HomeGuardDan
Bronze Member
Yesterday my good buddy Bill D and I got out to do some clean-up work on the colonial site that we have been working. We wanted to walk it just once more before moving on and boy am I glad that we did.
The weather was iffy all day and with each new hour we felt like we were on borrowed time. The fields were already sloppy from the previous days rain and the dry spell we were digging in was really more of a mist and humid spell. That being said we started off doing a bit of surface hunting and with that came a few buttons here and there, the occasional musket ball and other tid bit.
This property has two sites, and after an hour we wandered back to the original site that we located (where I dug the cut silver that landed on my loop a few weeks ago). I walked a line right through the site and to a small slope on the back of the site. I was looking for targets but also investigating for potential pits. I dug a button and then some misc brass and then BAM machine gun iron with deep big targets hidden within. It only took me about four shovel fulls to hit the initial layer (about 15" down). Bone, stone, brick and a great color layer were present. I immediately waved for Bill to come on over and the dirt flinging began.
We could not sift and really could not do much more than to investigate the size and extent of the pit as the dirt was sloppy muck and the rain beginning to come back. I did recover much of an early Bellarmine rhenishware jug (with the design partially present). Some early puzzle work already had matched a few pieces together. Also present were some mid 1700's wine bottles and some gray stoneware and other colonial glass goodies. The pit was full of stone which was most likely the cause of all the destruction. A nice but bashed 17th-early 18th century triangular padlock was also recovered. The pit was deeper than we dug as well - all leaving plenty to look forward to.
We will certainly be going back to sift and fully dig this pit out. We also hope that there are others located nearby.
My toll for the day was 8 buttons, some musket balls and other tid bits. We spent 70% of our time digging the pit - it was full of cast iron pot shards as well and we really did not mess too much with scanning the dirt - though I have to believe some goodies are there as well.
HH
Dan
The weather was iffy all day and with each new hour we felt like we were on borrowed time. The fields were already sloppy from the previous days rain and the dry spell we were digging in was really more of a mist and humid spell. That being said we started off doing a bit of surface hunting and with that came a few buttons here and there, the occasional musket ball and other tid bit.
This property has two sites, and after an hour we wandered back to the original site that we located (where I dug the cut silver that landed on my loop a few weeks ago). I walked a line right through the site and to a small slope on the back of the site. I was looking for targets but also investigating for potential pits. I dug a button and then some misc brass and then BAM machine gun iron with deep big targets hidden within. It only took me about four shovel fulls to hit the initial layer (about 15" down). Bone, stone, brick and a great color layer were present. I immediately waved for Bill to come on over and the dirt flinging began.
We could not sift and really could not do much more than to investigate the size and extent of the pit as the dirt was sloppy muck and the rain beginning to come back. I did recover much of an early Bellarmine rhenishware jug (with the design partially present). Some early puzzle work already had matched a few pieces together. Also present were some mid 1700's wine bottles and some gray stoneware and other colonial glass goodies. The pit was full of stone which was most likely the cause of all the destruction. A nice but bashed 17th-early 18th century triangular padlock was also recovered. The pit was deeper than we dug as well - all leaving plenty to look forward to.
We will certainly be going back to sift and fully dig this pit out. We also hope that there are others located nearby.
My toll for the day was 8 buttons, some musket balls and other tid bits. We spent 70% of our time digging the pit - it was full of cast iron pot shards as well and we really did not mess too much with scanning the dirt - though I have to believe some goodies are there as well.
HH
Dan
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