downeastdigger
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Aug 22, 2005
- Messages
- 3,364
- Reaction score
- 13
- Points
- 38
Hello diggers-
Have been on the trail for early pontilled sites, but had no luck. Must have hiked 5 miles back and forth through the woods behind a couple of 1700's home sites, probing as I went. Couldnt find a shred of evidence of a dump site or trash pit, felt like it was right under my feet somewhere.
I did find a nice newer dump 1890's-1920, with lots of digging to do. It was at the end of a short tote trail at the end of a row of 8 identical turn of the century looking houses. There were several dumps sites back there, all new. But I found a semi circular drop off, sliding down about 5 feet. There were no signs of trash or iron on the surface, but it looked like it just HAD to be where these houses would have dumped there trash.
So I probed down through the leaves and topsoil anyways. It went through about a foot and a half smooth and easy, and sure enough there was a trash layer down below. It had clearly never been dug, as whole bottles came out pretty steady, but most were ketchup bottles, and clear cork top unembossed medicines. There were a few keepers though, including a green strap sided SS Pierce bottle, a Duffy's malt whiskey, a couple of aqua Johnsons Anodyne Liniment, and the best of the group, a clear tooled top " Clark Stanley Snake Oil Linement" bottle.
There's lots of digging to go! I need to clear an area off that is about 10 foot by 10 foot, and about a foot deep, all dirt and pine needles, before the dump below it. The houses were only 1890's but you can certainly get good bottles from dumps of that age. I'm just still craving some pontil glass ! Oh well, maybe a late throw.
I'll try to attach a few pics
Happy digging
Bram
The Downeast Digger
Have been on the trail for early pontilled sites, but had no luck. Must have hiked 5 miles back and forth through the woods behind a couple of 1700's home sites, probing as I went. Couldnt find a shred of evidence of a dump site or trash pit, felt like it was right under my feet somewhere.
I did find a nice newer dump 1890's-1920, with lots of digging to do. It was at the end of a short tote trail at the end of a row of 8 identical turn of the century looking houses. There were several dumps sites back there, all new. But I found a semi circular drop off, sliding down about 5 feet. There were no signs of trash or iron on the surface, but it looked like it just HAD to be where these houses would have dumped there trash.
So I probed down through the leaves and topsoil anyways. It went through about a foot and a half smooth and easy, and sure enough there was a trash layer down below. It had clearly never been dug, as whole bottles came out pretty steady, but most were ketchup bottles, and clear cork top unembossed medicines. There were a few keepers though, including a green strap sided SS Pierce bottle, a Duffy's malt whiskey, a couple of aqua Johnsons Anodyne Liniment, and the best of the group, a clear tooled top " Clark Stanley Snake Oil Linement" bottle.
There's lots of digging to go! I need to clear an area off that is about 10 foot by 10 foot, and about a foot deep, all dirt and pine needles, before the dump below it. The houses were only 1890's but you can certainly get good bottles from dumps of that age. I'm just still craving some pontil glass ! Oh well, maybe a late throw.
I'll try to attach a few pics
Happy digging
Bram
The Downeast Digger
]
