Mother Goose
Background
In Chapter 4 you learned about the importance of chronology to the archaeological study of the past. Archaeologists employ a number of relative and absolute dating methods to establish the chronological sequence of the site or artifacts that they are studying. Even in instances where absolute dates are known, techniques normally used for relative dating, such as seriation, can be employed to gain insight into exactly how things in the past changed. For example, archaeologists have used seriation techniques on 17th- and 19th-
century New England tombstones to produce charts with characteristic battleship curves. A careful reading of these charts has given archaeologists a significant amount of information about how these tombstone designs have peaked and declined in popularity over time (see pp. 113–14).
Your Project
Since the 1930s, it has been rumored that Mother
Goose, the supposedly fictional writer of many of our
best-loved nursery rhymes, was not only a real person,
but also that she is buried in Boston’s Granary Burial
Ground. Indeed, there exists a well-preserved 17th-
century tombstone in the burial ground decorated with
a winged skull pattern and inscribed with the name
Mary Goose (see image overleaf).
You have decided to investigate this burial ground and
the Mary Goose grave in particular. Although you know
that you cannot solve the Mother Goose riddle once
and for all, you do have many techniques at your
disposal to learn more about the burial.
To better understand how the Mary Goose burial fits in with the history of the publication of Mother Goose nursery rhymes, you need to get a sense of when the individual buried in the Granary Burial Ground lived and died. You know that the headstone records her death as occurring in 1690, however you wish to provide independent confirmation of this. The Boston Historical Society might even fund your research!
Write a short project proposal (no more than one paragraph) to the Boston Historical Society outlining how you could determine when Mary Goose died using the methods mentioned in your textbook. Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the available dating methods and make the case for the particular method that you think would work
best in this situation.
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