Colonial Trash Sift

[Scrappy]

Between all the glory finds is hard work and learning. This is my first attempt at sifting a known pit so it's A lot of uphill work. Here's the spot with the marker I left two months ago!

The story behind this is about two months ago I dug about a dozen buttons and a seated quarter. Lots of iron and some pontiled bottles in some dug dirt. So I returned with some advise from Brad and Company.

All the button signals were masked, as well as much of the other non-ferrous finds.

I found a lot of hand blown glass and clam shells. On Eastern Long Island as well as many other places, shellfish was a major (fresh) food source of colonists. One of the earlier items I was very excited to dig was the mold poured spoon handle made of pewter.

Found a good amount of iron too. A great early hand wrought axe head, some buckles, and lots of nails.

They can't all be winners but it was great getting out. I'll continue to dig the pit but I suspect it was disturbed many years ago when the house was razed. Enjoy

 

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[OutdoorAdv]

Awesome job man! That's a very promising assortment of artifacts. What were the dimensions of the area you excavated and how deep did it go before the iron was out?

Keep at it... the crazy thing is a section two feet over can have a pocket of keepers. Most of my sifting days look like this one, but I've had a few sections where buttons, coins and relics just pour out of a small area... it's the most fun ever when that happens. We'll get into it in Oct with my sifter and maybe bend the learning curve a bit. My learning curve was backbreaking which included building three different designed sifters to improve efficiency.

I can't wait to see what else you pull outta that pit. If you want those 3 iron buckle frames tumbled and that axe head zapped, I know a guy!

 

[1320]

Subscribed! That to me would be the hunt of a lifetime.

 

[Scrappy]

Awesome job man! That's a very promising assortment of artifacts. What were the dimensions of the area you excavated and how deep did it go before the iron was out?

Keep at it... the crazy thing is a section two feet over can have a pocket of keepers. Most of my sifting days look like this one, but I've had a few sections where buttons, coins and relics just pour out of a small area... it's the most fun ever when that happens. We'll get into it in Oct with my sifter and maybe bend the learning curve a bit. My learning curve was backbreaking which included building three different designed sifters to improve efficiency.

I can't wait to see what else you pull outta that pit. If you want those 3 iron buckle frames tumbled and that axe head zapped, I know a guy!

Thx Brad. I did (3) 2X4' sections and the depth was a little over a foot. Funny thing was the sand I was digging in was grey in the trash layers and golden below, so I knew where the trash layer ended even before testing it with the detector.

October sounds like a plan. You should make an instructional video about how to teach two Neanderthals to dig trash pits! Lol

 

[Scrappy]

Subscribed! That to me would be the hunt of a lifetime.

Thanks buddy. To detectorists this trash looks like treasure. To everyone else it looks like Art (joke). My wife saw the trash pile before sorting and said, "that's it?!"

 

[Ahab8]

Thx Brad. I did (3) 2X4' sections and the depth was a little over a foot. Funny thing was the sand I was digging in was grey in the trash layers and golden below, so I knew where the trash layer ended even before testing it with the detector.

October sounds like a plan. You should make an instructional video about how to teach two Neanderthals to dig trash pits! Lol

Oh we can learn buddy. Even though we are just dumb with strong backs and very small brains.

 

[DownNDirty]

Looks like you did very well with your first attempt-you found a lot of metal relics. Was that all of the pottery and glass you recovered? I usually find a lot more pottery than I do keeper metallic relics.

The part I hate about sifting is filling in the hole at the end of the day. By that time I'm usually whipped, hot, sweaty and filthy and just want to go home and take a shower (and drink a cold one or three). But it has to be done-and it's all well worth the effort.

Keep digging

 

[relicmeister]

Looking forward to the day I finally locate a colonial pit.. Have a sifter all ready to go

 

[Scrappy]

Looks like you did very well with your first attempt-you found a lot of metal relics. Was that all of the pottery and glass you recovered? I usually find a lot more pottery than I do keeper metallic relics.

The part I hate about sifting is filling in the hole at the end of the day. By that time I'm usually whipped, hot, sweaty and filthy and just want to go home and take a shower (and drink a cold one or three). But it has to be done-and it's all well worth the effort.

Keep digging

Yes, that was all I recovered from the sections I opened up. It was sandy soil so I dug the pits until I reached clean soil, then scanned, so it was real easy to see the bottom of the pits. I believe things were a bit scattered due to earth movers having been there. I just need to open up more sections next time I'm there. I stopped after 2 holes for the reason you mentioned. Hot and sweaty due to tons of roots. Lol

 

[Professor of Engineering]

Congratualtions on the finds! Sifting is a lot of work, but the rewards can be wonderful as in your finds.

I have been sifting a few colonial trash pits, bottle dump areas and an old clothes dump; finds galore if you are willing to work hard.

 

[Detector mom]

Wow. Totally impressed. Hard work and good research. ��