Pit 60: Level 3

Completed by DC and Jocie Locke, Debbie Bloom, and Odess and David Brinkman on January 20, 2014. The artifacts just kept coming and we knew this would be one of our better pits but we would not know just how good until the cleaning and counting was complete. After recovering over 2100 pieces of pottery in the Granby dig, we are still finding new types. Level 3 had two new pottery types. Another piece of a 1680-1720 pipe stem was found in the top of level 3. It may have been cut in half during the leveling of level 2. Level 3 also gave us 4 pipe bowl pieces and 6 Native American pottery pieces. With 18 nails in the level, we set a new nail record with 49! What was thought to be a round rusted iron piece may actually be a button. As we approached the bottom of the pit, we ran into another fire pit feature. Extra care was taken with this one to save some charcoal fragments without contaminating them. This will be another good candidate for radio carbon dating since this was found below the plow zone and could be pre-Granby. Overall, Pit 60 might be the best pit in the Granby dig with 82 pieces of pottery, 72 pieces of glass (a record in kitchen pottery), 49 nails (a record), 1.29Kg of brick (a record), 10 Native American artifacts, 54 pieces of charcoal, 23 iron pieces, 7 pipe pieces, and a possible Indian bead or Colonial jewelry stone. Pit 50 still holds on to the top spot but if the round metal object, found in level 3, turns out to be a button, the artifact power rating will make pit 60 the best pit. Needless to say, the artifact recovery average continues to climb after pit 60 so we have not gone over the artifact hump yet in Granby.

Pit 60: Level 3 produced: 31 pieces of pottery, 28 pieces of glass, 18 nails, 6 Native American pieces, and 4 pipe pieces.

Below: A close-up of the 2 pipe bowl pieces

Below: A close-up of the possible metal button.

Below: The fire pit feature found at the bottom of pit 60.