Three 19th-century house sites in rural Ireland

Abstract

This report describes archaeological research at three house sites in rural Ireland. The anthropologically-based research began in 1994 with the goal of attempting to understand the material conditions of daily life in the 19th-century Irish countryside. The excavation results presented here were obtained from individual households in counties Roscommon, Sligo and Donegal, at sites dating from the early to mid-19th century. Two of the sites are known to have been abandoned as a result of forced eviction. Particular attention is paid to the ceramics found.     

The Don Steel Works and Saville Works: Charting the Growth of the Small Sheffi eld Steel Firm

Abstract

The rapid recent redevelopment of 'brownfi eld' sites in Sheffi eld has resulted in the large-scale demolition and clearance of industrial sites and the loss of important sources of information about the city's historic industries. The ongoing archaeological investigation of former steelmaking, cutlery and edge-tool sites is therefore essential to understanding the complexities of growth, development and diversity of these industries. This paper presents the results of the excavation of three types of Sheffi eld furnace found at the Don Steel Works and the Saville Works, two 19th–20th-century steel works on Savile Street. The works are notable as case studies of urban industrial development in a burgeoning and technologically advancing era in steel manufacture, and represent the early stages of the rapid mid-19th-century expansion of the Sheffi eld steel industry.     

‘To Clapham’s I go’: a mid to late 18th-century Cambridge coffeehouse assemblage

SUMMARY: The recovery of a large closely dated assemblage that can be unambiguously associated with a mid to late 18th-century Cambridge coffeehouse provides the first opportunity for a detailed consideration of material associated with these significant institutions. A cellar located off All Saints’ Passage in Cambridge, England, backfilled c. 1775–80, produced a substantial assemblage of over 500 objects; principally ceramics, but also including vessel glass, clay tobacco pipes, animal bone and other material. Marked items and assemblage composition allows this material to be unambiguously associated with Clapham’s Coffeehouse, run by William and Jane Clapham c. 1746/48–79. Relatively few archaeological assemblages related to these important 18th-century socioeconomic institutions have been recovered and the material associated with Clapham’s Coffeehouse possesses a distinctive ‘signature’, albeit one that is not necessarily generally applicable to other coffeehouses. There were a substantial number of ceramics associated with tea drinking. Coffee-drinking vessels were frequent but less common and there was relatively little evidence for chocolate drinking. A range of alcoholic drinks were also consumed and dining was common, with a particular emphasis on snacks, whilst smoking appears to have been uncommon. The assemblage is compared with other groups associated with coffeehouses, a series of groups from earlier inns in the vicinity and broadly contemporary domestic assemblages from Cambridge and inn groups from England. The archaeological evidence indicates that the materialities of coffeehouses were not significantly different to that of other establishments, such as inns, and challenges some currently held views of coffeehouses derived from documentary sources.     

Archaeological evidence of fish in the diet of the garrison at the Berry Head Forts,Brixham (Torbay) 1794–1817, with special reference to European hake Merluccius merluccius

Abstract

Post-excavation analysis of animal bones recovered from late 18th-/19th-century military refuse deposits within the Berry Head Forts (Torbay, Devon, UK) has provided evidence for the inclusion of fresh fish in the garrison’s diet. European hake was the principal fish in the food rations of the ordinary soldiers whilst more expensive fish, notably turbot, sole and John Dory, was only eaten in the officers’ messes. Reconstructed lengths of the hake in the archaeological assemblage formed a distribution pattern very different from that plotted from data on modern trawler-caught hake, showing how much post-industrial commercial fishing activity has profoundly altered the age/size structure of modern hake stocks.     

Fish and fishing in colonial New South Wales: new evidence from the Quadrant site in Sydney

Abstract

Excavations at the Quadrant site in Sydney uncovered remains of 19th-century working-class houses and industrial areas including a collection of fish remains. The spatial distribution of bones of northern hemisphere ling and salmonids across house lots suggests these fish were commonly eaten. Little previous research on fish remains from post-1788 Australian sites has been reported and the study has wider research significance to Australasian archaeozoology. Documents indicate that some 19th-century British settlers preferred fish imported from Europe to local species. This study provides new insights into diet, economy and class in early colonial Sydney.     

