Clay pipe, almost whole black glass bottle, pottery reconstruction and more

DownNDirty

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Jun 1, 2015
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The Swamp Pit kept calling my name... so I had no choice but to go back last Thursday. :laughing7: Fortunately there had been no rain there during the previous few days so it had dried up a good bit but was still muddy. Heck I didn't care.

I got right back in the glass shards where I left off and weeded through the myriad of shards and pottery. I dug down to what looked like just another upside down base shard, but when I tried to pull it out it wouldn't budge. I dug around it with my hands and soon realized that this was more than a base. I finally managed to pull it out and when I did the neck of the bottle fell out of the base. Turns out the two pieces fit together to form about 3/4 of a whole bottle-and it appears to be from about the 1730s or 40s.

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I later cleaned it , applied some super glue and it now resides in my display case.

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I was pretty happy about the good start to the day's dig and pressed on. Not too much later I dug a whole kaolin pipe bowl, in great condition. Minutes later I found two pipe stem pieces and low and behold they all fit together. This is only the second intact bowl I have found and to have several inches of the stem is pretty awesome.

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My luck continued; while digging through more black glass shards I came upon another base that was firmly stuck in the mud. I carefully dug around it with my fingers, thinking that at any time I would feel the broken end of the base-but it just kept going. When I managed to lift it out of the pit I was more than a bit surprised to find it completely intact, except for the lip and "string" being broken off. No cracks or chips whatsoever. This one is also from the 1730s/40s based on the shape.

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Mixed in with the glass were a lot of pottery shards, many of which were part of a large bowl and a jar that I am reconstructing (both from the 1700s). Over the past few days I have been matching up pieces and gluing them back together, and I now have the majority of the bowl reconstructed. It's actually a "milk pan" and they used them to separate cream from milk. After milking the cows they would pour it into the pan and let it sit for 12 to 24 hours. Then they would skim the cream off the top and make butter from it.

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Here is what I have reconstructed of the jar so far; I hope to find more pieces of both in the near future.

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Other pottery and glass that I found; the green glass bottle top is from a pharmaceutical bottle:

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Another interesting find was this preserved piece of wood; it was buried in the pit so it would have been tossed during the 18th century. I first thought it was a gun stock, but the bottom is flat. Any ideas?

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An interesting thing about digging trash pits is you get a good idea of the types of food that they ate "back in the day." Here are several cow leg bones; one of them has butcher marks on it:

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And here is a group shot of all of my finds for the day.

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8-) To be continued... 8-)
 

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Upvote 38
You are in an OLD spot ( I'm sure that you already know it of course) and I would keep going back. There may be a whole bottle or dinner plate in there. Love your post!
 

Excellent finds and great job with the reconstruction! Wow, those bottles are GREAT!

Thanks for sharing that!
 

Excellent finds and great job with the reconstruction! Wow, those bottles are GREAT!

Thanks for sharing that!

Thanks Scrappy. I know you are a fan of pit digging; it is definitely addictive.
 

Even broken bottles are very desirable....spout portion or the base, but you have 90%. I believe you have a hard to find bottle. Looks to be transitional mallet variety....English, early 1800s. I thought it a full fledged onion bottle for a second, until I looked at the jug portion. A pure English mallet bottle will have the jug portion as a total cylinder shape, shaped like a mallet. Yours still has kind of the onion effect, some roundness. If that bottle wasn't broken it would hit the $350 range easily. Still, a totally awesome find. I wish it wasn't broken....would be one heck of a banner. Oh, wow! I need to specify which bottle is which. The brown bottle is the transitional mallet. The first one shown is a typical onion bottle....probably early 1700s. Almost a squat onion variety.
 

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The wood piece could be a fragment from an outhouse seat hole.

From the size of that crap hole pit that outhouse must have been a 50 seater. Addicted is tame word for you and that place. You do have it Bad.
It got really noticeable when you started... One small scoop for man One giant scoop for mankind.
 

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Outstanding relic hunt, congratulations! :notworthy:
 

Thanks Scrappy. I know you are a fan of pit digging; it is definitely addictive.

Haha, yep. Im new to pits and have my work cut out but I'm a fan of watching others kick butt pit digging. ........and you killed it man!!!

I came back to your thread to check out them bottles again. Right-o man! Very nice.
 

Great finds again! Congrats.
 

WOW Glenn!! It just keeps getting better and better man. :headbang: Those are some killer bottles and excellent reconstruction on that milk pan. The coolest thing are the organics that are preserved in your swamp mud... now, just to find a Colonial leather shoe or wool jacket! I can't wait to see what turns up next.
 

THAT is some good stuff right there. I love it!
 

it's not always about coins________relics are always unique. really nice history resurrection happening there
 

That is amazing having all the relics in one pile that would be fun to put those back together like a jigsaw puzzle.Great post thanks for sharing with us great read cant wait to see more finds from there!!!!!
 

From the size of that crap hole pit that outhouse must have been a 50 seater. Addicted is tame word for you and that place. You do have it Bad.
It got really noticeable when you started... One small scoop for man One giant scoop for mankind.

Get ready-Saturday I'm gonna put your butt to work, rain sun or tropical storm. Soooweeee!
 

This is some of the coolest stuff i've seen posted on here in awhile! The piece of preserved wood is incredible! And the two almost complete bottles, plus the milk pan.. Man this just keeps getting better and better! I love pit digging because its like a time capsule, and this one is one heck of a time capsule! Wtg!!! :)
 

Get ready-Saturday I'm gonna put your butt to work, rain sun or tropical storm. Soooweeee!

Ok I've been avoiding that place as you know Just to give you a decent head start. So look out....
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