Pit 129: Level 1

Completed on July 2, 2021, by Beth Santiago, Lyn Del Rosario, Art Coogler, Josephine Bachman, Jocelyn and DC Locke, Odess and David Brinkman. Today, we welcomed Lyn and Beth, a couple of out-of-towners and new diggers. With three diggers and five sifters, it did not take long to start finding cool items. Two pipe stems were found in the level. One was our most common time period (Fort Congaree II and Thomas Brown), and the other was a rare Granby period pipe stem from 1750-1800. Although Granbians were known to be "great smokers," I believe the family that lived in our Granby house were not smokers. Another interesting item was a small stoneware piece which was the top of a bottle. It had just enough circumference to it that we could figure out the diameter of the top. It turned out to be a one-inch diameter top which was standard for the late 18th century and early 19th century (Granby period). Newcomer Beth then made the find of a pewter necklace bead. We would later verify that the item was pewter by determining its volume through water displacement and then calculating the density. As we finished level one, it was still a big question as to what the age of the bead might be. Some thought it was modern. Others thought that it could be the Granby period. Being that part of this pit is in the trench of the 1960s gas line, we know things are disturbed here, and older items are mixed with the newer items at all depths. The answer to the bead would come in level two.

Pit 129: Level 1 produced: 4 kitchen pottery, 1 stoneware, 4 kitchen glass, 4 window glass, 3 nails, 2 pipe, 1 dress, and 1 slag.





Below is the bottle top and how we determined the diameter.