Percival,Vickers & Co. Ltd: The Archaeology of a 19th-Century Manchester Flint Glass Works

Abstract

The Percival, Vickers & Co. Ltd glass works was amongst the largest glass manufactories in Manchester, and formed one of a regionally significant group of 19th-century glass works in the Ancoats district of the city. All of these works have since been demolished, and the paucity of surviving physical and documentary evidence is in stark contrast to the former importance of the city's glass-making industry. The Percival, Vickers site was recently subjected to a detailed archaeological investigation ahead of redevelopment, providing a unique opportunity to study the buried remains of a 19th-century glass works. In particular, variation in the design of the furnaces provided evidence for the technological development of the later 19th century, which has not otherwise been documented. Additionally, some 110kg of glass fragments recovered from the site furnished important evidence for the composition of 19th-century glass, although the results are beyond the scope of the present paper, which focuses on the documented history, structural, and technological elements of the site.     

A group of early 20th-century naval victualling finds from Royal Clarence Yard,Gosport, Hampshire

Abstract

Archaeological excavation in 2007 on the site of a late 18th-century brewery and associated pump-house at Royal Clarence Yard, Gosport uncovered an assemblage of pottery within the backfill of the latter structure. This was one of a small number of Admiralty victualling yards responsible for the provisioning of ships and shore establishments of the Royal Navy at home and overseas. Analysis of the pottery and other finds, supplemented by documentary research, has provided an opportunity to study items distributed by the yard to the messes of ships of the Royal Navy in the early 20th century.     

Vermin Traps and Rabbit Warrens on Dartmoor

Abstract

This paper examines the siting and operation of stone-built vermin traps associated with rabbit warrens on Dartmoor. A total of 81 vermin traps have been identified from the stone-built funnel walls and at 18 sites the traps still remain in position at the convergence of the funnel. Evidence suggests that the traps are 18th-century or earlier in date and that they do not occur on 19th-century warrens when the use of guns and gin traps for the control of vermin was more usual.     

‘State of the art’ of British gunflint research,with special focus on the early gunflint workshop at Dun Eistean,Lewis

Abstract

Uncritical use of flawed literature has allowed a number of misunderstandings to affect gunflint terminology and typology, thereby preventing the establishment of a reliable chronology. With reference to the most recent research into the subject, this article discusses gunflint terminology and, on this basis, a gunflint typo-chronology is suggested. As most British gunflint assemblages known from the archaeological literature tend to be late, and most terminological/typological problems in general appear to relate to 16th/17th-century gunflints, the recently discovered early gunflint assemblage from Dun Eistean, Lewis, Western Isles, has been given special attention.     

The Birmingham Button Industry

Abstract

The city of Birmingham has been the birthplace of many industries and, somewhat surprisingly, one of the most important of these is the button industry, since this small but indispensable item appears to have been a major factor behind the increasing prosperity of 18th- and 19th-century Birmingham.     

Notes on the quantification of post-medieval pottery in the Low Countries

Abstract

The quantification of material culture can make a significant contribution to the answering of social and behavioural questions. However, especially in continental Europe, this aspect of pottery studies remains understudied. In the following article, a status quaestionis of the quantification of post-medieval ceramics in the Low Countries is given. The author hopes to stimulate methodological and theoretical debate by comparing several available methods, using an 18th-century deposit from the abbey at Clairefontaine, Belgium. In so doing, some important insights are obtained into the relative merits of different quantification systems, and recommendations are made for future work.     

On Carvings in Morse Ivory

Abstract

Recent excavations at Beverley Minster contribute significant new information relating to the development of the minster from the later pre-conquest period until the 12th century, as well as some technical detail relating to the 14th-century nave. This paper provides a brief overview of later 19th- to 20th-century considerations of the minster’s origins and development. Thereafter, the results of recent excavations are presented and the impact of these in re-shaping the history of the minster’s development is then considered within the wider context of the minster as a whole. More specifically, evidence is presented for the existence of an early pre-conquest cemetery, perhaps focused on a church of an alignment slightly different from that of the present. The implication of further burials pre-dating a 12th-century nave is also examined. Evidence relating to a large 12th-century aisled nave is also presented and discussion given to the impact this nave had on the rebuilding of the eastern parts of the church after 1188 as well as to the origin of the eastern elements that preceded these.     

