🥇 BANNER AMAZING .... Intact 1680s bottle pulled from early trash pit!!

[Bill D. (VA)]

On Saturday my buddies Stan and KMac invited me to make a return trip to our favorite early colonial pit without our friend Dan who unfortunately had scheduling issues. We picked up where we were digging last time which was an area absolutely loaded with debris down to almost the 4 foot level. Huge oyster shells were packed in tight along with plenty of brick, bone and early glass making for very difficult digging. We were all dying to get our hands on a few more wine bottle seals, but they were quite elusive in spite of the heavy concentration of black glass. One interesting observation was the very early bottle shapes that were being recovered, many of which represented late 1600s shaft-and-globe-to-onion transitional varieties. Near the end of the dig KMac decided to take a short break and invited me to jump in and dig in the little hotspot he’d been working. It wasn’t more than 5 min later while removing material from the very bottom of the hole when I stumbled across an amazing find, and one that I unfortunately damaged with the shovel. It turned out to be a complete example of a small, but heavy wine bottle that was similar in form to many of the other large fragments we had been digging. In one of my reference books I found a nearly identical example dating to the 1680s which is spot-on for this shape. I told KMac this was his bottle, but he very graciously insisted that it belonged to me. What a wonderful gesture and friend!! I really felt bad taking it, but he sincerely wanted me to have it. I’ll never forget that moment – thank you again KMac! The bottle had some lip damage and we meticulously sifted the dirt in search of the small missing pieces, but came up just a little short of finding them all. I had a blast and can’t wait to go back with my good friends and see what other amazing treasures await.

 

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[Tpmetal]

Thats a amazing find. probably not many of those suckers left

 

[villagenut]

Wow is an understatement. I would be esctatic to dig that bottle, heck I would just like to dig a broken neck from one of those. I think that should be a banner bottle for sure!

 

[robfinds]

That is one incredible find.

 

[BLK HOLE]

What an amazing find!

 

[Professor of Engineering]

 

[Ahab8]

Folks this is an absolutely incredible recovery! I’d love to know how many broken bottles you’ve dug Bill up to this point. I’m sure it’s thousands of them. The stars have to align perfectly for somebody to recover one of these intact. This is one of the easiest BANNER votes I will ever cast. So happy for you Bill. I know how much this find means to you

 

[Jeff H]

Outstanding find !

 

[joeyfresh]

I would think this would be a stupendous feat even for the diggers in Europe. The fact alone that you all have been digging those pits for years and this is one of the only whole ones to come out shows how rare a whole 17th century bottle is to dig. This isn't a run of the mill onion bottle either.
Congratulations you hard working, dedicated SOB.

 

[DownNDirty]

Congratulations Bill-I know how much you have wanted to dig a whole black glass bottle and for it to be such an early example makes it all the more special and rare.

 

[CRUSADER]

I would think this would be a stupendous feat even for the diggers in Europe. The fact alone that you all have been digging those pits for years and this is one of the only whole ones to come out shows how rare a whole 17th century bottle is to dig. This isn't a run of the mill onion bottle either.
Congratulations you hard working, dedicated SOB.

Yeap, I've never had one. Normally you would have to dive rivers or be a Mud-Lark on the Thames.

 

[against the wind]

Bill,, I'm really impressed with your intact bottle find.
I'm also impressed with the fact that your "First Printing" has sold out.
Congratulations

 

[Relicific]

Amazing and beautiful bottle.
Well done Bill and friends.

 

[Steve in PA]

Congrats on the intact bottle Bill. Personally, I'm surprised more of those heavy thick walled bottles didn't survive. Maybe they re-used them until they broke?

 

[pepperj]

Amazing piece of glass Bill congrats on the recovery. It would look pretty nice up top as well.
I have no idea on what it must feel like digging one that old, geez digging something good 200 yrs younger gives me the goosebumps.

 

[Bill D. (VA)]

Congrats on the intact bottle Bill. Personally, I'm surprised more of those heavy thick walled bottles didn't survive. Maybe they re-used them until they broke?

Generally they did "recycle" these bottles and did not discard until they broke. But at this site the wealthy owner probably didn't care about that and likely bought new bottles frequently And if you saw the pit opened up you'd quickly realize why none of these would've survived if tossed in whole. Major quantities of brick and other heavy debris are almost always found above the glass layer, and would have certainly crushed any that may have been present.

 

[Joe-Dirt]

Beautiful!!!!!!!

 

[pepperj]

Generally they did "recycle" these bottles and did not discard until they broke. But at this site the wealthy owner probably didn't care about that and likely bought new bottles frequently And if you saw the pit opened up you'd quickly realize why none of these would've survived if tossed in whole. Major quantities of brick and other heavy debris are almost always found above the glass layer, and would have certainly crushed any that may have been present.

We might not have the age of the glass you have, but we do have long winters where the bottles didn't get broke as often. Never thought I'd be giving the fluffy white stuff a thumbs up for relic hunting recoveries.

 

[Bill D. (VA)]

Folks this is an absolutely incredible recovery! I’d love to know how many broken bottles you’ve dug Bill up to this point. I’m sure it’s thousands of them. The stars have to align perfectly for somebody to recover one of these intact. This is one of the easiest BANNER votes I will ever cast. So happy for you Bill. I know how much this find means to you

Thanks Abe - I really appreciate your comments. Don't be surprised if you find something similar in the Maine tidal muck surrounding some of your early sites. You know they're there ....

 

[WaterScoop]

Epically Stunning Unearthing!

Thank you for sharing!

Cheers