batfish
Well-Known Member
So, I keep finding these teeny tiny cellar holes. I’ve found three of them way out on the hiking trails (since I started looking for bottles, I spend more time looking for straight lines in the forest than I do at the trail, if you know what I mean!).
What are these? They seem way too small to be house foundations, unless the house was a one-room shack (which I suppose is possible). They are all mounded up inside with rock, bricks, and other dreck. They tend to be about 10 feet square, one with a smaller alcove (closet size), and about five feet deep. All are made of un-mortared stone. All have some red brick in the debris, indicating that they had chimneys.
The places where I am finding them is mostly abandoned farmland, long since reclaimed by forest, in southern NH (Auburn, Chester and Londonderry, for you locals!). They are accessed via little known, little used footpaths.
Since, I suppose, these old cellars were dug by hand, I’d guess those that dug them had an interest in making them as small as possible. Could it be that the cellar hole represents but a small portion of the house that once stood over it? Maybe the cellar was under only one part of the house – the rest on a slab or less? Or are these likely something else? What other sort of structure would have a dug foundation? Hmmmmmm….
I’d give you pictures, but my digicam is currently broke.
What are these? They seem way too small to be house foundations, unless the house was a one-room shack (which I suppose is possible). They are all mounded up inside with rock, bricks, and other dreck. They tend to be about 10 feet square, one with a smaller alcove (closet size), and about five feet deep. All are made of un-mortared stone. All have some red brick in the debris, indicating that they had chimneys.
The places where I am finding them is mostly abandoned farmland, long since reclaimed by forest, in southern NH (Auburn, Chester and Londonderry, for you locals!). They are accessed via little known, little used footpaths.
Since, I suppose, these old cellars were dug by hand, I’d guess those that dug them had an interest in making them as small as possible. Could it be that the cellar hole represents but a small portion of the house that once stood over it? Maybe the cellar was under only one part of the house – the rest on a slab or less? Or are these likely something else? What other sort of structure would have a dug foundation? Hmmmmmm….
I’d give you pictures, but my digicam is currently broke.
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