A Clay Fireback at Hitchin,Hertforshire

Abstract

Two discoveries of pottery kilns at Brill, Buckinghamshire, during construction work in 1974 and 1975 are described. One, a fairly complete kiln, is dated to the early seventeenth century and two others to the latter half of that century. The last working Brill kiln of 19th-century date was also re-discovered. The longevity of the industry is briefly discussed and the products of the post-medieval phase described.     

Translocated Testudinidae: the earliest archaeological evidence for land tortoise in Britain

Abstract

This paper calls attention to the discovery of what is believed to be the earliest archaeological evidence for land tortoise in Britain. The specimen derived from a late 19th-century context at Stafford Castle and was associated with bones of cats and dogs, which may have been kept as pets by the castle's caretakers. The date accords with the historically attested rise in tortoise importation and with changes in attitudes towards pet animals.     

Varied visions: an iconographic reevaluation of Ramey Incised production and distribution in the American Bottom,Illinois

ABSTRACT

Ramey Incised ceramics, characterized by incised symbolic motifs, are often viewed as a hallmark of Stirling-phase Cahokia and the surrounding American Bottom region. However, few comprehensive analyses of the regional Ramey motif assemblage have been conducted. Here I evaluate spatial and temporal variation in Ramey Incised motifs across 16 sites in the American Bottom to improve understandings of Ramey Incised production and distribution. Stirling-phase motif data indicate that the Ramey Incised manufacturing process likely was not as centralized as previously proposed. A qualitative analysis of the regional motif assemblage uncovers variation that may reflect stylistic experimentation. Additionally, motif frequency distributions reveal potential site-specific thematic preferences. Both findings support the existence of local production within the region. Diachronic data suggest the collapse of the Ramey Incised tradition in the Moorehead phase, perhaps in response to sociopolitical and religious transitions occurring at Cahokia. Overall, Ramey Incised ceramics may have served as vehicles through which American Bottom Mississippians variably expressed their interpretations of and relationships to the cosmos.     

MANUSCRIPT XXXIV: ‘The feelings of friendship which We have always entertained’: Fragments of Tongan–Hawaiian Relations, 1880–8

ABSTRACT

After the Hawaiian Kingdom had played an important part as a model for Tonga's transition to a modern constitutional monarchy from the 1850s to 1870s, Tonga's government attempted to reconnect with Hawai‘i in the 1880s by suggesting a friendship treaty between the two kingdoms but then failed to follow through, despite Hawaiian enthusiasm for the project. Correspondence in the Hawai‘i State Archives, hitherto unacknowledged by historians, documents these late 19th-century fragments of Hawaiian–Tongan relations.     

Eighteenth-century Copenhagen viewed from a refuse dump

Abstract

The excavation of a town refuse dump in Copenhagen has recovered a remarkably rich and varied assemblage of artefacts including ceramics, glass, animal bones, feathers, textiles, gloves, woollen socks, silk stockings and shoes. They were deposited c. 1750–65, but include many objects dating from the early years of the 18th century. Because the deposits were waterlogged, various unusual types of organic evidence were preserved. This paper gives an introduction to the site and its material, and outlines some of its research potential.     

Context and spatial organization of the Clovis assemblage from the Topper site,South Carolina

Abstract

This paper reports results of a 40 sq m block excavation of the Clovis assemblage from the Topper site, South Carolina. Topper is one of only three buried, extensively excavated Clovis quarry-related sites in North America. The Clovis assemblage was recovered in a buried component distinct from overlying Archaic and Woodland components. The site geomorphology and formation processes and the horizontal distribution of the assemblage are used to identify a workshop floor with discrete knapping loci created by unique production and use goals. The excavated assemblage from Topper provides useful and important information in order to reinterpret the Clovis occupation of the Southeast. Moreover, spatial patterning from Topper shows Clovis people organized and structured onsite activities at quarry-related sites.     

Mid 17th- and 19th-century English wine bottles with seals in London’s archaeological collections

Abstract

This article details work which has, for the first time, delivered a comprehensive catalogue of 17th- and 19th-century dated English glass bottles with applied seals derived from archaeological excavations in London by MOLA (Museum of London Archaeology) and its predecessors. This text introduces the cataloguing methodology employed, reviews the historiography of bottle seal studies and summarizes the survey results. We consider, among other issues, the context and parallels behind individual seal designs, their chronologies, geographies of their movement and spaces of use in early Modern London.