Down in SC for a bit, and although its hot, its not stopping me from digging! Here are two mornings worth of results from digging and sifting my Colonial Trashpit site in the lowcountry-
Ended up with 267 pipe stems and bowls! Notably one is marked TD, Thomas Dormer, who started in the pipe making buisness in London in 1755, and one bowl is totally intact, a first from this site! Also dug part of a kettle with the handle, and a colonial shutterdog, which would've held the shutters open on a colonial house. Dug a bunch of bottle bases and tops, sadly none complete but thats the nature of this pit!
I also dug some crystal/glass goblet stems and bases, one which I was able to reconstruct. One item that almost passed me by was the little half wig curler, thought it was a pipe stem at first. This is the third wig curler from this pit. There was also a ton of brick in this pit, which I stacked up as I was digging.
While I was scraping away at the sides, I saw an intact base of some sort of cup! I slowly eased it out and saw that I had an awesome english slipware cup, and saw more pieces of it in the hole! I had to reconstruct it a bit, but it is a posset pot, a term which I knew nothing about until I researched a bit. It is likely early 18th century, a similar one was found in CT by archeologists and they said that it was very outdated by the 1790s, the context it was found in. Posset was a drink made from curdled milk with ale or wine- which doesn't sound that great to me haha!
This was the first of some artifacts I attempted to reconstruct. A Teacup, bowl base, and even a GR Georgius Rex (King George) westerwald stoneware jug that I was able to reconstruct! A GR jug was high on my bucket list, and I'm very happy to be able to own a piece of history like that!
I also recovered an intricate clay marble, the second one from this site. This one is swirled brown and white and almost looks like polished wood! With items in this pit and the dating of pipe stem bores that I have done, it dates somewhere between the early 1700s and late 1700s.
Some other non metallic items of interest that came out of the pit were these two matching lion face and paw parts from a teapot or something along those lines. If anyone has an idea what it may be please let me know, thanks! I also got a piece of ceramic with a triangular stamp in it, looks composed of material similar to the bellarmine jug part I dug here in December but then again may be something totally different. I dug plenty of ceramic fragments including creamware, westerwald stoneware, china, staffordshire, slipware, and more! There are a bunch of lovely green, brown and smoky colored pieces that go to the same vessel, hoping to reconstruct that one! Found some pieces with faces on them, which is always cool! One even has the letters T A T. Wish I knew what the whole thing said.EDIT - On second thought maybe it says TAX? This site played a role in the revolution also for the revolutionary side so maybe its political? Or maybe i'm thinking to far in to things haha.
Luckily I brought my detector too to detect! I found 4 buttons, one with the backmark of William Cleaver, who was a bishop in Britain in the 18th century. I know of certain backmarks with names of famous individuals commemorating events, but this seems unlikely to me, so maybe an unlisted button manufacture. This button seems to date later than most artifacts in the pit, and was in surface dirt so may have been a later drop. I got three rosettes, one is a nice bullseye. Also got some brass tacks, two brass rings, two musketballs, one chewed, one fired, a tag or furniture eschutcheon with leaves on the scalloped edges, bale seal, and some large brass piece.
And that was about it! Had a blast and can't wait to do it again! Thanks for reading this long winded account! Happy hunting everyone!
"Swords into plowshares"
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Originally Posted by owena1
, you must show us your sifting set up some time . I know that i would be very interested in seeing it and the general location of the pit in relation to the actual home site . you plan on making a complete clay pipe out of all the pieces (i've seen it done and it looked great too) . 
