Promising new permission...

[oddballaffliction]

Had a great day out and about yesterday, mixed with a lot of luck! I was out in the eastern part of VA picking up a motorcycle for a friend, and didn't that person have this giant cannon ball sitting in front of their garage! That followed me home. Decided to try my luck door knocking at a place I had scoped out a few months ago. Turned down once, but the second gave me the go ahead. A few hours later I had a nice little haul, and permission to try the rest of their 70 acres! I am hoping to get back there in the next few weeks, and will keep this updated!

 

[oddballaffliction]

Cannon ball was dug on a construction site in Hampton roads in the 1970s.

 

[oddballaffliction]

Back at this same permission yesterday. 20 bullets (one made into a poker chip!) Musket butt plate with some wood left. Saddle strap guide. A few flat buttons. Spencer and Henry casings. I will definitely be back again!

 

[A. Roy]

I notice in your second photo that the item at bottom right is a ceramic fragment. I haven't done any real hunting like you're talking about, but kicking around at the perimeter of construction sites (with a known CW history) I have run across pieces of ceramic. Is there some way to date artifacts like this, and to know whether they are Civil War era?
ARB

 

[R. Porter]

I notice in your second photo that the item at bottom right is a ceramic fragment. I haven't done any real hunting like you're talking about, but kicking around at the perimeter of construction sites (with a known CW history) I have run across pieces of ceramic. Is there some way to date artifacts like this, and to know whether they are Civil War era?
ARB

The short answer is yes. As far as dishes, etc. go, you are talking about bits and pieces of whole plates, bowls and other items that are sold more or less whole in antique stores. There are lots of books on antique ceramics that cover shapes, sizes, colors, designs, and anything else. Usually you will be able to make a general identification and then pull out the right books to see if you can match to a particualr known piece. Antique ceramic guides will have all sorts of info on who, when, and where pieces were made and even cultural influences from design and functionality to images of famous people or events either molded or transferred by decals. You may be on a known Civil War site but the ceramic bits you find can show that there was something there in the colonial period. An example from my own experience involved a site that I knew was supposed to have Native American, colonial period and Civil War period occupation on it. The site was basically several plowed fields along the James River. I collected items from the surface without using a metal detector. I also grouped what I found so that I could get an idea spacially of what concentrations there were and how they related to each other. I found a couple of lead bullets from the Civil War, but most of what I found was ceramic. Based on the ceramics that I found I could tell there were concentrations from the late 17th century, 18th century and 19th century. By looking up an article or two in National Geographic I found that two of the concentrations probably dated to 1619 based on a few pieces of ceramics and some pipe bowls. Later I found out that a few squarish bits of rusty metal that I took for old trash from the early to mid 1900's were pieces of 16th century armor probably sent to the colony after the Indian Massacre of 1622. So that's an example of saving everything you find because you don't know what story it might be able to tell.

When it comes to something like bits of Native American pottery, archaeologists have guides that describe appearance, the type of temper used, the type of shape used, and applied designs to help identify and date them. I never learned about Native American pottery but a reasonably experienced archaeologist in any region can probably look at something from the area the size of your thumb nail and give you an approximate date range and cultural affiliation.