Abstract
Abstract: In the summer of 1999 archaeological monitoring carried out in connection with a highway improvement project in Trenton, New Jersey, uncovered a stone-lined shaft—believed to be a privy—near the site of the Rosey Hill Mansion, a Federal-style dwelling that formerly stood on the banks of the Delaware River. The shaft was filled with over 11,000 artifacts, mostly dating from the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. This feature, informally dubbed "the Sartori pit," was filled with the household items of John B. Sartori, a prominent merchant in Trenton and Philadelphia, and the first United States consul to the Papal States in Rome. The contents of the shaft are described in detail, and many are indicative of the wealth and social sophistication of a family that occupied the upper stratum of Trenton society in the early federal period. It was concluded that these artifacts were part of a clearance assemblage, a single-episode deposit undertaken when the house was cleaned and prepared for a new tenant.
Published Version
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