paleomaxx
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- Aug 14, 2016
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I spent some time widening the search around the cellar hole where I found the eagle militia plate. At first it was fairly slow and the finds were almost exclusively random iron and lead bits. Behind the cellar hole there's a bit of a ridge with a few very old apple trees so I started there and worked my way down the ridge and away from the home site. There wasn't much to show until I reached the end of the ridge where the land naturally forms a bowl shape before dropping off on three sides and that's where things started to get interesting. Almost immediately I pulled a nice early flat button, then another, and then a shoe buckle fragment. After three hours I had a tremendous number of early relics and all from the small (20'x20') bowl and down the sides where pieces must have been washed over time. These are just the buttons:
Most look to be late 1700's to 1810's. There's only one with a backmark ("Gilt") and one very nice looking dandy with scalloped edges. I thought I had a GW for a second.
The domed button is interesting; I've never seen one like that. There were also the remains of three different colonial shoe buckles including a big fragment of an beautifully engraved example that I truly wish I could have found intact.
What blew me away was the quantity of copper coins in such a small area. First an foremost is this incredible 1801 draped bust large cent:
I lightly cleaned off the excess dirt, but I'm going to leave it as-is because of the high level of detail preserved in the patina. It was right on the edge of the bowl so all of the water must have washed through the soil and left the coil almost completely alone. The second large cent (a classic bust 1810) wasn't quite as lucky.
Still not bad considering the age. I found two King George II halfpennies that are almost completely toast. Some lettering on the edge survived so I'm confident that they aren't CT coppers.
The last is a highly abused copper that looks like it was hammered and then had a hole drilled in the middle. No features remain unfortunately.
What's amazing is that all of this was in that small area and then naturally I widened my search grid and outside of that spot there was next to nothing in the ground. A few ox shoes and a horseshoe, but no buttons or even musket balls. At first I thought I might have found an even earlier home site, but the relics don't seem to support that idea. A muster spot also seemed possible, but I figure I would have found a few dropped musket balls if that were the case.
My only other theory is that it was an gathering spot for Sunday worship. These relics date to when the town was freshly settled and this area had many home sites, but is between the two actual population centers. My thinking is that before they had a church and resident pastor established, they may have held services in this spot. I'm open to other theories though; it really is an unusual grouping of finds.
Most look to be late 1700's to 1810's. There's only one with a backmark ("Gilt") and one very nice looking dandy with scalloped edges. I thought I had a GW for a second.
The domed button is interesting; I've never seen one like that. There were also the remains of three different colonial shoe buckles including a big fragment of an beautifully engraved example that I truly wish I could have found intact.
What blew me away was the quantity of copper coins in such a small area. First an foremost is this incredible 1801 draped bust large cent:
I lightly cleaned off the excess dirt, but I'm going to leave it as-is because of the high level of detail preserved in the patina. It was right on the edge of the bowl so all of the water must have washed through the soil and left the coil almost completely alone. The second large cent (a classic bust 1810) wasn't quite as lucky.
Still not bad considering the age. I found two King George II halfpennies that are almost completely toast. Some lettering on the edge survived so I'm confident that they aren't CT coppers.
The last is a highly abused copper that looks like it was hammered and then had a hole drilled in the middle. No features remain unfortunately.
What's amazing is that all of this was in that small area and then naturally I widened my search grid and outside of that spot there was next to nothing in the ground. A few ox shoes and a horseshoe, but no buttons or even musket balls. At first I thought I might have found an even earlier home site, but the relics don't seem to support that idea. A muster spot also seemed possible, but I figure I would have found a few dropped musket balls if that were the case.
My only other theory is that it was an gathering spot for Sunday worship. These relics date to when the town was freshly settled and this area had many home sites, but is between the two actual population centers. My thinking is that before they had a church and resident pastor established, they may have held services in this spot. I'm open to other theories though; it really is an unusual grouping of finds.
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