Pit 87: Level 3

Completed November 14, 2015 by Alicia Ballagh, Odess and David Brinkman. Another pipe stem find got things going in level 3 and then the discovery of what we thought was a .50 caliber bullet. At below the plow zone and in the middle of Granby artifacts, this did not make sense. Bullets did not exist in Colonial America. After cleaning, we discovered the item was not lead and probably made of copper. The best guess at this time is that it could be a carpenters plumb. In Pit 22, near this pit, we found the pivot mechanism of what was later identified as a carpenter's ruler. Again, we found high numbers of brick, nails, and window glass which, for all 3 levels, makes this one of the best pits for the Architecture category. We also found a split pipe stem for the third stem of the pit. For the entire Granby dig, we now have 88 pipe stems in 87 pits! About 80% of them come from the 1720-1750 period and may be mostly related to Indian trader Thomas Brown who died in 1747. His land would be purchased by Martin Friday who started his ferry less than 400 feet from here. Friday's Ferry would lead to the development of Granby. The discovery of another small fire pit (deep in level 3) also added 46 charcoal artifacts to the total which pushed pit 87 to an above average pit. All levels in total, pit 87 gave us: 40 pieces of pottery, 40 pieces of glass, 17 nails, 1.23Kg of brick, a musket ball and possible .50 caliber bullet, two 1720-1750 pipe stem and another split-stem, and 49 charcoal fragments.

Pit 87: Level 3 produced: 11 pieces of pottery, 22 pieces of glass, 9 nails, almost 1Kg of brick, a possible .50 caliber bullet, and a 1720-1750 pipe stem and another split-stem.