kenb
Bronze Member
Outhouse diggers scour land for 19th century artifacts
Published on Sunday Feb 10, 2008
Digging around in 19th century outhouses doesn't sound like most people's idea of a fun weekend. Eddie Brater and Mike Kalchek would argue otherwise.
Brater and Kalchek spend many weekends excavating 150-year-old filled-in privies _ also known as outhouses _ in the backyards of homes in Cincinnati and nearby northern Kentucky. They search for items that early homeowners routinely threw in them. They have found glass bottles, china dishes, toys, coins, utensils and even intricately carved pipes.
"It's like treasure hunting," said Kalchek, 56, of suburban St. Bernard, who started digging 11 years ago.
The men collect some artifacts for themselves and sometimes sell to other collectors.
Brater began digging in his backyard about eight years ago, finding seven privies on the acre of land. He has since started a Web site and given presentations to local historical societies and libraries.
"It's just a neat look into history," said Brater, 42, of suburban Crosby Township.
Using long metal probes to poke around for the stone or wood homeowners used to line privies, the men dig with shovels and then refill the holes after retrieving any artifacts.
They dig for free and offer to split their proceeds with interested homeowners. They won't disclose how much they've made from selling artifacts, saying they don't want to encourage reckless digging.
Brater has written how-to guides and poetry about his hobby and says he doesn't know any diggers who do it just to make money.
"It's the love for history and the feeling of stepping back in time that draws the privy digger," Brater said.
The hobby has been growing over the past decade, with Web sites offering instructions and more people now aware of the value of some rare bottles and other 19th century artifacts.
Many professional archaeologists and historians, however, are critical of untrained privy diggers.
"Privies contain a wealth of information about people's lifestyles and their diets and their health, and all that information gets lost when these guys go in and just churn the stuff up," said David Pollack, site protection program manager for the Kentucky Heritage Council and director of the Kentucky Archaeological Survey.
Artifacts unearthed by archaeologists also remain in the public trust, said Robert Genheimer, a curator of archaeology at the Cincinnati Museum Center. Five cases of artifacts _ including a police uniform _ unearthed from privies in downtown Cincinnati in 1981 are on display at the center's Museum of Natural History and Science.
Amateur privy diggers also can face physical dangers and legal problems. A bottle collector excavating a privy in Cincinnati in 1984 was killed after the earth collapsed on him, and diggers also can be exposed to viruses and bacteria that can survive for years underground.
Evidence of 19th century infectious diseases, including tuberculosis, malaria, cholera, yellow fever and smallpox have shown up in some privy deposits, said Ken Tankersley, an archaeologist and anthropology professor at the University of Cincinnati.
There apparently are no Ohio or Kentucky laws preventing privy diggers from excavating artifacts on private property as long as they obtain owner permission, but Tankersley says the Archaeological Resources Protection Act of 1979 prohibits people from excavating and removing artifacts from public or Indian lands without federal permits.
kenb
Published on Sunday Feb 10, 2008
Digging around in 19th century outhouses doesn't sound like most people's idea of a fun weekend. Eddie Brater and Mike Kalchek would argue otherwise.
Brater and Kalchek spend many weekends excavating 150-year-old filled-in privies _ also known as outhouses _ in the backyards of homes in Cincinnati and nearby northern Kentucky. They search for items that early homeowners routinely threw in them. They have found glass bottles, china dishes, toys, coins, utensils and even intricately carved pipes.
"It's like treasure hunting," said Kalchek, 56, of suburban St. Bernard, who started digging 11 years ago.
The men collect some artifacts for themselves and sometimes sell to other collectors.
Brater began digging in his backyard about eight years ago, finding seven privies on the acre of land. He has since started a Web site and given presentations to local historical societies and libraries.
"It's just a neat look into history," said Brater, 42, of suburban Crosby Township.
Using long metal probes to poke around for the stone or wood homeowners used to line privies, the men dig with shovels and then refill the holes after retrieving any artifacts.
They dig for free and offer to split their proceeds with interested homeowners. They won't disclose how much they've made from selling artifacts, saying they don't want to encourage reckless digging.
Brater has written how-to guides and poetry about his hobby and says he doesn't know any diggers who do it just to make money.
"It's the love for history and the feeling of stepping back in time that draws the privy digger," Brater said.
The hobby has been growing over the past decade, with Web sites offering instructions and more people now aware of the value of some rare bottles and other 19th century artifacts.
Many professional archaeologists and historians, however, are critical of untrained privy diggers.
"Privies contain a wealth of information about people's lifestyles and their diets and their health, and all that information gets lost when these guys go in and just churn the stuff up," said David Pollack, site protection program manager for the Kentucky Heritage Council and director of the Kentucky Archaeological Survey.
Artifacts unearthed by archaeologists also remain in the public trust, said Robert Genheimer, a curator of archaeology at the Cincinnati Museum Center. Five cases of artifacts _ including a police uniform _ unearthed from privies in downtown Cincinnati in 1981 are on display at the center's Museum of Natural History and Science.
Amateur privy diggers also can face physical dangers and legal problems. A bottle collector excavating a privy in Cincinnati in 1984 was killed after the earth collapsed on him, and diggers also can be exposed to viruses and bacteria that can survive for years underground.
Evidence of 19th century infectious diseases, including tuberculosis, malaria, cholera, yellow fever and smallpox have shown up in some privy deposits, said Ken Tankersley, an archaeologist and anthropology professor at the University of Cincinnati.
There apparently are no Ohio or Kentucky laws preventing privy diggers from excavating artifacts on private property as long as they obtain owner permission, but Tankersley says the Archaeological Resources Protection Act of 1979 prohibits people from excavating and removing artifacts from public or Indian lands without federal permits.
kenb
