Possible colonial trashpile, flat buttons and more. Need advice

[the_mad_cladder]

Hit a field yesterday with tnet members bladerunner2020 and wv1978. The field had been the site of an old colonial age plantation. We’ve found close to 30 flat buttons from the 1700s there in just a few hunts. We’ve yet to find one coin but it has been hunted before according to the owner. I’ve posted some of the buttons I’ve found there before on tnet. Yesterday I got a weak signal and dug down about 16” and found a plate sized hunk of metal and there was some glass stuck to the bottom side of it. I dug for about an hour and found some strange glass and one piece of a broken porcelain cup or something. There was one hunk of bone and many rocks. The ground under this stuff seemed pretty hard so if it’s a privy I must be off to the side of it. There were some small spots of burnt coal or ash (black). Part of the glass has a strange bulging feature. I got to a point we’re it was too much for the shovel I had. Much of it I was digging with my plastic small shovel as not to damage possible bottles. My question is does anyone have any ideas what this glass is/was? Hard to say if this is isolated but if I’m gonna dig it out more I would like to know if this is old stuff and what it might be. I plan on taking my probe back. A privy here could be a treasure trove but I sure don’t wanna waste time digging a hole fore nothing. This hole I dug was most likely within 20-50 yards of the home, hard to say. Any advice is welcome. Thanks

 

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[sandchip]

I'd like to see all that glass cleaned up. Might be able to tell a little more about it for you. Sure looks like you're on an early spot.

 

[smokeythecat]

How they disposed of stuff depends on the year(s), that is, time frame the trash was left. Very early, they just threw the trash out back, lots of times out the back window. By the 18th Century, they generally would take the stuff a little ways from the house and dump it. As privies had to move in location from time to time, they policy was to fill one in when moving to a new one.

Grey soil is sometimes an indication of a privy. I would try doing some serious digging and widening out the hole.

 

[A2coins]

Time to excavate wow what a cool spot you found

 

[Professor of Engineering]

Good luck, looks like a promising area!

 

[Hawks88]

As long as I’m finding stuff like that I would keep at it for awhile longer. Good luck.

 

[huntsman53]

From the description, I would say that the glass has been in a fire. Now, was the fire a burn/trash site or a home or outbuilding that burnt is hard to say. The probe will likely tell you more as will the cleaned up glass pieces if they can be identified and somewhat dated.

 

[the_mad_cladder]

From the description, I would say that the glass has been in a fire. Now, was the fire a burn/trash site or a home or outbuilding that burnt is hard to say. The probe will likely tell you more as will the cleaned up glass pieces if they can be identified and somewhat dated.

I am gonna clean the glass up soon and post better pics. Gonna do some probing tomorrow to see if I can find a privy.