nephils
Newbie
Hi, I am new here...I've been lurking for a while but this is my first post.
I recently purchased a home and property in a semi-rural area. The house I bought from original owner and was built in 60's, but the property had been farmed prior to that and also has some woods. I have no knowledge of any houses being here between 1920 and 1967, but I don't know for sure and something could have been here earlier than that I guess. I've started researching and the general area has history of various usage (old wagon roads, indian trail, farming, etc.). One day I was walking towards the woods and saw a bottle just partly surfacing out of a very compacted area of ground. The bottle is embossed with a local bottling company name that I can't find any info on. After that, I started noticing bottle fragments pretty much everywhere I looked. I started digging an area between three trees, and found numerous bottles and other junk that I estimate to be about 1900's - 1930's.
I ended up buying a metal detector and get a signal almost anywhere in the 3 acre cleared areas, always pulling random metal items (barbed wire, horseshoe, railroad spikes, little carbon rods, etc,) as well as glass/brick/pottery shards, marbles, shoes, buttons, etc. throughout the whole yard, sometimes just below surface, other times a foot deep. Some areas are more full, for example right off the patio (30 ft from house) I found a massive amount of what seems like old construction material, lots of big nails, hinges, bolts, but also a lot of pane glass, bottle fragments, china, silverware, melted pieces of glass, etc., all of which seem to be from 30s and about 1.5 feet deep below a rust and coal ash layer, but spread out over at least a 3 foot area. In this area I also dug some kind of crumbly stony material that is about 6 inches deep and spreads across a 2 foot area, with other random things in same vicinity.
My questions are: Are there certain diagnostic clues as to what was here, or what happened, and basically why I'm finding stuff spread out over the whole 3 acre property (not even including the woods). Also, like items seem to be concentrated together, for example in one area I found a bunch of clam shells buried together, in another area a bunch of old zinc mason jar lids, buried together, in another seemed like a big pile of old nails together...
Also, when I'm digging throughout the yard, and I find glass fragments, say about 6 inches to a foot deep, should I keep digging deeper? It seems like in some spots I hit a layer of rocky, pebbly soil, then coal ash, then sand, then more rocky soil, but hard. I'm not sure how to gauge where to stop (depth-wise), or where to focus. I could literally dig a hole anywhere and there is something there. In some areas, the ash layer seems more shallow, and then I hit the rocky stuff.
I'm just trying to figure out a way to do this...because like I said, I could dig a few inches deep anywhere on the property and find something that doesn't belong.
Sorry for the rambling...just want to hear from some experienced diggers!
Thanks in advance!
I recently purchased a home and property in a semi-rural area. The house I bought from original owner and was built in 60's, but the property had been farmed prior to that and also has some woods. I have no knowledge of any houses being here between 1920 and 1967, but I don't know for sure and something could have been here earlier than that I guess. I've started researching and the general area has history of various usage (old wagon roads, indian trail, farming, etc.). One day I was walking towards the woods and saw a bottle just partly surfacing out of a very compacted area of ground. The bottle is embossed with a local bottling company name that I can't find any info on. After that, I started noticing bottle fragments pretty much everywhere I looked. I started digging an area between three trees, and found numerous bottles and other junk that I estimate to be about 1900's - 1930's.
I ended up buying a metal detector and get a signal almost anywhere in the 3 acre cleared areas, always pulling random metal items (barbed wire, horseshoe, railroad spikes, little carbon rods, etc,) as well as glass/brick/pottery shards, marbles, shoes, buttons, etc. throughout the whole yard, sometimes just below surface, other times a foot deep. Some areas are more full, for example right off the patio (30 ft from house) I found a massive amount of what seems like old construction material, lots of big nails, hinges, bolts, but also a lot of pane glass, bottle fragments, china, silverware, melted pieces of glass, etc., all of which seem to be from 30s and about 1.5 feet deep below a rust and coal ash layer, but spread out over at least a 3 foot area. In this area I also dug some kind of crumbly stony material that is about 6 inches deep and spreads across a 2 foot area, with other random things in same vicinity.
My questions are: Are there certain diagnostic clues as to what was here, or what happened, and basically why I'm finding stuff spread out over the whole 3 acre property (not even including the woods). Also, like items seem to be concentrated together, for example in one area I found a bunch of clam shells buried together, in another area a bunch of old zinc mason jar lids, buried together, in another seemed like a big pile of old nails together...
Also, when I'm digging throughout the yard, and I find glass fragments, say about 6 inches to a foot deep, should I keep digging deeper? It seems like in some spots I hit a layer of rocky, pebbly soil, then coal ash, then sand, then more rocky soil, but hard. I'm not sure how to gauge where to stop (depth-wise), or where to focus. I could literally dig a hole anywhere and there is something there. In some areas, the ash layer seems more shallow, and then I hit the rocky stuff.
I'm just trying to figure out a way to do this...because like I said, I could dig a few inches deep anywhere on the property and find something that doesn't belong.
Sorry for the rambling...just want to hear from some experienced diggers!
Thanks in advance!
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