Every procurable object: a functional analysis of the Ross Factory archaeological collection.

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Established in 1848for accommodation of transported female convicts, the Ross Female Factory operated until early 1855, when the cessation of British penal transportation to Van Diemen s Land caused the closure of this rural place of confinement. From 1995 to 1999, the Ross Factory Archaeology Project comparatively examined material culture from three wards of the prison site. Stratigraphic and architectural data demonstrated that a total of 32 features and deposits could be related to the female-convict period of site occupation. This paper presents results of a functional analysis conducted on artefacts recovered from these Factory-period deposits. Based on studies of nineteenth-century sites in the American West, this specific methodology was adapted to examine the nature and relative frequency of functional types particularly relevant to an archaeology of confinement.