Pit 37: Level 3
Completed on April 24, 2013 by: Jocy and DC Locke, Odess and David Brinkman. The Locke's and Brinkman's got together for a Friday evening dig to finish pit 37. What we thought was just another large rusted nail, turned out to be one of the biggest finds of the dig. Many experts looked at the item and guessed it was a gun part or door latch. After several weeks, I found an identical item in the book: "A Guide to Artifacts of Colonial America". It's the tumbler of a plate lock which is one of parts of a key/lock used in Colonial period homes. Our South Carolina State Archaeologist (Dr. Jon Leader) also agreed with this identification. It's great to find something so unique and so limited to a certain time period. We had good pottery and the largest take on charcoal. Overall Pit 37 made it into the top 5 of all pits. Total counts included 45 pieces of pottery, 61 pieces of glass, 19 nails, 12 pieces of iron, large brick and charcoal counts, 2 pipe pieces, and a couple of Native American pieces. We are now left with one pit to do (38) on this third row from the Riverland Drive fence. Based on the artifact numbers we are seeing in the middle of this row, we have decided to do, at least, one more row toward the house.
Pit 37: Level 3 produced: 19 pieces of pottery (2 Native American), 23 pieces of glass, and 7 nails.
Above: The mystery item turned out to be an 18th century (Granby) Plate lock tumbler. There is no doubt about it given the following evidence in the book "A Guide to Artifacts of Colonial America" (see below book illustration).
Above: DC excavating our largest piece of charcoal
