✅ SOLVED 4x4 square holes dug in ground why is this?????Help

[Bass2448]

View attachment 951849Ive been detecting a spot I know about it has five old homesteads that I know of ive counted atleast thirty 4x4 square sunken holes in the area they have small mounds of dirt beside them all they have been filled in but can see where they are....Bottle dumps Cellars or what help Please... These are some items ive found there...

 

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[cudamark]

Post holes?

 

[Bass2448]

Im sorry they are 4 feet 4 feet.....

 

[creskol]

Privy holes maybe

 

[aa battery]

sometimes stuff buried is so it becomes a decoy. just saying

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

Im sorry they are 4 feet 4 feet.....

The last guy detecting there didn't fill in his holes.

 

[Hawkeye35]

Privy holes maybe

This is what I'm thinking as well.

 

[mamabear]

I'm thinking privy too. Take a piece of rebar & push it into the center of one of the squares, then try doing the same with a random section of earth. I the rebar goes down with little resistance, it probably is a privy. If you dig it, have some one there with you. Good luck!

 

[fyrffytr1]

Why would there be thirty privy holes at one site? Is it possible some other hunters have been digging there?

 

[JimDon]

Spots for Water troughs for farm animals.?

 

[Back-of-the-boat]

Why would there be thirty privy holes at one site? Is it possible some other hunters have been digging there?

The people that had lived there were full of .......................................................................LOL

 

[Bass2448]

From my research its a ghost town estd. 1848 to sometime around the 19th century..The holes are 4feet x 4feet and they are dotted all threw the woods there...From what ive read it had buildings and 127 people living there........

 

[BosnMate]

They were looking for can's of gold coins My guess would be privy holes. Try what Mamabear suggested.

 

[Helix]

Interesting about the 4'x4' square holes. Sounds to me like privy or outhouse pits, also sounds like they have been dug if there piles or mounds of dirt next to them. I have never heard of privies settling that much were there is a clear hole in the ground let alone 30. Unless they were dug and not filled in completely. ?? Sound like a great spot to detect!

 

[Gold Maven]

Sounds like archaeologist type digging. Everything has to be in squares.

 

[Dak]

Right on Gold Maven my thoughts exactly. The Archies have been there.

 

[creskol]

I hunted a high mountain village one time that had square holes just as you describe, complete with perimeter mounds of dirt. They did turn out to be shallow privies. The ground was too hard and rocky to dig deep, so when the poop-pit got full, they moved the privy to another spot. Check the soil inside the pits and you should be able to tell if they were shallow privies or not.

 

[aka da Prof]

perhaps root cellars--

 

[surf]

Hello Bass,

Welcome to TNet.

Could you provide some better information on these "4 foot X 4 foot" holes, please. Photographs would be better, still.

Archeologists doing a survey, typically dig Shovel Test Pits. The STP's are typically 50cm square and often follow an alignment. I have seem one meter STP's as well. Has the dirt to the side been screened?

I, too, would probe these holes to see to what depth the ground has been disturbed.

Coastal's Archaeology & Anthropology Blog | Archaeology and Anthropology at Coastal Carolina University | Page 4​

 

[dennco2000]

Check for corn.....