paleomaxx
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- Aug 14, 2016
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With the snow finally melted, I hiked back to the site I found deep in the woods at the end of February. http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/today-s-finds/569687-completely-unsearched-site-lcs-fe-cent-relics.html I can't believe it took over a month to get back there, but when I arrived it was just as I had left it and I picked up the gridding where I left off. Interestingly there really wasn't much to be found in the surrounding area. If I went more than 30 feet from the cellar hole in any direction there was nothing in the ground besides shotgun head stamps and the occasional rifle shell.
After a bit of that I returned to the area immediately surrounding the cellar hole and did multi-directional passes through the iron-rich areas for missed signals. I have to say, the Deus in fast mode is a beast. I was pinpointing the tiniest signals sometimes fused to iron. The large cent I found was standing on its side sandwiched next to a rock!
I didn't find an incredible amount of relics which is a testament to how good the basic program is to begin with, but there was a good haul at the end. The star find is this 1858 flying eagle cent in stunning condition.
This is the second FE at this site, but the detail left is amazing. The relief on the tail feathers is better than many of the non-dug coins that I've seen and I don't think I can hope to find much better out there.
After some tooth picking the 1826 large cent also turned out to be in decent shape:
That was it for coins, but I did start to find some buttons at the site; including one fantastic floral pattern button.
Another very interesting relic was this brass lion head.
After some research it looks like this is the clasp from a wool cloak. There would have been a second lion head with a small length of chain attached and the hook on my piece would be looped through one of the links. Apparently these were favored by policemen, but not necessarily exclusive for their use. Based on the site, it seems likely that this is 1850's through 1860's, but they were popular through Victorian times.
Another piece with a good story is this clay pipe stem fragment.
In the past I've only found plain stems and bowls, so this is my first with a maker's mark. The mark is partial, but still enough to get the name "Peter Dorni" identified. The style is quite distinctive and is something of an enigma in archeological circles. The original maker may have been from France, but the style and design was copied by several other manufacturers and this could have come from Holland or Germany. The date range though is generally accepted to be from 1850-1880 which also fits this site.
The rest of the finds were of usual homesite fare:
Four pewter spoon fragments, two different shoe plates, a nice heavy brass drawer pull, batwing buckle, and parasol slide. I also found a number of horsehoes and iron relics which aren't pictured.
There's probably a little more to be discovered here, but not a huge amount. The date range of the relics recovered is remarkably compact. 1840 through 1865 with only a few very worn coins that date to earlier (indicating long circulation). It seems like the family was only at this site for one generation and then left for whatever reason. This might also explain why there was so little at a distance from the cellar hole. If they weren't there for long, there was proportionally less foot traffic away from the house and less opportunity to loose things. I would like to try sifting the trash pit at some point, but will have to be a project for a later date. Until then, I have more sites to research and find!
After a bit of that I returned to the area immediately surrounding the cellar hole and did multi-directional passes through the iron-rich areas for missed signals. I have to say, the Deus in fast mode is a beast. I was pinpointing the tiniest signals sometimes fused to iron. The large cent I found was standing on its side sandwiched next to a rock!
I didn't find an incredible amount of relics which is a testament to how good the basic program is to begin with, but there was a good haul at the end. The star find is this 1858 flying eagle cent in stunning condition.
This is the second FE at this site, but the detail left is amazing. The relief on the tail feathers is better than many of the non-dug coins that I've seen and I don't think I can hope to find much better out there.
After some tooth picking the 1826 large cent also turned out to be in decent shape:
That was it for coins, but I did start to find some buttons at the site; including one fantastic floral pattern button.
Another very interesting relic was this brass lion head.
After some research it looks like this is the clasp from a wool cloak. There would have been a second lion head with a small length of chain attached and the hook on my piece would be looped through one of the links. Apparently these were favored by policemen, but not necessarily exclusive for their use. Based on the site, it seems likely that this is 1850's through 1860's, but they were popular through Victorian times.
Another piece with a good story is this clay pipe stem fragment.
In the past I've only found plain stems and bowls, so this is my first with a maker's mark. The mark is partial, but still enough to get the name "Peter Dorni" identified. The style is quite distinctive and is something of an enigma in archeological circles. The original maker may have been from France, but the style and design was copied by several other manufacturers and this could have come from Holland or Germany. The date range though is generally accepted to be from 1850-1880 which also fits this site.
The rest of the finds were of usual homesite fare:
Four pewter spoon fragments, two different shoe plates, a nice heavy brass drawer pull, batwing buckle, and parasol slide. I also found a number of horsehoes and iron relics which aren't pictured.
There's probably a little more to be discovered here, but not a huge amount. The date range of the relics recovered is remarkably compact. 1840 through 1865 with only a few very worn coins that date to earlier (indicating long circulation). It seems like the family was only at this site for one generation and then left for whatever reason. This might also explain why there was so little at a distance from the cellar hole. If they weren't there for long, there was proportionally less foot traffic away from the house and less opportunity to loose things. I would like to try sifting the trash pit at some point, but will have to be a project for a later date. Until then, I have more sites to research and find!
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