jgas
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- Apr 23, 2008
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1870's Pit Finds, Umbrella Ink, Buttons, Marbles
Got out to throw some more dirt around in the hot humid sun
This time we dug two pits that dated back to the 1870's. Did some research on this site that had a rather huge house( biggest on the block back on the 1893 maps). The house is no longer there but a new one is on site. Lucky for us the area where we assumed the privies would have been is still accessable. We would find out soon enough that accessable would mean to remove some bushes 
Oh well, it was an hour and a half of cutting, sawing, chopping, hacking but we made it through. 
The first pit I literally got lucky and stabbed it with my probe on the first poke. So Don and I started our first excavation of the day. Started off by finding some nice layering as we travelled below. But the layers produced a bunch of broken items. Pottery, some glass shards but nothing much. We did finally come across a heartbreaker pitcher that was nicely painted.
There was more of that type of stuff to come. Found a really crude medicine or fruit jar topper that was clearly just a blob of glass placed on top when it was molten.
Then at about 6 feet down I was scraping around a bit and out falls this nice Umbrella Ink with a sheared top
That was the only intact bottle in the entire pit. It is a hinge mold type so it dates back to the 1870's. Then it was on to the next pit.
We were pretty beat already but decided to probe just a few feet behind the other pit. We had to remove a huge evergreen bush to get access to it. After removing the bush and getting down about 4 feet out pops numerous lantern shades. These are never intact. Then Don started pulling out glass buttons and some clay marbles. Then he finds an NR Co. GoodYears P=T 1851 button. That may be the oldest button we have ever found. Its plastic or rubber. Found a few non descript medicines and a broken pontiled cornocopia flask 
So it was not what we had hoped for but I am sure there are more pits in and among the bushes. We shall return and scavenge around a bit more 
Hopefully there will be a loaded pit there assuming these people had money since the house was so big Here's hoping for a future dig that turns up much more 
Goodluck and be safe out there. jgas
Got out to throw some more dirt around in the hot humid sun
This time we dug two pits that dated back to the 1870's. Did some research on this site that had a rather huge house( biggest on the block back on the 1893 maps). The house is no longer there but a new one is on site. Lucky for us the area where we assumed the privies would have been is still accessable. We would find out soon enough that accessable would mean to remove some bushes Oh well, it was an hour and a half of cutting, sawing, chopping, hacking but we made it through. The first pit I literally got lucky and stabbed it with my probe on the first poke. So Don and I started our first excavation of the day. Started off by finding some nice layering as we travelled below. But the layers produced a bunch of broken items. Pottery, some glass shards but nothing much. We did finally come across a heartbreaker pitcher that was nicely painted.
There was more of that type of stuff to come. Found a really crude medicine or fruit jar topper that was clearly just a blob of glass placed on top when it was molten.Then at about 6 feet down I was scraping around a bit and out falls this nice Umbrella Ink with a sheared top
That was the only intact bottle in the entire pit. It is a hinge mold type so it dates back to the 1870's. Then it was on to the next pit.We were pretty beat already but decided to probe just a few feet behind the other pit. We had to remove a huge evergreen bush to get access to it. After removing the bush and getting down about 4 feet out pops numerous lantern shades. These are never intact.
Then Don started pulling out glass buttons and some clay marbles. Then he finds an NR Co. GoodYears P=T 1851 button. That may be the oldest button we have ever found. Its plastic or rubber. Found a few non descript medicines and a broken pontiled cornocopia flask So it was not what we had hoped for but I am sure there are more pits in and among the bushes. We shall return and scavenge around a bit more Hopefully there will be a loaded pit there assuming these people had money since the house was so big Here's hoping for a future dig that turns up much more Goodluck and be safe out there. jgas
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. I hope to dig an actual privy sometime soon, but it's been a bit on the hot side here ![:-\](https://www.treasurenet.com/smilies/undecided.gif "Undecided :-\")
. 
MR TUFF
