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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[Steve in PA]

Bill those bottle seals are so cool How many do you have now? I would like to see a picture of all your different specimens

I'm also looking forward to seeing how you hatchet/axe turns out.

 

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[joeyfresh]

Holy crap Bill. That King Carter seal is outstanding. I just read an old book by Ivor Noel Hume when he helped identify some of the finds from the archaeological dig at Corotoman. He mentioned that of the 1000's of wine bottles excavated, none of them had Carter's seal on them. What have you found out about that seal you found....I'm extremely curious.

 

[joeyfresh]

I keep coming back to this post and looking at the pictures. I vote banner on the Carter seal alone nevermind all of the other early colonial artifacts. I wish you could tell us more about the property Bill but probably not since you want don't to draw much attention to it. I am blown away by this!!!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Carter_I

 

[Bill D. (VA)]

Holy crap Bill. That King Carter seal is outstanding. I just read an old book by Ivor Noel Hume when he helped identify some of the finds from the archaeological dig at Corotoman. He mentioned that of the 1000's of wine bottles excavated, none of them had Carter's seal on them. What have you found out about that seal you found....I'm extremely curious.

I haven't done any further research yet, but it appears the Robert Carter seal is quite rare and highly desireable. Wish I could find further info on it, but it will likely take some time. If you happen to run across anything please pass on to me. Thanks ..... Bill

 

[tigerbeetle]

Sure hope you were sifting that astoundingly important (historically) dirt. If not, check out http://www.stoneyknoll.com, a fine archaeological equipment website. Don't want to miss trade beads, buttons or smaller coins.

 

[Bill D. (VA)]

Sure hope you were sifting that astoundingly important (historically) dirt. If not, check out http://www.stoneyknoll.com, a fine archaeological equipment website. Don't want to miss trade beads, buttons or smaller coins.

For the first few years there we weren't sifting as we were primarily looking for whole bottles. But we were scanning the dirt with our detectors. Once a couple bottle seals were found by accident we started sifting. I like to dig the pit out and throw the dirt in a pile on the uphill side. Then I place a 2'x4' framed 1/4" mesh screen over the hole and sift it directly back in, then rake the remaining loose dirt back in. My friend likes to sift each shovelfull as it comes out of the hole, then rake it all back in when he's finished. Its not easy sifting as there are loads of oyster shells, brick and glass fragments, and other misc debris in the dirt. So once you've sifted all the dirt out of the screen you still have a load of material remaining so you have to start picking out the larger stuff by hand and then have good eyes to find any keepers. There's no telling how many small non-metallic items we missed in the past, but we're not going back and sifting all that dirt because there's an extremely large area that still has not been dug. Obviously we'd rather concentrate on that than hit previously dug areas.

 

[Bill D. (VA)]

Bill those bottle seals are so cool How many do you have now? I would like to see a picture of all your different specimens

I'm also looking forward to seeing how you hatchet/axe turns out.

Steve - I really don't have much else in the way of bottle seals. I have an amber one from a bottle from the late 1700s I believe that just says "water", and part of a colonial monogrammed seal. And a couple newer ones too. The ones I found Thurs are the first ones like that I've ever come across. And I'm really excited about them, especially the Robert Carter which is supposedly ultra rare. They're both going to take a prime spot in one of my colonial relic displays.