Brass/Copper Pendant? from Archaeology Dig

[masstreasurehunter]

Hello Everyone,

I have metal detected my small yard around the 1920s house I live in a lot and the finds are limited at this point. I decided to experiment with a 1 meter square archaeology test pit to see if there was anything amongst the all the iron signals. I found many, many nails, as expected, one memorial penny and many other pieces of coal and brick related to the house. To my surprise when I excavated past the more recent layers, which were fill, I found the original ground surface and when I excavated below that, I found a piece of dark glass, some pottery shards, and to my great surprise a clay pipe stem and this small brass/copper object, which seems to me to be a pendant of some kind. The pipe stem and other object were 16 inches below the current ground surface. I thought it was just a jumble of wire at first, but it is symmetrical front to back and side to side, and appears to possibly be a piece of jewelry. If I am correct, the pipe stem dates to the early 1700s or even earlier. I just learned that the inner diameter of the pipe stem is associated with certain time ranges, but I am unsure how reliable this is Here is the reference I used, I only used Figure 1, as the text is far more detail than I wanted.

Has anyone found something similar to the wire object? An internet search yielded no answers. The two images show the object rotate 90 degrees to show the two different sides.

Thank you,

Josh

 

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[CreakyDigger]

Apart from the ID, what you are doing is very cool. The bit of small wire chain could have been from many things, including accoutrements to a hunting or possibilities bag...but many things really.

 

[CreakyDigger]

Here are a modern examples. In the photo there is a touch hole pick, pan brush, and a powder measure, all with modern chains that would attach to a hunting bag or strap to the bag. If what you have is a small chain, it could be the older example of these things.

 

[invent4hir]

Josh, welcome to Tnet and I agree with the cool approach. If unable to get an ID here - consider sending your pics to a historical society curator and/or archaeologist.

 

[Tpmetal]

decorative chain mail. i used to make jewelry like that all the time as a kid.

edit: also did a bunch as an adult...ill look for some pictures

 

[Tpmetal]

here is a photo of one way of many they could be used. None with your pattern(couldn't find pics of the ones I did like that) but it gets the idea across

 

[masstreasurehunter]

Thank you for your feedback. This makes sense as a possible ID. I appreciate you taking the time to post the image.

Josh

Here are a modern examples. In the photo there is a touch hole pick, pan brush, and a powder measure, all with modern chains that would attach to a hunting bag or strap to the bag. If what you have is a small chain, it could be the older example of these things.

View attachment 1941574

 

[masstreasurehunter]

Thank you for taking the time to locate your images. When I did an internet search, the results were along the same lines. It makes sense to me that people would have been making similar kinds of pieces throughout time. I am glad that I found the clay pipe stem with it (actually above it) that helps me with a rough date. I imagine this piece would have looked quite nice in its original color.

Thanks again,

Josh

View attachment 1941604 here is a photo of one way of many they could be used. None with your pattern(couldn't find pics of the ones I did like that) but it gets the idea across

 

[masstreasurehunter]

Thanks to all for the feedback. Doing the test pit was fun and quite laborious. I am planning on doing another one on a potential former house site on a farm this week, which would predate the current early 1800s house. When the ground is layered with lots of iron, it is nice to get an idea of what it actually looks like and what is below it. Finding the memorial cent in my house site pit was good info on the fact that the coin signal was buried with the iron signals. I had been over the location many times with multiple detectors and had dug many poor quality signals, but still missed the coin.

Josh