Opinions on landscape feature in colonial virginia.

[stringplucker]

Hi all, I've been detecting this 270 acre property for a couple years now in Eastern VA. Along the edge of the swamp are what appears to be 6 or so open pits. I've found a few late 1700's relics but mostly 1800's relics in the woods above these pits. I get no signals with a metal detector around the pits themselves. Could they have been hog wallowing holes, odd natural landscape? Just looking for other ideas. Hoping I get lucky that someone has seen this before.

 

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[stringplucker]

 

[RTR]

Could of been hog .But that surrounding area (V.B.) has a lot of lowland swamp areas.

 

[The Rebel]

Charcoal burn pits?

 

[villagenut]

Remains of old root cellars maybe........

 

[CreakyDigger]

They look too square to be natural or hogs, in my opinion.

 

[pepperj]

Pits dug for various reasons.
Clay pits were common back in the day to supply the brick yards.
I have 2 on the property and there's another one across the creek system on the side of us.
Here's a photo of it filled with water in the spring time.

 

[stringplucker]

Thanks for the replies. I like the clay pit suggestion, as I have run across a few clay areas on the farm, but it is mostly sand. There is a sand pit on the other side of the swamp on another farm but it is on the highest elevation. I will have to investigate more. Here is the only pic of interest on the side of one pit. Some scallop shells mixed with a bunch of tiny shells.

 

[CreakyDigger]

Thanks for the replies. I like the clay pit suggestion, as I have run across a few clay areas on the farm, but it is mostly sand. I will have to investigate more. Here is the only pic of interest on the side of one pit. Some scallop shells mixed with a bunch of tiny shells.

They may have been making lime in the pits then. If you find any burned shells that would be proof, I think.

 

[GoDeep]

The one picture shows it is mounded up around the hole, indicating it was dug out, so yes, at least some of them appear man made.

 

[Almy]

In the distant past, many areas had huge trees. Sometimes they were blown over and their root mass pulled out a lot of soil with it. That left a hole. When the roots rotted, the soil in them was left on the ground on one side of the hole. Another possible explanation for these holes.

 

[Kray Gelder]

Another possibility would be a collection pit for the output of a pine tar kiln, for extracting naval stores from pine trees. This was an important early colonial industry, and carried on until the 1900's, in southeastern pinelands. Dig a hole nearby, and see if there is a thick layer of charcoal and ash from the burning of pine logs.

 

[ToddsPoint]

Could they be Civil War rifle pits? Any Civil War action in your area?