Archaeology Collection - Pearlware Bowl

Preserved by a Privy

In 1749, Charles Morris laid out the original town plan for Halifax. His son and grandson carried on his legacy of surveying and cartography in the province. This early nineteenth-century pearlware bowl, which reflects a rather privileged economic status, comes from the area of the Morris business office in downtown Halifax.

Look at the bowl … it is virtually complete. Why? We likely have the nearby privy to thank. Once nineteenth-century privies had exhausted their original function, they sometimes served as middens for a variety of household items. And for various reasons – some of them far too obvious – these items are often well preserved.