bottles under the rocks

[batfish]

I was talking with a very experienced bottle collector over the weekend (40+ years of digging) and mentioned that my first and only old dump seems to have played out. I explained that the few good bottles I found were right near the surface (1870s or so whiskey flask, late 1800s blob top beers, etc) mixed up with turn of the century stuff. I explained that below the bottle layer was bricks and rocks.

Without hesitation, she told me to move the rocks. She explained that they "used the rocks to cover up the bottles".

Huh?

It would require a lot of effort to move the rocks and bricks. Now that the weather is cooling and the bugs have abated, I might consider undertaking this task. However, I am curious, why in the world did the old timers cover the bottle with rocks? Or could she have just been making a general observation (i.e. you might has well check underneath the rocks - might be something there!).

To those of you who have dug many old dumps (not town dumps, just private, farm dumps) - do you often find a layer of bricks and rocks covering the goodies?

 

[woody]

Some of the best dumps I've dug have been rock piles of field stones.
Unfortunately, glass and rocks don't mix too well.
Depending on the size of rocks, bottles will survive in a rock pile although it is usually the smaller bottles that you will find between the rocks.
I have heard that they dumped in rock piles so that livestock wouldn't walk on the broken glass and cut themselves.
Living in New hampshire, I see alot of rock piles of field stones that have been cleared from the fields.
If the rocks are bigger you have a better chance of finding bottles that have survived being smashed.
Sometimes, though, you'll bust your butt for hours just to retrieve broken shards of beautiful glass.
I hate when that happens.[&o]

 

[deepwoods]

Bat - My rule of thumb is as long as your finding anything man made(brick),keep going down. Ive got a good one Im working right now,and you have to go through 3 horrendous ft of layers of hardened ash,fused together rusted metal,brick and rock,to get to the good stuff at the VERY bottom where its also flooded. They dont make it easy.

 

[tazmainiendigger]

I have found many times here in Maine that when at a old homesteads many bottles seem to bee buried along foundation edges ( barn or house)... divots besides large old rocks, and in double wide stone walls... They made a great storage vaults.... Lately I have seen much to my pleasure old wagon wheels and in the center of these piles of unbroken bottles, it seems as though they placed them there so as not to be scattered then covered them with soil....Not bragging but have recovered approx.100 bottles in this manor over the last couple of weeks.... Have fun and keep digg'n! Taz[]

 

[Tandy]

Hi Batfish, and greetings from Oz!

I agree with what everyone has said about rocks and bottles. It was my pleasant experience to find one of our own South Australian super rare marble bottles in a small dump, under a lot of slate and shale a couple of years ago, and the present dump I am digging is in an old quarry site. Many rocks!