Pit 118: Level 2

Completed on March 13, 2021 by Kim Masters, Jocelyn and DC Locke, Odess and David Brinkman. Artifact counts picked up (as expected) in level two with, again, a good number of Native American pieces as well as Granby period pieces. The surprise item would not show until we were smoothing the east wall. We first thought we had come in contact with an iron utility line. After careful excavation, a strange looking one pound artifact was removed. Odess and Jocelyn took it away to be cleaned. A few minutes later, Odess returned it and suggested that it may be a farming artifact. Later that evening, a little research proved that Odess was correct. The item turned out to be a guard sickle and most likely a M462 - McComick-Deering No4. This was probably one of about a dozen of these devices that aligned and protected (rock guard) a blade that moved back and forth on a horse driven hay/grass mower. The McComick-Deering Little 4 was a one horse mower that was made from 1889 to 1901, the New 4 was from 1896 to 1915 and the New Big 4 was from 1898 to 1915. Replacement devices like this may have been made into the 1920s. The 1930s aerial photo of this location showed a newly plowed field. This may have been part of the mower that took part in the harvest. This find adds a new dimension to the history. We knew the area had been plowed from the aerial photo and also from the hundreds of plow-scars we have found on artifacts. This guard-sickle proves the other harvest aspect of the farming cycle.

Pit 118: Level 2 produced: 21 pieces of pottery, 36 pieces of glass, 12 nails, a complete farming sickle guard, nine Native American, and 37 charcoal, seven iron, one slate, and five slag.






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