OutdoorAdv
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- Apr 16, 2013
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- Primary Interest:
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Yesterday I had arguably one of the best hunts of the year and it happened on the last day of the year! I was back at the 1812 Artillery button site that I had discovered the trash pit at a few days ago. It so happened that the Artillery button was in the top layer of the pit along with a bunch of other buttons. As I dug some test holes I found it was loaded with pottery and a thick ash layer. So yesterday I finally had the time to properly open up a section and I had an absolute blast.
As I progress in this hobby and dig more and more stuff, it gets harder and harder for me to dig something that gives me the "goofy smile uncontrollably high"
Yesterday I got my "fix" as I was scraping chunks of charcoal and ash out of the side wall and a rock popped out that looked like a musket flint... only it wasnt, it was a Native American Arrow Head. My first! Broken or not, it is by far one of my favorite artifacts ever. Its hard for me to wrap my head around the age and history of this point. Also, I know nothing at all about them and would love to hear what our Native American experts can tell me about this one.
Perhaps had this been my 2nd or 3rd Native American point, I could have spared a little excitement for another absolutely sick early American marked military button. This was one of the first buttons out of the pit yesterday and got me really excited right from the start.
Some other great finds turned up as well, such as a complete shoe buckle frame, thimble and some marked pipe bowls.
My favorite find raises lots of questions for me. If anyone could tell me what type of stone this is, how old and maybe what tribe or style this is. I know nothing about these at all. Its also curious how it ended up in the ash layer of a trash pit that dates from the 1700's to early 1800's.
I did some careful tooth picking on this one and a wet q-tip to loosen up the dirt. Another fantastic early military button for me to add to my other 1812 buttons. Its an Alberts OD26 Diplomatic Service U.S. Official Navy button. Blank backmark, 21mm. Apparently these date from 1797 to 1801
As I was collecting the shards yesterday I was noticing a fair amount of a cup that was hand painted. This morning I finally had time to reconstruct as much of it as possible. Turns out I had about 75% of it and hopefully some return trips can get me some of the missing pieces. This sort of artifact is some of my favorite. Once I'm done typing up this post, I cant wait to get this into my display.
This fantastic shoe buckle fame came out in a huge clod of ash and dirt. It has a perfect green patina on it with some really nice flowers at each corner. Unfortunately it is bent over even more than it should be but regardless, this is my favorite of my complete frames.
When I saw this thimble in the ash it was SCREAMING silver to me. When I broke it out and rinsed it with water, it was still screaming silver.... I was excited because a silver thimble is way up there for me. Its not marked at all... not inside on the base, not on the outside. So I decided to do some light lemon juice on it to see if any of the "silver oxide" would remove and confirm my thoughts on it being silver. However, it turned a bit green with the lemon juice. So its either silver plated brass (that held up insanely well) or perhaps its a copper alloy like tombac.
A couple of the pipe bowls were marked. The first one has a WM on the base stand. I'm not sure who that maker is, but based on the profile of the bowl, this could be the oldest one I've dug yet.
The second one has a WG stamp on the bowl side, who's maker was most likely William Greenland, from London in 1795-1820 or William Griffiths, from Manchester in 1797-1815.
This plate has a IH or HI makers mark impressed on the base. It appears to be a oval serving platter with a wavy edge on the rim.
I wish I could find more to these pieces. In the few pits I've dug where this type of pottery turns up, I've never found enough to complete even a partial restoration. I am sure they would have been very nice looking pieces 200+ years ago.
I always say I bring home a lot of stuff, so I finally had to weigh it this time. This is ONLY the pottery and after its been washed off. There are 15lbs of just pottery.
I sorted it to let it dry and begin seeing what fit together. I still think I have some stuff that I can reconstruct, so I will update this thread if I am successful.
... and some more shots of the group
Albert's info on the Navy button
The thick ash layer. Anything tossed out with the ashes is embedded at every level of this pit.
The iron is in electrolysis and the tumbler. Almost all the nails in this pit were rose heads with only a few being cut. I found a partial hoe blade, some horseshoes and a piece of a kettle. I'll update this post with some of the iron after it is done preservation.
