Pit 48: Level 1

Completed September 22, 2013 by DC Locke, David Brinkman, and Dean Hunt. We started the dig just a few hours before the official end of summer. It was great weather for digging. We decided to shift the dig closer to the house in an area that had a pronounced depression (about 2 feet in diameter). We thought it could possibly be the town well but, more likely, the former spot of a tree. We quickly hit something solid. At first, we thought it was a large piece of charcoal but it had a shine to it and was very brittle. We continued to run into this unknown substance (big and small pieces) as well as the rough asphalt like material we have been finding in pits near the road. We concluded that it was a component (or slag) of the 1960 paving of the neighborhood. We found a couple hundred pieces of this stuff in level one so it really slowed us down and probably distracted DC from the biggest find of the day. During cleaning of the artifacts, a 27 caliber lead shot (Revolutionary War) was identified. We also found what appears to be a large portion of the pipe bowl. Pipe pieces and musket balls are very unusual in level 1 so this and all the asphalt material (and modern day brick and concrete) make us think that this depressed area of the yard may have been a hole that was dug to bury unwanted material in 1960 and the digging of the hole may have led to the musket ball and pipe piece getting moved to the top.

Pit 48: Level 1 produced: 2 pieces of pottery, one pipe bowl piece, 4 nails, a large amount of modern day brick and concrete, and a 27 caliber musket/shot ball.