If You Can’t Take The Heat: Archaeology Of A 1760s-1800 New Jersey Out Kitchen

Summary

This is a paper/report submission presented at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Once ubiquitous, out kitchens were set apart from dwellings to keep cooking fires away from the house during summer months. This separation ensured that uncontrolled fires did not spread to a family’s home. Out kitchens were places where people cooked -often women, clothing was cleaned, tended and mended, and quarter was given to apprentices and free and enslaved laborers. Archaeology at the Manalapan Village House Site in New Jersey offered an opportunity to examine a 1760s-1800 kitchen that was destroyed by fire. Archaeology of crawlspace contents provides insight into structure size, layout, activities and consumer behavior at the moment the blaze grew out of control. This snap-shot in time reveals unrecorded aspects of life for one central New Jersey farming family at the turn of the nineteenth century, broader patterns of regional consumer behavior, and ties between central New Jersey and Delaware Valley cultural traditions.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• 2020 SHA General Sessions   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2020

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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 494