Started Digging again

[PhilaBottles]

the second photo you can just see the ruins in the background, so about 20 yards. They didn't seem to mind dumping

i didnt see them in the background on the first look. very interesting. try probing for the outhouses. how old would you say the ruins are? Matt.

 

[Andyf]

i didnt see them in the background on the first look. very interesting. try probing for the outhouses. how old would you say the ruins are? Matt.

It's difficult to say. The house certainly existed in 1887, as it is on a map. We have a great resource in the UK of web based old maps..

http://www.old-maps.co.uk/

It has fully digitized maps from 1880-1890. Finding sites by comparing to modern maps and looking for disappered houses is a good technique.

My guess is this house dates from 1840's, judging from the small window size. If I get finds from that date I'll be very happy.

In the UK we don't tend to find privvy dumps, especially around here as there is bedrock about 2 feet down.. Most big towns had organised municipal dumps from the 1880's onwards. Isolated farms like this one just throw it over the wall, sometimes a few yards away. Finding dumps can be easy, just go around with a fork and dig around looking for ash in the first few inches.

 

[Andyf]

Made two nice finds today, in the space of half an hour. A 6oz codd and a BIM crown cap mineral. Both will clean up nice, but the CC doesn't need much attention. I think I'm on the older part of this dump now. The bottle are in good condition on this dump, as it's wood ash not coal ash....