Before indoor plumbing, privies or outhouses often served not only as toilets but also as garbage dumps, either through accidental loss or because material was thrown in when a privy was closed and moved, and the artifacts recovered from these pits can reveal when they were used, the wealth of their users, and even aspects of diet through bottles, porcelain, and animal and plant remains. Settlers used privies as small wooden structures with seats over deep holes in the ground, sometimes with separate seats for adults and children, usually set away from the main house, built in varying designs according to builder, location, and available materials, and often marked with cut symbols on the door such as a crescent moon for women and a star or sunburst for men. Another important farm outbuilding was the chicken coop, which gave chickens a protected place to eat, drink, sleep, and lay eggs, with perches, nesting boxes, feeders, floor covering such as straw or wood chips, doors for people and chickens, ventilation, insulation for winter, and a fenced adjacent area for roaming, hunting insects, and taking dust baths. The Dominique, a chicken breed originating in the United States during the Colonial Period, is considered America’s oldest breed of chicken and by the 19th century was widely popular for its meat, brown eggs, and feathers used as stuffing for pillows and mattresses.