Pit 142: Level 1

Completed on Mar 5, 2022 by Odess and David Brinkman. Just the two of us took on a major job today under the Magnolia tree. It's a really rich artifact area but it was clear that there would be huge tree roots to deal with. It did not take long to find that a major root system (over one foot in diameter) was coming into the west side of the pit. We decided to attempted digging under this. Probably because these roots had push artifacts up, we found a higher than average number of artifacts in the pit. They were mostly Granby period with some Native American pottery pieces. The only two kitchen glass pieces appeared to be from the same bottle. Oe of these was a nect piece with a calculated diameter that matched a Turlington Basalm bottle. These bottles held an English patent medicine created by Robert Turlington in 1744. It is famously known for being comprised of 27 ingredients, mimicking the complexities of pharmaceutical compounds of the era. Turlington's Basalm is also one of the earliest patent medicines to be imported and advertised in America. Print ads appeared as early as 1750 in Boston, Philadelphia and Maryland newspapers.

Also found in the level were several pieces of blue indigo cloth. In the nearby pit #43, we found similar cloth in level three which we believe were Granby period. Indigo was produced in Granby for a number of years.

Pit 142: Level 1 produced:






Below are pages from the Granby Congarees Store account book from 1784-1786. It seems a popular item in Granby was Turlington Basalm.