A little change-of-pace colonial hunt

[Bill D. (VA)]

Yesterday I got an invite from my good buddy Stan to come up and do a little out-of-season colonial relic hunting at one of his awesome sites. This place, which dates as far back as the first half of the 17th century, has given up many amazing finds over the years. The beach is absolutely littered with early brick and black glass, and is packed full of small iron which always presents a challenge. We didn't make any killer finds, but did stumble across a small trash pit that had just recently started to erode out of the bank. As you can see in the photo, it only extends down about 3 feet and was located within 2 brick wall features, and I'm not exactly sure of their function (maybe a small ice house??). We didn't spend much time excavating it, but it was full of brick, oyster shells, pipe stems, pottery, early 1700s glass, and plenty of iron. My best finds were a heavily corroded axe and an iron stock lock, and both will be going for a swim in my electrolysis tank later today. Also shown is a complete early 1700s bottle that was recently found at this site, but unfortunately we could not bring one of those home. Thanks again Stan - that was the perfect remedy to cure my summer detecting doldrums.

 

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[Steve in PA]

If I found an onion like that I'd cry for sure

 

[The Rebel]

That's one killer beach for sure! What's it like at low tide? Bet there are plenty of goodies out in the water.

 

[Scrappy]

That's a really cool spot. Those bottle necks are sweet, and it's always great to be finding pottery and stems. Looks like the site has many years worth of offerings left still. Cheers and bits good to see you out? Did you go swimming for anything you found?

 

[Bill D. (VA)]

That's a really cool spot. Those bottle necks are sweet, and it's always great to be finding pottery and stems. Looks like the site has many years worth of offerings left still. Cheers and bits good to see you out? Did you go swimming for anything you found?

No water hunting yesterday Steve. Maybe save that for another time although the bottom is sand-free with a hard, sticky clay that's very difficult to penetrate with a shovel. With that kind of a base there may be few if any artifacts hiding in it.

 

[Stef45]

love me some coastal colonial sites...VMI is most likely going to drool over this one!

 

[Diggin Dude]

Awesome finds!! Love old black glass. That complete example you found is a great crude shape, not a text book English "pancake onion" but higher sides transition onion/mallet shape, English lip, I'd like to see a photo of the bottom pontil scar. Great bottle!!

Congrats and HH

 

[trapperart]

Congrats on your finds and a really nice site

 

[Patriot Relics]

Quite an array of surface finds Bill, the onion bottle is killer

 

[Patriot Relics]

love me some coastal colonial sites...VMI is most likely going to drool over this one!

...YEP

 

[OutdoorAdv]

That axe is going to look great man... and it looks really old! The layers of shell on the back wall of that "ice house" thing, has me drooling. I think I would have sat in there and just chipped away at that back wall. Looks like a great time Bill. Nice to get in some old digs between all those gold rings. Ha

 

[Z.K.]

Looks like a huge amount of fun. You guys appear to have that place to yourselves! What a story all those objects tell. Thanks for sharing it.

 

[Silver Tree Chaser]

Great post, Bill. Lots of coastline in Rhode Island, so I'm inspired.

 

[Turbo21]

I would of dropped the detector and excavated that whole hillside.

 

[Ahab8]

Hard to imagine what else might be hiding around there. I'd love to found an onion bottle one day. Looks like a very fun day buddy

 

[port ewen ace]

so envious y'all got a massive site like that mega playground. show us the candy as ya find it

 

[joeyfresh]

My kind of summer day! There has to be another bottle lying around there somewhere. Thanks for the picture Bill and hopefully Stan will invite you back

 

[Eastcoasthunter21]

That is one nice early axe too can't wait to see it cleaned up !hh gl

 

[against the wind]

Time to set up a tent.
Congrats on some nice finds.

 

[Westfront]

Great onion bottle! Stunning!