The Cave

[NJKLAGT]

Hey everyone, you've been finding some great stuff lately!

I said I was gonna post a while ago and I didn't. But, here we are. I'll put up some other finds in a separate thread, different story.

So this is undoubtedly one of my favourite digs. This jug was in a small cave under the roots of a massive old walnut tree. The soil had been washed out from under the tree by the water coming down off a cornfield and into the creek. Over time more soil accumulated at the receiving end and sealed the top side, leaving a tunnel and cave with only the one bottom entrance. I couldn't see anything inside when I first discovered the spot, so I crawled in with a flashlight when I returned and discovered that the ceiling of the cave was embedded with bottles and jars (sorry for the bad pics). Straight up Indiana Jones'd, such a thrill. There were some fruit jars and art deco whiskeys and other things, and then this jug. It was tangled up inside the large roots of the tree. I got a bunch of dirt in my eyes trying to get this thing out - it's not very often that you're looking straight up while digging!

The mouth and handle were broken off clean in one piece, but there was one tiny piece missing (ugh, like always) where the handle meets the body, so I gave it one of my patented drywall compound repairs and for the first time tried to colour match it with some paint so that we could admire its full form. Because the body wasn't shattered, this is the first jug I've found that resonates and plays like an instrument when you blow into it, haha, if that means anything. It's got a beautiful drippy brown slip glaze and was probably made before the turn of the century. Just how old it is, and where it was made, I'm not sure. You jug guys got any ideas?

I also took home my fourth Terrace Hill Dairy variant, some amethyst stuff for colour, a Bel Boy soda from Hamilton, some Crown jars and lids, a nice blown hexagonal vial with the stopper stuck inside (it contains some kind of crystals, maybe smelling salts?), and my first key! Not pictured are a big green cork top cider jug, a Perfect Seal fruit jar, and some generic blown meds.

Thanks for looking everybody, and keep the awesome stuff coming!


NJK

 

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[Bass]

I like the color in the jug and you did a great job on the repairs.

 

[bill_wabo]

Nice, lucky you have the cap on the crown jar. The brown jar is very nice, never saw one this color and you did a nice restore on the handle. Congrats and HH!

 

[creekhunter]

Great read, I almost felt like I was caving right along with you

 

[bottlehunterofcoscob]

Sweet finds! You do a great job with the presentation afterwards.

 

[NJKLAGT]

Thanks everyone!

Unfortunately I won't be able to get back to this spot until spring, but it'll be all the sweeter when I can finally crawl in there again and see what else comes out. For now I'm happy with what I did get.

 

[jgas]

I couldn't wait till spring. Just saying! Nice stuff all the way around. Be very careful of cave ins though. Have someone with you. Just to play it safe. Good luck. Jgas

 

[unclemac]

great story...anything on the cave floor?

 

[cje]

I agree with JGAS. Get a good root saw and hit the dump from the top. You don't want a cave in for sure.

 

[NJKLAGT]

unclemac, not too much, just some random bits. Although the cave is light-tight and totally dark, it still must be getting a little bit of water moving through, because the floor is mostly the smoothed-out exposed clay.

It's really safe guys! The roof is about a foot and a half of soil held up by healthy live roots sometimes almost 8 inches thick. I plan to dig through the top anyway because I've removed almost everything I could from the inside.

 

[unclemac]

how about anything that has been flushed out...."down stream" so to speak

 

[NJKLAGT]

The cave is an unusual treat, but the place has all the hallmarks of a typical trickle-down dump. There's a big pile of tires and beams and plastic newer stuff toward the top, the cave isn't far down, and then there is some older stuff as you descend toward the creek. I'd say that the earliest shards I found were from about 1880, but of course they weren't as numerous as the later stuff.

The jug, Bel Boy soda (inside a boot), and two Crown jars were all inside the cave, and everything else was found further down. I also totally forgot about this nice blown Porter's Pain King when I was putting everything together for a photo. It was found maybe 25 yards down from the cave in some muck loaded with sticks and leaves and other debris, a test hole I made right in the middle of the trench to see how far it was to get to the clay chute - around here there's bound to be a clay floor underneath all the sediment and debris.

 

[Blak bart]

The cave is an unusual treat, but the place has all the hallmarks of a typical trickle-down dump. There's a big pile of tires and beams and plastic newer stuff toward the top, the cave isn't far down, and then there is some older stuff as you descend toward the creek. I'd say that the earliest shards I found were from about 1880, but of course they weren't as numerous as the later stuff.

The jug, Bel Boy soda (inside a boot), and two Crown jars were all inside the cave, and everything else was found further down. I also totally forgot about this nice blown Porter's Pain King when I was putting everything together for a photo. It was found maybe 25 yards down from the cave in some muck loaded with sticks and leaves and other debris, a test hole I made right in the middle of the trench to see how far it was to get to the clay chute - around here there's bound to be a clay floor underneath all the sediment and debris.

View attachment 1383072

Now that is a different kind of spot. Good luck be careful in there.