Pit 106: All Levels

Completed on Feburary 24, 2019, by Odess and David Brinkman. On this day, our Granby neighbor, Cathy Chandler allowed us to dig a pit in her back yard. After 105 pits, this would be the first one outside of our property. The exciting thing about this opportunity is that we would be digging on the outside edge of the main Granby town square. Unlike the Colonial towns like Williamsburg, Granby was stretched thin over about one mile on the Old Stste Road. The only close buildings were in the town square. This included the Court House, Jail, stores, homes, and law offices (Granby was the Seat of Lexington District/County). We chose to dig in the northwest corner of Cathy's backyard which would put us close to the main town square and just off the ferry road. It did not take long to find a piece of pearlware pottery which is unique to the prime period of Granby (1775-1790). Also from that period, were two pieces of the green wine bottle glass. We also found many pieces of what appeared to be slate but some of them had mortar on them. Archaeologist Natalie Adams Pope thought the mortar did not go with the Granby period and that the stone may not be slate. We also found Granby period nails and the typical old brick fragments which are probably Granby period. Several Native American pottery pieces were also found. The total historical artifact counts put Pit 106 at a low ranking (98th out of 106 pits) compared to our main Granby dig site. It was, however, significantly better than the first pit we dug in Granby which only held two histotical artifacts. The numbers we saw here, I believe, mean that we are close to another "hot zone". Maybe within 100 feet of one. Another close neighbor of Cathy reported to us that, many years ago, her father found numerous artifacts incluing a number of colonial period pipe stems. That particular house would fall right in the middle of the main town square. This all goes to show that Granby still has lots of history to give if you are willing to dig into the ground and the archives.

Pit 106: All Levels produced: All Levels produced: Granby period: seven kitchen pottery, one stoneware, three kitchen glass, three square nails, and two charcoal pieces. Native American: Three pottery.