Bill D. (VA)
Silver Member
I always look forward to my annual invite from my good buddy Stan to accompany him to dig in a huge and very early trash pit that we’ve been hitting for the last 10+ years. This spot has turned up some amazing artifacts, and we usually have our hearts set on recovering a few black glass bottle seals from the late 1600s to very early 1700s. But it’s getting harder to find a productive spot to dig, and we’re being forced to hit areas close to big trees that have major root issues. The first area I probed out had good potential, but after a couple hours and only about 5 small pipe stem pieces I decided to fill it in and move on. Eventually I found a small spot next to a couple big trees that probed out nicely and the test hole indicated that nobody had dug in that spot before as the layers were still intact. I started pulling out loads of onion and mallet bottle glass along with what appears to be the base of a shaft and globe bottle (mid-1600s) which is a great sign, along with random pottery shards and quite a few pipe stems. Eventually I recovered an intact early 1700s pipe bowl, and a partial bowl with a more bulbous shape from the mid-to-late 1600s. Many times these will have a maker's mark on the large, flat heel but not this time. Although I had not yet eyeballed a bottle seal, I felt pretty confident that one would turn up in the sifter when I refilled the hole. But that was not to be. Yesterday when I was cleaning the 50+ pipe stems, I noticed some interesting markings on 3 of them. Turns out the one depicting the image of a queen was indeed that of Queen Anne who reigned in England from 1702 until 1714. And the other 2 stems were also from that same period, but unfortunately they did not match up for a potential reconstruction. And one of the other partial bowls had markings on either side of the small heel (gauntlet on one side and crown on the other). Also found a nice little iron wedge. Although no killer finds were made, I’m looking forward to a return visit and pick up where I left off at that last spot. Not sure if it will be this season or not, but it will definitely something I’ll be looking forward to with great anticipation.
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