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Health & Fitness

The Luyster House Site - Part III

           In this, the final installment of the Luyster House Archaeology series, I will discuss one of the most productive features uncovered at the site.  To clarify, a feature in archaeological terms is simply an artifact that cannot be removed from a site.  Approximately 40 features have been identified at the Luyster House site, including post molds, buried walkways, wells, fence posts, stone foundations and several trash pits.  It is one of the trash pits that gives us, perhaps, the best look at a period in time when life at the Luyster farmstead went through a significant, radical change.       

         Feature (10), located in Trench 1 is a large trash pit situated just east of the house.  This feature was uncovered during shovel testing (circular holes approximately 1.5-feet wide) along a transect oriented north/south located parallel to the east wall of the house.  An extremely dense deposit of ceramics and faunal remains were recovered from one of the shovel tests on this transect, all from one stratum approximately 3.0-feet deep.  Additional unit (five-foot squares) excavations showed the dimension of the trash pit to be approximately 12 feet long by eight to ten feet wide. 

       So concentrated were the deposits in two of the shovel tests that artifacts had to be picked out by hand, with literally no room for a shovel or trowel to fit.  This pattern held true for the upper strata in the larger square test units. Interestingly, the terminus of each unit was characterized by a scatter of large, dry-laid fragments of sandstone.   Clearly defined walls which cross-cut otherwise intact stratigraphy suggests that this pit was purposely dug, rather than just a deep swale expediently filled with household refuse.   

          The artifact assemblage from this feature was remarkable for several reasons.  First, many of the ceramics including bowls, plates, tea cups, and porringers appear to have been deposited whole, with breakage occurring through dumping and pressure from overlying deposits and surface activity.  Moreover, several distinct patterns were overwhelmingly represented in a variety of vessel forms - an indication that whole sets, or at least multiple specimens from the same set were discarded in a single episode.  One of the most unique artifacts recovered Feature 10 is a redware colander.  Nearly complete, it is shown in the photo after mending a total of 18 sherds.  The only parts missing are a section of the body and a piece of the handle.  While it is of Dutch form, its rather crude structure indicates possible local manufacture.  Originally, it was believed that a third foot was missing, however, further analysis of a distinct wear mark in the area of a potential third foot suggests that the piece was manufactured with only two feet, and was used for some time as it appears now.  Vessels such as these occur in 17th-century Dutch genre paintings, where they are depicted in kitchen scenes drying fish, mussels, meat and vegetables. 

          The faunal material recovered from Feature 10 appeared to be deposited en masse, but with no evidence of any articulated skeletal remains present.  In the Center unit/ Stratum A/ Level 3, four cow mandibles were unearthed lying side by side.  In close proximity were a variety of other whole or partial faunal remains including ribs, vertebrae, femurs, phalanges, and individual teeth from numerous differing species including, but not limited to horse, cow, dog, pig, fowl and rodent. 

         Among the small finds recovered from Feature 10 were a 1788 Connecticut state coin, and a tinder box.  The former was found at the base of the feature and was likely deposited when the feature was still in use during the occupation of Peter Luyster, the son of Johannes.  Interestingly, Peter was a successful egg farmer who did a significant amount of business with the state of Connecticut.  The latter consisted of a drum-shaped box that contained a flint, or strike-a-lite, and tinder, which was often charred linen or dry grass to catch the sparks when the flint was struck against a piece of iron.  The cover, which acted as a damper to extinguish the tinder, had a small handle, or sometimes a socket for a candle.  Tinder boxes were a staple in all facets of colonial life; commercial, domestic and military.  With the invention of the match in 1826, tinder boxes eventually fell out of use, with matches coming into general use by mid-century.  The possibility that this tinder box was discarded during the first half of the nineteenth century, falls within the time range of the predominant ceramic types of Trench 1, levels 3 and 4. 

         The date range of the trench deposit is still unclear, although levels 3 and 4 contain a disproportionate amount of pearlware, a type of ceramic manufactured between 1775 and 1840 and an early whiteware pattern with the maker's mark, " JACKSON WARRANTED STAFFORDSHIRE", which has been traced to English potters Jobe and John Jackson, who produced ceramics from 1831 to 1835.  These parameters suggest the time of deposition for levels 3 and 4 to be the first half of the nineteenth century; possibly before 1840.   

          The reason for this deposit is still unclear, but there are three possible scenarios.  One explanation could be a mass purging of all possible contaminated items during a time of severe epidemic.  During the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the concept of disease; its cause and cure was still a little understood, primitive exercise.  Devastating maladies such as smallpox, yellow fever, influenza, and scarlet fever among others, beset early Americans with such unannounced frequency, that desperate measures, were often taken to counter an impending epidemic.  Believing that many diseases were caused by such physical manifestations as miasmic vapors or sleeping in damp beds, early Americans often resorted to extreme modes of prevention aimed at phantom causal mechanisms.  Carrying a tarred rope, wearing garlic in one's shoes and shooting guns into the air to disperse the “deadly” miasmic vapors were just some of the methods that grew out of fear and ignorance during times of epidemic.  Therefore, the possibility that much of the ceramic and faunal deposit from Trench 1 was the result of a similar ill-advised attempt at removing contaminated objects from the hub of daily activity cannot be discounted. 

       Another scenario could be “housecleaning.”  This theory proposes that the feature was filled with undesirable or out-of-date items that were discarded when the property was transferred from one property owner to another, or possibly when a new wife was brought to the farm.
The third scenario may be termed, for lack of a better phrase, “emergence of a national culture.”  Simply put, this theory proposes that second and third generation settlers were no longer thinking of themselves as an extension of the European nation from where their ancestors hailed, but as Americans united under a common culture.
     
           Archaeological and documentary evidence points to the third scenario as the most plausible.  The time period of the main deposit coincides with the time when the first post-Revolution generation reached adulthood.  Evidence of the transition from a Dutch to an American identity can be found in the Luyster family bible, which contained handwritten entries chronicling family milestones (births, deaths, weddings, etc.) dating from 1688 until 1875.  Every entry from 1688 until 1805 was written in Dutch.  Entries beginning in the late 18th century began to be sporadically Anglicized (i.e. John instead of Johannes, December instead of Desember, etc.).  After 1835, every entry was written in English.  Also, many of the recovered ceramics contained English maker’s marks, showing a preference for non-Dutch goods. The renovation of the house itself during the mid 19th century, from a classic Dutch-design with a dual entryway, to a Georgian-style single, center entryway is further physical evidence of the acculturation of the Luyster family into the larger American society.

        The archaeological examination of the Luyster House site is a case study in the Americanization of a family who started out as proud Dutch immigrants and slowly, but steadily became immersed in the culture of the nascent United States.   While many of the vestiges of the parent culture remained with the Luysters for several generations, it was clear through the artifacts and features left behind, that they joined with other settlers to unite through commonality of language, support for the Patriot cause during the Revolutionary War, a desire for religious freedom, and the right to work and retain the fruits of their labors – while at the same time, becoming Americans.  

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