Bill D. (VA)
Silver Member
- Joined
- Oct 7, 2008
- Messages
- 4,715
- Reaction score
- 6,221
- Golden Thread
- 6
- Location
- SE Virginia
- 🥇 Banner finds
- 6
- Detector(s) used
- F75 SE (land); CZ-21 (saltwater)
- Primary Interest:
- Other
Last Saturday's colonial pit dig
With my buddy Evan visiting from the west coast, and with a gracious invite from my good friend Stan, we made the 1.5 hour trek up north to spend another day in the massive, early colonial pit where Stan and I have recovered numerous wine bottle seals and other artifacts over the last 2-3 years. Although we had a ball as usual, luck wasn't with us that day as we rang up a big goose egg in the seal department. I started out in a new area, and most of the artifacts coming out were a little later than hoped as mid-to-late 1700s mallet bottle parts were showing up instead of the early onions we desire. And these later bottles are less likely to have had a seal. I gave up on that after a while, and ended up going back to where I left off the last time there in Jan where we recovered 2 "RC" (Robert Carter) seals along with a dozen or so pipe bowls. But when attempting to expand upon my previous hole I ran into a horrendous root problem that could not be dealt with even with all my cutting tools. So after wasting an hour there I started probing a 3rd area about 75-100 ft away, and hit a good, deep crunchy layer. This pit proved to definitely have the age as the pipe stem analysis I performed later revealed an average occupancy of 1686. I found a couple nice intact pipe bowls here including an early bulbous one, but still could not find a seal in my sifter. I did recover a large and unusual piece of black glass from this spot, and Stan said he thought it was from a rare bell jar. I'd never heard of those, and can't find anything on the web, so I'm still trying to ID this piece. In addition to numerous and highly varied bottle necks and bases, I also dug some early pottery shards and rose head nails with the flattened ends. Those are always a good indicator of a 17th century site. Before we left for the day Stan and I probed out another spot with good potential, and I hope we get an opportunity to give that a shot before the warmer weather comes.
With my buddy Evan visiting from the west coast, and with a gracious invite from my good friend Stan, we made the 1.5 hour trek up north to spend another day in the massive, early colonial pit where Stan and I have recovered numerous wine bottle seals and other artifacts over the last 2-3 years. Although we had a ball as usual, luck wasn't with us that day as we rang up a big goose egg in the seal department. I started out in a new area, and most of the artifacts coming out were a little later than hoped as mid-to-late 1700s mallet bottle parts were showing up instead of the early onions we desire. And these later bottles are less likely to have had a seal. I gave up on that after a while, and ended up going back to where I left off the last time there in Jan where we recovered 2 "RC" (Robert Carter) seals along with a dozen or so pipe bowls. But when attempting to expand upon my previous hole I ran into a horrendous root problem that could not be dealt with even with all my cutting tools. So after wasting an hour there I started probing a 3rd area about 75-100 ft away, and hit a good, deep crunchy layer. This pit proved to definitely have the age as the pipe stem analysis I performed later revealed an average occupancy of 1686. I found a couple nice intact pipe bowls here including an early bulbous one, but still could not find a seal in my sifter. I did recover a large and unusual piece of black glass from this spot, and Stan said he thought it was from a rare bell jar. I'd never heard of those, and can't find anything on the web, so I'm still trying to ID this piece. In addition to numerous and highly varied bottle necks and bases, I also dug some early pottery shards and rose head nails with the flattened ends. Those are always a good indicator of a 17th century site. Before we left for the day Stan and I probed out another spot with good potential, and I hope we get an opportunity to give that a shot before the warmer weather comes.
Attachments
Upvote
10
