Jamestown, Va. onions found and dig...

[Flaschenjager]

Hey all -
Check out this dig. This article/link was posted on another bottle forum tonight and is worth reading.

---I think that I could sneak by security and I live kinda close too! [][][]

http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/story.cfm?story=73106&ran=67724

 

[Bluebelle]

Thanks for posting that - I often read the Virginian-Pilot on line, but not every day, so I might have missed it. What an awesome find. What fun it would be to be a young archeologist (or even a young anything again! []

 

[leebran20]

I've occasionally read stories in my state newspapers of the goings-on of local archaeologists. I've always found the paint brush thing very amusing, though I understand the reasoning behind the practice. What's more amusing to me about this particular story, Meech, is that they found the bricks of the cellar last fall and left it alone till now. Even clearer distinction between true archaeologist and bottle digger, huh?

 

[Matt in NH]

Man thats awesome......Maybe someday my curiousity will be rewarded with a discovery like that [8|]

 

[Flaschenjager]

Brandon,
I golf with a guy that said he was a (junior or in training) archaeologist. He gets teased sometimes and a nickname was given to him as a paint brush user. He was known as the "bone brusher"[].

Yes, after discovering the walls or stone/brick outlining, I would have worked feverishly through the night, plucking those onions. I don't keep a paint brush in with my dig tools. []

 

[medbottle]

Thanks for the post Meech. I was born and raised in Hampton, Va., and I always like to see stuff from down there. Next time I visit, that article will probably be waiting on the dresser, cut out by Mom. I used to dream about finding stuff like that, but the Phoebus dump wasn't quiiiiiiite that old.[]

 

[Bill D.]

Medbottle - your comments caught my eye as I too was born and raised in Hampton, and have dug at the Phoebus dump. I have yet to unearth a whole colonial black glass bottle, but I've dug numerous bottoms and spouts at a site in Hampton, including about 60% of a circa 1700 mallet bottle. These are tops on my most wanted list, but I'll be very lucky to find one intact.

 

[medbottle]

Welcome to the forum Bill. Did you dig those onion tops on Wine Street? I wasn't collecting at the time they made that dig. *sighs* I understand that when Hampton had a bottle club, there was a pair of sisters that would walk bare foot in the creek near Mill Point and find bottles by feel, some of which included black glass. Of course, the old timers could have been having fun with the "new kid" by telling this story.[]

 

[Bill D.]

Medbottle - no, like you, I was not into the hobby back in the days of the Wine Street dump digging. I've heard that was quite a place. Actually, I've only been seriously digging for about 1.5 years, so I'm a relative newcomer. My onion tops and bottoms came from along the shoreline of Mill Creek. That story about the sisters is interesting, but find it hard to believe as there's loads of broken glass in the low tide muck around there, which would have cut their feet to ribbons. Don't think I'll try that one. Are you still digging?

 

[medbottle]

Bill- not digging much any more, although I would like to. I live near Baltimore MD, which has some very early privies, but I don't have the nerve to ask strangers if I can dig a hole in their yard. Most of my collecting is now done using the silver pick, i.e. money, but even that is becoming difficult the way prices are rising....can't seem to stop though.[8D] I've been at it for almost 30 years. Wow...it sure is easier to carry bottles home in a car instead of a basket between the handlebars of my old bike.