Flaschenjager
Posts: 1183
Joined: 12/21/2002
From: Central Virginia - USA
Status: offline
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Hey all,
I had probed the area days before. This was at my friend's plantation, first built in 1730, and sits on 390+ acres. Saturday, in the early afternoon before setting up to dig, I popped up a test hole to see the area that everyone thought was a privy to dig. Well, it wasn't a privy at all. It was a depression where a tree once stood. Then I moved on to probe other areas. I probed many depressions and came up empty. We went inside and studied two old photos of the house for almost an hour, grabbed a quick bite to eat, and I headed out to probe again. Five minutes later, and it was close to four o'clock by then, I found a privy. I dug a test hole which turned up older pieces of black glass onions and some 19th century glass. Something didn't seem right, but with everyone watching me, I started slinging soil. Well this took a lot longer than it should have, but with lights and a lunar eclipse going on, I kept digging. I started off by finding a SCA Carter's cone ink. Now keep in mind, every bottle found was raced into the house for a rinse off. I dug up some other 20's bottles, but at this point I felt that this was a waste of time and wanted to find the older privies. I kept digging though and by myself, but I always had an audience. After I made it through the one foot thick barrier of bricks, I reached the "use layer". It turned out to be a wood lined 1920's privy. The great bottles were not in this hole, but I did dig my first blue poison, after all the digging I've done in the past. Now I must find the site where the fill dirt was placed on top of this pit. It contained the older shards, almost 200 years older.
The best part about this privy was that the homeowners (good friends of ours) got to see what I'm going to be doing at their house in the coming months. Their kids loved looking through the dirt for marbles and other items. They also got to keep many bottles that are beautiful, but for me I'm looking for the older ones. My main point here is that they were very excited with the whole experience, and this, I feel, should matter the most.
The very best part of this dig was that I gained a few more permissions. One farm is from the 1700s and another is from the early 1800s. I still have tons to dig at the plantation though. Arrrrrrrrrrr! More stories to come I'm sure.
_____________________________
'Meech'
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Lunar eclipse privy dig...with lights - 
RE: Lunar eclipse privy dig...with lights - 
. She claimed that if something like a bottle was whole, they would find some use for it on the farm until it was broken. The other important thing she said was any “trash” was put on a wagon, and when full, was dumped away from the house in a ravine, creek or other low spot. From experience this has proven to be true on many farms. So also look for those filled in spots or creeks! Unfortunately, the ones I’ve dug in seldom have gone back much past the last 1800s. As far as privies – there had to be some somewhere. And I can’t believe that everything made it to the trash wagon. I still have hopes of the good pre-1860s farm privy. Keep posting you findings. 
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