Clandestine Pursuits

Abstract

This chapter focuses on intentionally hidden objects and their meaning for the individuals who hid them. The emphasis on objects illustrates the strength of archaeology to use the material record to connect to specific people in the past. Window panes with messages and/or names scratched in them are described and witch bottles and pierced and folded coins are discussed in the context of European traditions continued in the New World. Classic archaeological studies of ceramic pots, clay pipes, and caches of artifacts found on African American sites are presented as setting the standards for finding evidence of agency where agency was presumed not to exist. Archaeological evidence of agency is also found in remains relating to children, soldiers on military sites, and the homeless in modern cities.