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halfdime

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I went out to our 19th century farm to do some detecting down toward an old springhouse today. This means clearing the way, detecting and repeating. Using this method, I've found two Indian head pennies and an 1840 large cent; I'm convinced there is more, and some of it will be silver. As I detected today, I noticed the broken top to an old bottle; you know, the kind you usually find in a privy! :wink: I began to carefully probe the soil, and quickly found myself in a buried bottle field. Unfortunately, everything was broken. Aqua embossed bottles, in pieces (one was some sort of horse liniment), brown glass, etc. All in pieces :'(. I started finding pieces of a clay bottle (is that the proper term), and thought it might be fun to gather them and re-assemble it. I did work through the dirt, looking for a small bottle or two that might have survived the massacre, but it wasn't to be. You wonder if they were dumped broken, or later visitors to the site did the deed. Aerial photos from 1938 indicate that the buildings were gone. Another interesting find was this root that grew through a broken bottle top. Knowing what these bottles might have once looked like, it was frustrating to see my growing pile of shards, but at least it wasn't me that broke them! Maybe my luck will be better next time! Before I forget, the only mark on the bottle was GEIRST; was this some sort of an ale bottle? You'll also notice that I didn't get all the pieces; I'll have to see what else I can find of this thing.
 

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Upvote 0
Good job on the jig-saw.

It could be a "ginger beer" bottle. At least that's what similar looking ones are called around here.
As far as being broken often it is freezing water that does it. again at least around here.
 
I've recently taken up bottle hunting and an area like that would get me excited. If you have any interest in old bottles I would advise you to do a little digging and I guarantee you will find some that aren't broke...that's what I'm doing tomorrow morning.
 
romeo-1 said:
I've recently taken up bottle hunting and an area like that would get me excited. If you have any interest in old bottles I would advise you to do a little digging and I guarantee you will find some that aren't broke...that's what I'm doing tomorrow morning.
Bottle digging does get in your blood!
 
Talkin' about some serious archaeology work there!! Put those pieces together...that's a real find. :icon_thumleft:
 
interesting bottle..... congrats ! :thumbsup:
 
Rick (Nova Scotia) said:
Good job on the jig-saw.

It could be a "ginger beer" bottle. At least that's what similar looking ones are called around here.
As far as being broken often it is freezing water that does it. again at least around here.

I was thinking the same thing . . .
Ginger Beer or maybe an ink bottle. :icon_scratch:
 
Cool. it would be neat to find all the pieces
 
Nice finds Henry! There definitely would have been a bottle dump on this property.
 
Your pottery bottle was a ginger beer. They also made master inks out of pottery, but they had pour spouts molded in the lip. Here is a pottery master ink I found.

Someone may have beat you to that bottle dump 30 years ago. Even surface dumps should have a few intact bottles.
 

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Good job and patience on puttin that Ginger Beer back together. Its differently colored than most Gingers but that is what it is. I would definitely go back and dig it out a few feet down, there should be some nice bottles left, just FOLLOW the veins! :icon_thumleft: :wink:
 
Kiros32 said:
Nice finds Henry! There definitely would have been a bottle dump on this property.
We keep thinking a bottle dump would be somewhere remote on this 300 acre site and here's one just down the hill from the house! Oh, I'll keep looking! I'll go back out Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday... as long as the weather holds out. It'll be deer season before too long, which will force me to suspend operations.
 
halfdime said:
Kiros32 said:
Nice finds Henry! There definitely would have been a bottle dump on this property.
We keep thinking a bottle dump would be somewhere remote on this 300 acre site and here's one just down the hill from the house! Oh, I'll keep looking! I'll go back out Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday... as long as the weather holds out. It'll be deer season before too long, which will force me to suspend operations.

It's supposed to be in the 60s and sunny all weekend. I could probably make it out on Sunday. I will give you a shout later this week.
 
Kiros32 said:
halfdime said:
Kiros32 said:
Nice finds Henry! There definitely would have been a bottle dump on this property.
We keep thinking a bottle dump would be somewhere remote on this 300 acre site and here's one just down the hill from the house! Oh, I'll keep looking! I'll go back out Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday... as long as the weather holds out. It'll be deer season before too long, which will force me to suspend operations.

It's supposed to be in the 60s and sunny all weekend. I could probably make it out on Sunday. I will give you a shout later this week.
Sounds good.
 

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