Tiny bottle

[Leroy Jenkins]

I recently moved into a very old house, built sometime in the late 1800s. While doing yard work and gardening, I’ve been finding glass buttons, old insulators, and lots of old broken glass, so I know there are treasures to be found. This little bottle was laying completely exposed in a gopher mound. To me, it looks old, but I need some verification if possible. Please give me your inputs and opinions.

 

[moodorf]

It's really, really hard to date little vials like this. I agree that based on some of the crudeness of it, it does seem old. Usually I would judge how old something like this is by how old the other glass in it's immediate area is.

 

[Leroy Jenkins]

There is definitely a good amount of very old glass scattered around, but also more modern stuff as well. I also wanted to ask on here if anyone has probed for privys, and if so, what is a good starting point to do so. I’ve never done it nor seen anyone do it, but am very interested in trying it out.

 

[Len]

Hi Leroy,

I once got an Indian point that a mole had pushed to the surface while he was tunneling. --Off hand I'd say yours might be a med bot that held some powder or a scent bottle for a lady's small purse. Might be more modern than you wanted but the earliest I'd put it at would be the late 1800s. Love the color. --Now, don't be disheartened. I have a feeling you're sitting on many more discoveries.

 

[willong]

There is definitely a good amount of very old glass scattered around, but also more modern stuff as well. I also wanted to ask on here if anyone has probed for privys, and if so, what is a good starting point to do so. I’ve never done it nor seen anyone do it, but am very interested in trying it out.

Following is a pretty good instructional video, one of the more comprehensive I've seen on ground probing techniques:

One can certainly find others on YouTube. I've been encouraging Jake and Tom of Below The Plains YouTube channel to include even more of the discovery process in their bottle digging videos. Their earlier videos included clips of bits and pieces of map work, lot gridding and probing. I recall one or two where they showed how they initially used a hammer drill to prepare a grid of holes through hard-packed ground such as parking lots in order to enable probing the underlying soil. It surprised me to see that amount of effort documented, and it lead to my viewing their channel regularly as new videos were added.

Of course, to justify such effort, one need have some idea of a limited target area. On residential urban or town lots*, one would typically probe in vicinity of rear property line and somewhat along the side boundaries. It's really a matter of deducing where early residents would place a privy, keeping in mind that one would naturally desire convenience but also want to place that smelly facility far enough away from the backdoor, which often entered directly into the kitchen, that the odor would have a chance to dissipate rather than overwhelm the residence. With town lots, the distance available to offset a privy from the house was limited to the depth of the property. On farm and rural properties, the same considerations would apply, but with more siting options. Traces of yard-defining features such as old fence lines, stone walls or a level area that abruptly changes to rough, undulating or sloped ground might provide clues to what rural residents considered their "backyard" in the 19th century.

* Below The Plains often employ Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps in their searches, as do many other bottle diggers. Many of the maps actually show privies where they were located at the time the map was drafted (privies were often moved when holes filled, though the pits were periodically dipped in some districts). If your home is located within a town that was covered by a Sanborn map, obtaining a copy of that map is the first step I would recommend beyond simply stepping out the back door to start stabbing!