My latest finds

[cannibalfromhannibal]

Dug these out of a weird wood liner last Thurs/Fri. A very strange one because the stone liner next door I discovered the week before and had been dug at least before 1985. So when I discovered roots that looked hacked at about a foot & a half, I thought "UH OH!" I also thought about how hinkey I get after finding one that I got beat out of. I had probed a triangulation and the four foot probe showed grey dirt, but nothing definite. Didn't feel glass, no ash or lime, nuthin'! So I pulled out the 6 footer and pulled up ash, but it felt very soft......TOO soft! Beaten AGAIN! So I sat and thought about it. Likely the same folks that dug next door dug this one as well. So, if before 1985, maybe they just went off the Sanborn map and didn't use a probe. This shows up as a pretty obvious privy on the '85 map, but the harder to find '54 map shows a structure, either a barn or house, on the lot. I hoped it was strictly the "newer" privy and they didn't probe for more and/or didn't know about the earlier map. I decided to at least dig until I found what they threw back in the hole to determine the age. If no pre civil war shards, I was still in business, was my thinking........

 

[GuntherHess]

what are the light amber meds on the left? Druggists?

 

[cannibalfromhannibal]

So as I am digging, watching for shards, at about the 3 foot level, my little shelf I am standing on keeps crumbling underneath me, irritating me even more knowing it was someone else's dig. Suddenly I hit a fairly solid feeling ash layer. I think, "They likely tunneled underneath this shelf and when it collapsed, they left it in situ. I kept digging carelessly and then figured after about a foot and a half of this layer, I should check it out a little closer. I get in with my scratcher and almost immediately flip up a Miles Rest. Nervine, old neck style! Hmm, I think. Even I would take these home if not machined, for trade or whatever......So I get on the shovel, a little more carefully and another foot down and up pops a Paines Celery....! Still in an ash layer, now it has my full attention. I get to serious digging and after about 4 hours, I discovered my first undamaged amber lightning fruit jar. At this point, I quit for the day at the 8' level. I poked through a lower level and figured to leave it until the next day. Near the top in the fill, I dug 4 pieces of a jar that just looked rare. It clearly pre dated everything else by 30 years so I saved the pieces for a later glue job at home.....

 

[cannibalfromhannibal]

Hi Matt, they are the more common Greydon's from Cincinnati, "Diseases Of The Lungs", but have nice color and crudity...I love them!

 

[cannibalfromhannibal]

So I get home and put the finds in the wash bucket and turn to the jar pieces. I look the jar up in my outdated red book and it lists for a grand! Of course! The edges look awful clean and as I wash them, they look like I broke it somehow. But how? I didn't smack it with a shovel. Hmmm......so I get out the glue bottle and glue the top pieces together and the bottom ones together. I still didn't figure it out until I set the top on the bottom and slowly turned it towards me. AAARG! Then I became painfully apparent, though I never felt it happen.......

 

[cannibalfromhannibal]

Disgust and dismay! I did what I warn newbies about......overprobing the pit. To my defense, there were two older jars, both tossed late in the 2' fill layer. The second one was a more common Haines Patent 1870. It also looked to have been stuck by the probe, but on closer inspection, it had iridescence on the broken edges. Still........Jack

 

[cacarpetbagger]

Nice dig, sorry about the jar.

 

[cannibalfromhannibal]

Here is a shot of the unusual lugged and reeded top. Was a gorgeous jar. Only original damage was a 1" lip chip, Until me and my probe found it! Jack

 

[cannibalfromhannibal]

Thanks cacarp....on the plus side, this turned out to be the later privy and have hopes of digging the older one when the heat wave here moves on this weekend. I avoided probing the obvious until there was nothing else, which didn't take long as it is a very small lot. Did probe a "maybe" it's a hole, right where I would expect the older one to be, just got distracted by the easy digging.....this older one is pretty close to a tree, and I'm not fond of roots right now.......Hopefully its a pre civil war pit loaded! Jack

 

[cannibalfromhannibal]

Here is the Lightning jar in situ.......