Happy New Year everyone! Thanks for reading this far and best of luck in 2017
As I progress in this hobby and dig more and more stuff, it gets harder and harder for me to dig something that gives me the "goofy smile uncontrollably high"
Yesterday I got my "fix" as I was scraping chunks of charcoal and ash out of the side wall and a rock popped out that looked like a musket flint... only it wasnt, it was a Native American Arrow Head. My first! Broken or not, it is by far one of my favorite artifacts ever. Its hard for me to wrap my head around the age and history of this point. Also, I know nothing at all about them and would love to hear what our Native American experts can tell me about this one.Perhaps had this been my 2nd or 3rd Native American point, I could have spared a little excitement for another absolutely sick early American marked military button. This was one of the first buttons out of the pit yesterday and got me really excited right from the start.
Some other great finds turned up as well, such as a complete shoe buckle frame, thimble and some marked pipe bowls.
My favorite find raises lots of questions for me. If anyone could tell me what type of stone this is, how old and maybe what tribe or style this is. I know nothing about these at all. Its also curious how it ended up in the ash layer of a trash pit that dates from the 1700's to early 1800's.
I did some careful tooth picking on this one and a wet q-tip to loosen up the dirt. Another fantastic early military button for me to add to my other 1812 buttons. Its an Alberts OD26 Diplomatic Service U.S. Official Navy button. Blank backmark, 21mm. Apparently these date from 1797 to 1801
As I was collecting the shards yesterday I was noticing a fair amount of a cup that was hand painted. This morning I finally had time to reconstruct as much of it as possible. Turns out I had about 75% of it and hopefully some return trips can get me some of the missing pieces. This sort of artifact is some of my favorite. Once I'm done typing up this post, I cant wait to get this into my display.
This fantastic shoe buckle fame came out in a huge clod of ash and dirt. It has a perfect green patina on it with some really nice flowers at each corner. Unfortunately it is bent over even more than it should be but regardless, this is my favorite of my complete frames.
When I saw this thimble in the ash it was SCREAMING silver to me. When I broke it out and rinsed it with water, it was still screaming silver.... I was excited because a silver thimble is way up there for me. Its not marked at all... not inside on the base, not on the outside. So I decided to do some light lemon juice on it to see if any of the "silver oxide" would remove and confirm my thoughts on it being silver. However, it turned a bit green with the lemon juice. So its either silver plated brass (that held up insanely well) or perhaps its a copper alloy like tombac.
A couple of the pipe bowls were marked. The first one has a WM on the base stand. I'm not sure who that maker is, but based on the profile of the bowl, this could be the oldest one I've dug yet.
The second one has a WG stamp on the bowl side, who's maker was most likely William Greenland, from London in 1795-1820 or William Griffiths, from Manchester in 1797-1815.
This plate has a IH or HI makers mark impressed on the base. It appears to be a oval serving platter with a wavy edge on the rim.
I wish I could find more to these pieces. In the few pits I've dug where this type of pottery turns up, I've never found enough to complete even a partial restoration. I am sure they would have been very nice looking pieces 200+ years ago.
I always say I bring home a lot of stuff, so I finally had to weigh it this time. This is ONLY the pottery and after its been washed off. There are 15lbs of just pottery.
I sorted it to let it dry and begin seeing what fit together. I still think I have some stuff that I can reconstruct, so I will update this thread if I am successful.
... and some more shots of the group
Albert's info on the Navy button
The thick ash layer. Anything tossed out with the ashes is embedded at every level of this pit.
The iron is in electrolysis and the tumbler. Almost all the nails in this pit were rose heads with only a few being cut. I found a partial hoe blade, some horseshoes and a piece of a kettle. I'll update this post with some of the iron after it is done preservation.
Happy New Year everyone! Thanks for reading this far and best of luck in 2017
Last edited:
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This is about half the nails. I think all of the nails from this section were hand forged, with the exception of just a couple cut nails. That's exciting since hopefully there is some more older stuff down there still.
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