Other times, archaeological deposits were disturbed by chance. In 1972, the Times-Picayune reported on artifacts collected by workers and museum curator Penfield Cowan during utility installation, both from a privy measuring 12 ft by 6 ft, discovered “beneath the stairwell of the garconniere”, and from other trenches, where heaps of mud were “laced with hundreds of bits of dishes, bottles, and the like” (Times-Picayune, “Workmen Dig Into N.O. Past; Madame John’s Legacy Yields Artifacts”, 9/29/1972). Some of these materials remain in the collection of the Louisiana State Museum, like this eighteenth century vessel, likely of southern French origin.