Rice University Archeological Project records

Collection

Identifier: UA 0270

Staff Only

Finding aid note: Stored onsite at the Woodson Research Center.

Scope and Contents

The artifacts that make up this collection are thought by a professional archaeologist to be residue from an early incinerator pit on the Rice University campus. Sixteen of the twenty-seven items are glass. There are small bottles, five of clear glass, one blue, one green, one vitrified green, one brown, and one aqua-green fragmented bottle neck. There are also an intact clear glass inkwell bottle with degraded metal lid and a cologne bottle embossed on the base “Prince Machabelli N.Y.” Also in the collection are two clear glass two-ounce droppers, a clear glass pipette, and a glass stopper.

The six ceramic items are a vitreous china sherd, part of a bowl or cup; a small porcelain sherd; a heavy ceramic sherd, a ceramic electrical insulator fragment; a small porcelain lid with ring-like handle; and a porcelain escutcheon.

Completing the collection are five metal objects: a rusted mule shoe, a rusted railroad nail, two triangular-shaped wedges attached by a metal chain (apparently used for construction), and an unidentifiable rusted piece, perhaps a drill.

Dates

Creation: 1997

Creator

Rice University (Organization)

Conditions Governing Access

This material is open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

Permission to publish material about the Rice University Archaeological Project, 1997, must be obtained from the Woodson Research Center, Fondren Library.

Biographical / Historical

The Rice University Archaeological Project, 1997 is a collection of twenty-seven labeled artifacts gathered at the building site when construction for the Baker Institute building was beginning. There are sixteen glass objects, six ceramic, and five metal. Records about the collection include a thorough descriptive report by a professional archaeological consultant, Anne Michelle Huebner, completed in March 1997. Drawing on a variety of technical resources, Huebner was able to assign probable dates and functions to the objects. Because some but not all showed evidence of having been in extreme heat, the conclusion of Huebner’s report is that the site where the objects were found appears to have been an incinerator pit. The items date from the first part of the twentieth century and were probably refuse, discarded by Rice University.

Extent

1 Linear Feet

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

The collection consists of twenty-seven objects found in August 1996 at a site on the Rice University campus that was being prepared for construction of the Baker Institute building. The conclusion of a professional archaeologist is that the items are residue from an early incinerator pit. There are sixteen glass items, six ceramic, and five metal ones.