Privy at 52 Water Street: A Look at Some Trash from Lower Manhattan

As the cliché goes, one person’s trash is another person’s treasure. Archaeologists conducting excavations in the early 1980s at the 7 Hanover Square site in Lower Manhattan unearthed the remains of a partially disturbed privy pit located in the backyard of Lot 28 off Water Street. Within the privy, the crew uncovered a large deposit of charcoal intermixed with thousands of broken fragments from domestic life. These artifacts help to enlighten us about who lived on the site, what they owned, and eventually, what they discarded. While privies were traditionally where people went to do their biologically-necessary-business, often times they were simultaneously used as a place to discard of unwanted rubbish. The artifacts represented in this exhibit are just a small sampling of this large deposit which contained high quantities of both Chinese export porcelain and bottle glass, a contrast to the material recovered from the other deposits excavated on the site. Combined with the use of historical records which show that a mix of people of differing socioeconomic statuses inhabited the property during a short period of time, looking through the artifacts can give us a different impression of who resided on Lot 28.

Historical sources suggest that the privy deposit was likely capped by 1806 when a backyard shed was presumably built for one of the lot renters. During the initial interpretation, it was believed that the deposit accrued between 1790 and 1806, starting at the beginning of the tenure of a glazier that occupied the lot, due to the presence of 589 fragments of window glass which could have been refuse from his occupation. However, the mean ceramic dates suggest the strong likelihood that accumulation of the deposit occurred over a period of time and also indicate that deposition may have begun before 1790. This possibility is underscored by the fact that there were no crossmends between the bottom and top levels of the privy, and the mean ceramic dates for the material at the base of the privy were dated to approximately the year 1761, a full thirty years prior to the date given for the top level.

While we don’t know for certain who created this deposit due to the range of occupants during the possible years of deposition, or precisely when or why the material was discarded, we can still look at the artifacts and let our minds meander through the possibilities. Who did you belong to? Why are you broken? The unknown can be an annoyance, but sometimes it can be fun to wonder. Although ownership of this privy deposit is still up for debate, the artifacts recovered can provide clues for archaeologists with the status, wealth, and tastes of the people that lived here and help us hypothesize who they were. Take a look below at some of the objects from the privy and wonder for yourself.