIVED FROM EXCAVATIONS
Three Brunswick Excavations:
Nath Moore’s house (1958)
The Hepburn – Reonalds house
(1959)
Public House / Tailor Shop (1960)
THE HEPBURN – REONALDS HOUSE
The Brunswick pattern seems to hold for ceramics, but not other artifacts
Ceramic distribution was noted to be heavily concentrated around the NW
corner of the house at the end of the brick patio. There was also a dense
concentration around a sunken public entranceway on the street.
THE HEPBURN – REONALDS HOUSE
Nail distribution was similar to ceramics for the NW corner, but
not the sunken entranceway
A note is made concerning the distribution of nails as relating
to the architecture of the structure. One could not make
predictions about where nails might be deposited, as it will
vary from house to house.
Wine bottle and tobacco pipe fragments were found to be
relatively evenly distributed.
There were many more wine bottles atop the burned
fragments of the house, suggesting people tossed their
garbage on it after it burnt down
Other objects, like tailoring implements & bone were more
scarce and evenly distributed.
Bone was pretty rare, but this makes sense, as most
intelligent people don't throw food scraps right outside their
door
NATH MOORE'S FRONT
Ceramic distribution revealed a
concentration near the east of the back
door and at the south entrance
There is also a high concentration atop the
burned layer, of a style indicative of later on
There is also a concentration in the trench
extending to the street
The trench was likely an excellent place to
chunk ceramics
Wine bottle and pipe fragments are again
relatively uniform
PUBLIC HOUSE / TAILOR SHOP
This is a row style building built against the wall of the lot.
The heaviest concentration was just over the wall. Most of the garbage therefore was chucked over the wall into the adjacent lot.
Heavy concentrations were found in the southeast corner of the newer rooms, implying that waste had been discarded there before the construction of the eastern rooms.
This is the most useful use of this type of
quantitative analysis; using the concentrations and their time periods, the ceramic concentrations helped verify the supposition that the eastern most two rooms had been built as an addition after the other four.
PUBLIC HOUSE / TAILOR SHOP
There was also a heavy concentration at the
rear of the fourth room, along with some
cobble stones, suggesting an entrance.
Pin & bead concentration was very dense in
all but room 6, suggesting that room 6
might have been used to sell the items
tailored in the other rooms
The rest of the items were found to be in
highest concentration in the areas
consistent with the ceramics.
WHAT IS THE CAROLINA ARTIFACT PATTERN ?
.Basic Premise is:
“…each household in an 18th century British Coloinal
society represents a system within a much larger
system of complex variables, with the larger system
imposing on each household a degree of
uniformity…”pg. 86
The by-products from some of these activities can be seen
archaeologically in a patterned and predictable manner.
Not based on provenience within the site, it is based just on
the count of artifacts in selected groups found in a given site
or evern several sites within a region.
THE IDEA
British colonial behavior should reveal
regularities in patterning in the
archaeological record from these sites
Specialized behavioral activities should
reveal contrasting patterns
These patterns will be recognized through
quantification of the behavioral by-
products which form the archaeological
record.
SITES
British Colonial
ca. 1728- ca. 1830
North and South Carolina
Costal and inland sites
Domestic occupations
Military occupations
Domestic and specialized activities
TAILOR SHOP- PUBLIC HOUSE (S25)
BRUNSWICK TOWN
ca. 1732-1776
6 room row house, public house or inn prior to 1732.
Burned in 1776
Complete excavation -1960
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVffaEfd3
x0
2 ruins
Lower Queen’s
Battery
Structure 11
Slightly different
artifact classes
Minor
adjustments
Excavated 1965-
66 (Jelks)
TESTING THE CAROLINA PATTERN TO SIGNAL
HILL, NEW FOUNDLAND
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