Pit 45: Level 4

Completed on August 14, 2013 by DC Locke and David Brinkman. Completed on August 14, 2013 by DC Locke and David Brinkman. Due to the heat related illnesses at the end of pit 45 (on Saturday) we needed another day to complete the pit. I also wanted to test a new theory that the land may not have been as level in the past and that the trash pit might be getting deeper as we move south. Continuing the dig at 60cm, the first few shovels gave us a nice pottery piece and then something we often see at the deep end of a pit... a pipe stem. This one was huge and was the bowl end of the pipe. The bore hole dates it to 1720-1750. Not much more was found after this but we continued until 74cm. At that point, a soil probe was performed in the bottom of the pit taking us down to 150cm (5 feet). The probe results were negative and the theory disproved. DC and I did a little metal detecting in other areas of the yard and found modern day items but also some brick and flint fragments which give us some ideas about future areas to do pits. In all, pit 45 shows a decline in artifacts compared to the 2 hot spot areas to the north. Never-the-less, it was a good pit but it required a lot of work as we were still cutting roots event in the deep soil probe. The totals for the 4 levels were: 25 pieces of pottery, 11 pieces of glass, 4 nails, 3 Native American pieces, a pipe bowl and pipe stem piece. We also had the mystery concrete/clay pieces which are yet to be identified.

Pit 45: Level 4 produced: 3 pieces of pottery and a pipe stem.






Below are photos of the soil probe taken in the pit after level 4 was completed. The results were negative.