Pit 23: Level 3

Completed October 13, 2012 by Wayne Grooms, Kathy Boyle, Jocelyn and DC Locke, and Odess and David Brinkman. Just like the previous pit, we did not start finding good artifacts until we were well into level 3. We put the level on hold for a while and had another great lunch prepared by Jocelyn and Odess. Wayne and Kathy also walked through the exotic dig property and identified many of the trees and plants. We snacked on a couple of the available fruits. We also had a visit from Cayce History enthusiast Ron Vaughn who is the father of Cayce Mayor Elise Partin. Back to level 3... This was a tough level as the ground seemed a lot more compact then previous pits. The artifacts all came within a 10cm span of the level. We had to extend the level to 50cm as we were still finding brick at 47cm. Once again, it looks like the artifacts are getting a little deeper as we move South. The overall results for Pit 23, however, were significantly lower than the neighbor pits. Future pits 24 and 25 will be done next to (and South) of this pit 23 and these should tell us if we are seeing a decline in the hot spot. The artifact counts for all levels of pit 23 were: 36 pieces of pottery, 58 pieces of glass, 16 nails, one possible Indian tool, and 3 miscellaneous iron pieces. No pipe parts or Rev-war artifacts were found. The best find probably goes to Odess for a nice green piece of pottery that we have not seen before. After filling the pit, DC and I did metal detecting in the backyard for a couple of hours. Nothing but modern stuff was found including a large concrete and wire cage-like structure that is several inches underground. We uncovered a couple of large (and cut) bones while excavating the structure. The previous owners had dogs and we presume this was an animal pen but how it got buried is a mystery.

Pit 23: Level 3 produced: 29 pieces of pottery, 47 pieces of glass, and 13 nails.