Nice Early Homesite and a Really Cool Relic!

[paleomaxx]

Had some time to hike in the woods and decided to focus on a cellar hole I found some months back. It's not on the usual maps and it's quite small so I (correctly) assumed it was a relatively early site for the area. It had been hunted before as evidence from iron stacked on rocks so I put it on the back burner until now. I brought the Deus, focused on the really iron infested areas, and dug every whisper signal I could find. This tactic has served me well for pounded sites like these since the Deus in fast mode is a beast! One of the first finds just a few feet from the cellar stairs was this awesome and kind of creepy brass relic:



Looks like a winged cherub and despite being a pretty large piece of brass it was a faint and deep tone that I had a hard time pinpointing. It's cast and it looks like the hole was made afterwards and not very skillfully. It reminds me a lot of the carvings on top of old headstones, but I can't find anything all that similar online so it's a mystery piece for now. If anyone has any ideas though I'm very interested to hear them!

I found a good variety of small buttons that had been missed:



Looks like late 1700's to 1830's spread with one still having a good amount of gilt intact on the back. There was one copper coin, but it's pretty well toasted:



Just the faint shadow of a few letters are still there, but I'm pretty sure it's a King George halfpenny of one type or another. Not much in the way of large signals but I did manage a furniture fitting and an iron spoon:



Not a bad haul for a hunted site and the mysterious cherub is one of my new favorite relic finds so I'm happy!

 

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[smokeythecat]

Yes, your site is late 18th into early 19th century, and perhaps a tad later. The winged cherub was and still is a popular motif. A lot of them were used back in the day with relationship to death and funerals. It could be part of an old casket. I've seen tombstones with similar devices on them.

 

[Professor of Engineering]

Congratualtions on the nice relic hunt!

 

[lairmo]

Nice hunt!!!

 

[Digger RJ]

Nice!!! Congrats!!!

 

[Whyme]

Looks like that cherub got shot in the forehead! Nice finds. Congrats!

 

[dognose]

good finds.

how long were you there swinging the detector?

Did roots cause you any issues?

 

[Rookster]

Very nice hunt. Congratulations

 

[Trezurehunter]

Looks like it was a nice day for relics. Great finds.

 

[paleomaxx]

good finds.

how long were you there swinging the detector?

Did roots cause you any issues?

Thanks! Probably 2 hours at this site and roots are always a problem in the woods! If they're too large for the shovel to go through I bring a trowel to dig around and under them. Fortunately that's not too common, but I've found some nice relics under large roots so it's always worth doing carefully.

 

[Yak1366]

Nice finds, Congrats!!!

 

[dirtlooter]

way to work the deus to bring out the finds

 

[pa-dirt_nc-sand]

Nice collection of saves. Isolating a mid or high tone in the iron is very satisfying. Pinpointing the hole is a challenge for me on the deeper targets as the hole will often have several iron targets. Congrats!

 

[Argentium]

This kind of cherubic ornament was ubiquitous throughout the Italian Renaissance, spread to England , and most of Europe . The hole in it is likely related to a failure of the original threaded accomodation - or a re purposing of the ornament . I have no solid theory for the original intent of this piece , but it could be mourning related (casket of an infant or child) or it could be more an ornament on a cradle , or headboard of a bed - as in angels keeping watch ( protective) ? Nice relic ! I'm interested to see other ideas about it .

 

[paleomaxx]

This kind of cherubic ornament was ubiquitous throughout the Italian Renaissance, spread to England , and most of Europe . The hole in it is likely related to a failure of the original threaded accomodation - or a re purposing of the ornament . I have no solid theory for the original intent of this piece , but it could be mourning related (casket of an infant or child) or it could be more an ornament on a cradle , or headboard of a bed - as in angels keeping watch ( protective) ? Nice relic ! I'm interested to see other ideas about it .

It wasn't more than 6 feet from the main entryway to the house so perhaps they nailed it over the doorway or on the door?

 

[A2coins]

Wow I love stuff like that that cellar hole would be like a christmas tree unwraping the goodies