7" Colonial Meat Hook and other Iron Oddities

[Eastender]

Deep in the woods today I came across a buried debris field with forged nails and strange pieces of iron. Not a lot of stuff and no sign of habitation other than some likely foundation cobbles randomly strewn around. Last Fall I found a colonial-era oxen bell and iron yoke hardware here and knew I had to get back. The hook seems quite old, a multi-generational farm may have stood here from the late 1600's through 1800's. It is fun and interesting to examine big pieces of iron and wonder what purpose or farm implement. I hope to find something more diagnostic here for a better time frame. Thus far no coins, buckles, ballistics, or buttons. A general absence of household-type finds.

 

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[Digger RJ]

Nice!! Congrats!!

 

[pa plateau hiker]

I wonder if that one relic might be some kink of clevis, but I don't get the 2 knobby things on it.
Also, I don't think that's a meat hook, it's too broad. Meat hooks are thiner with a sharp point.

 

[sandchip]

I wonder if that one relic might be some kink of clevis, but I don't get the 2 knobby things on it...

Looks like two of them, the first one looking cast with the holes broken out or worn through. Odd pieces. Hopefully, somebody will know what they are.

 

[Eastender]

Here's what I am now thinking. These could possibly be two pulley housings minus the wheels. There are three fairly large freshwater ponds surrounding the plateau this former farmland is on. There is a steep bowl-shaped dry ravine and they could have very well had an ice house at the bottom of it. Maybe they were cutting ice and using oxen to haul the blocks uphill to the ice house. Today I found this flat iron chisel-like instrument in the same area which could have been used to cut blocks.

 

[relicmeister]

Theorizing is fun it gets us to imagine what life was really like in those early years in the colonies.

 

[njrelicgairl]

HI

It seems to me that some one just dumped that stuff there for what reason.

 

[ajaj]

Interesting. I found these recently next to a cellar hole dating to the late 1800s...

 

[Eastender]

Amazing similarity with the hook. Maybe mine is a little more crude. Highly unlikely these pieces were randomly dumped. Originally part of a 1760 one hundred acre farm. Artifacts were spread apart at a depth where colonial artifacts have been retrieved. And the ice theory not out of the question. Cutting and storing ice is a well known practice in these parts.