Colonial pit dig yields 3 early bottle seals plus other cool stuff

[Bill D. (VA)]

Every year my buddy Stan invites me up to his neck of the woods to get down and dirty in a huge early colonial trash pit that he’s been digging in for several years now. It’s at a site that dates back to the 1600s and has yielded a number of early bottle seals as well as a couple whole bottles from the late 1600s. We immediately picked a spot near where we’d dug before and probed it out. It appeared to be chock-full of debris so we started our own pits about 6-8 feet apart and the plan was to meet in the middle to form one huge pit. Unfortunately, this area was loaded with large roots but I brought my large assortment of cutting tools so we were able to get by OK. We also brought our sifters as we wanted to make sure we didn’t miss any bottle seals that we might be fortunate enough to come across. We busted our butts for about 5-6 hours and the pits produced quite a few goodies. I was very fortunate to dig 3 intact bottle seals from the early 1700s complete with dates. The first one was stuck in the dirt in the concave section of a large pancake onion bottle base. If I hadn’t turned it over it would have been tossed and lost forever. I was thrilled as that was a first for me. Stan dug part of a seal and I gave him one of mine so we both went home with some nice ones. Apparently the Robert Carter 1713 seal is a rare one and has substantial value, but I need to do some checking on that. I also dug over 100 pipe stem pieces and several pipe bowls along with a nice assortment of early pottery. Also found an axe head that I plan to clean up with electrolysis. All-in-all it was a great time although I was suffering dearly last night as I was not in the best pit digging shape. Thanks again Stan for the invite and generosity in sharing your site with me. Have to get you down this way soon.

 

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[baylorhall]

Very cool!

 

[umrgolf]

well worth your time, great looking finds

 

[kuger]

Man!!Stinkin early!!!I love it!

 

[Relichunter1]

That looks like a lot of fun..did not think bottle digging was going to be fun, until I found my first one detecting for relics... . Well now I have total awareness and keep my eyes open for bottles when I am out. Need to get one of those spring steel probes with me at all times too. Anyone have any suggestions in what I may use for bottle hunting . Love those clay pipes too...amazing finds...Congrats ....Happy New Year !!

 

[BosnMate]

Wow! Nothing that dates that far back out here on the left coast, what a great place to dig. How deep down were you when you found the 1713 seal?

 

[gwdigger]

If that doesnt put a fire under a colonial hunters butt nothing will. Seeing that stuff is an adrenaline rush. I really like the seals.

 

[HEAVYMETALNUT]

wow! never even seen a colonial bottle seal before.awesome stuff! thanks for sharing!

 

[GaRebel1861]

Very nice haul of pipes!

 

[birdman]

I have to vote banner .That would be a dream hunt for any one with a love of history.

 

[Metal Magnet]

fantastic, just fantastic. thanks for posting this.

 

[CRUSADER]

One man's junk another mans 300 year old Treasure

 

[SouthJerseyJim]

I would pay to go on a hunt like that. Just awesome hiatory there!

 

[romeo-1]

Great post but please educate me...what is a bottle seal? Those look like they are glass and quite large...

 

[natepen]

Yeah, I'm curious as well, how do they get sealed with glass? It looks like they have sharp edges too. Am I going down the wrong road here cause of the word "seal"?
Nate

 

[CRUSADER]

Great post but please educate me...what is a bottle seal? Those look like they are glass and quite large...

They are just a quality mark/seal that were stuck on the front of a bottle to show its make/quality.

 

[Bill D. (VA)]

Great post but please educate me...what is a bottle seal? Those look like they are glass and quite large...

A bottle seal is a disc of stamped glass that was applied to the outside of the bottle, usually on the shoulder. It was generally used to identify the owner by name or initials, their coat of arms, or the year it was produced. Sometimes it was also used to identify contents. This practice was started in the mid-1600s and seals were generally made for the wealthy, taverns, etc. Rumor has it that each case would only contain one sealed bottle, but not sure if this was true. I've attached a pic below so you can see some examples of early sealed bottles. Credit for this photo goes to Ivor Noel Hume's book "Something from the Cellar - More of This and That". The large majority of bottle parts we were finding at this site were from pancake onion bottles which date from the late 1600s to the early 1700s. A good example of a pancake bottle can be seen in the lower middle of the pic below. Hope this helps ..... Bill

 

[romeo-1]

Thanks for the reply...now I see!

 

[Bill D. (VA)]

Wow! Nothing that dates that far back out here on the left coast, what a great place to dig. How deep down were you when you found the 1713 seal?

The trash pit area was covered by about a foot of clean ground, then the use layer extended from that point down to about the 4 ft level. Most of the goodies were dug in the middle of the use layer with mostly oyster shells and brick fragments nearer the bottom. So to answer your specific question, the seals came from around 2-3 ft down.

 

[Getty]

WOW !!! SPECTACULAR DIGS there !!!