I'm may not be Indiana or Brennan...

Over the years I've changed my mind many a time in regards to what I would do "when I grew up." A singing-trapeze artist, a Sea World employee, a shop keeper, a movie star... there's quite a few that were ex'ed off of the list (for many reasons haha)... especially when I realized as a child that you'd actually have to touch the fish & dolphins & whales to do the job I had wanted to do at Sea World. Go figure that I then realized I had a somewhat irrational dislike of even thinking of touching a fish.

Yet the one job that I can say I (somewhat) regrettably let get away was: an archaeologist. And I don't think it had to do with Indiana Jones, though I did enjoy those movies. It started with a (now very ancient) computer game about Ancient Egypt, Greece & Rome. I don't remember the name. It was basically an educational game that I wasted hours and hours away at. I learned about slaves in Ancient Rome, what the Greeks ate for snacks and how the Egyptians mummified pharaohs. I don't know how many of my peers would have been as entranced with this program as I was, but MAN was it FUN! My absolute favorite part was about Pompeii and besides being able to stare at the casts of the bodies or the artifacts that had been found, I also liked watching a video on the "Bone Lady" or something of that nature. It was basically a short video about a woman who dug up bones at Pompeii or an other town that Vesuvius visited and embraced, virtually hiding it away for centuries. Basically anything Pompeii related captivated me and this Bone Lady was awesome!

Part of me really did want to grow up and become an archaeologist or anthropologist. I even applied to several colleges for those degree programs. Long story short, I ended up at a college that had neither a archaeology nor an anthropology program (though I was able to take a anthropology course) and graduated with an American History and Mediated Communications double major and a minor in French. I know, doesn't really make sense. Except that I realized somewhere between high school and college it was probably for the best, as I have an "aunt" (close family friend) who works in those fields and for most of her adult life, and all of mine, she's lived a nomad's life. Yes she has a "homebase" but she's away many months out of the year and due to the different environments she's lived in, she's had different illnesses and ailments that don't really appeal to me. While doing work in the Valley of the Kings would be amazing, I would rather not breathe in dust that could damage my lungs or give me an air-borne disease. I just found out that she's even had a brush with tuberculosis. Thank you, but, no thank you to the fields archaeology and anthropology.

Or maybe, I don't have to go too far to have a chance to dig something up!

I live in a somewhat wooded area, or a least, part of the property entails "woods." The back of my property is marked by an old stonewall and there's more in walls in the woods. This includes an area that I believe was once a road or path. My neighborhood also boasts an old graveyard, in a somewhat random secluded spot, since about 2 minutes down the road there's an old church.


For privacy reasons, I'm only showing one of the graves of one of the babies in the graveyard.

From what I know, there wasn't a heck of a lot around there before my neighborhood was developed, twentysomething years ago.

As kids, my siblings and sometimes even my cousins and I would enjoy playing in the woods, playing on the rock walls, or just "exploring" our territory. This usually would just result in messy muddy children with ticks brought home as unwanted presents. Yet one day, this changed, when someone spotted something on the ground. Excited, we started to "sweep" the area near a wall because we were quickly pulling out pieces of glass and pottery. Someone found a rusted old metal bucket.
This bucket is exactly like the one we found, yet this one I just found at the graveyard.

While now I realize kids digging around the backyard to find glass pieces doesn't really sound safe, let me just tell you, it kept us busy and outside. And I don't recall any serious injuries.

Over the years, my siblings and I would find a few things here and there, sometimes enough with the help of a parent, to glue some pieces together. I was usually the ringleader and the most excited, for after all, this meant there had been people living here before us! I mean the graveyard did signal something definitely happened around here. And what my parents/neighbors/someone told us about the tree near our deck, definitely meant people had lived around here. This particular tree had remains of a hunter's post, apparently, where they could climb up to get a better shot of I'm sure the deer that would wander through the area. While the tree stood, it fascinated me. Still does make me wonder but sadly it had to be cut down several years ago due to age and disease.

Can you spot the tree stump?

As I grew up, I had less time to spend digging in the backyard for my version of "hidden treasure" but I knew there had to be more out there. I just didn't have any idea it would be so close, or literally almost in plain sight.

A few weeks ago I decided to get out of my house and walk around by the back rock wall. (Well really I tried to dig up a rock I thought was a grave stone by one of our larger trees but it didn't work so well with the roots growing all over so I went for a walk). First I spotted a brick, encased in a tree. Weird. But cool.



Then, I was quickly rewarded when flashes of sunlight reflected off pieces of glass that had come to the surface due to years of rain and weather. I couldn't believe what I was finding, and as I walked along, I realized there was one spot where I was finding quite a few things. A hotspot, if you may. On the left side of a tree, I was definitely finding a lot more than usual.



Shards of glass. Clear. Then Amber. I found pieces that looked like a part of a jar, due to the ridges. I found pottery that looked like it was part of tea cup's plate. Sadly due to the evil rocks that wouldn't come up easily due to the hotspot being around the left side of an old tree AND the sun was going down... I had to stop sooner than I wanted. (especially since the tree had grown up and over one very big rock)



The next day I went out again in the afternoon and did a little more digging with a few more good finds of ceramic and glass. I even found the bottom of a "Gulden's Mustard" glass bottle.

Yet it wouldn't be until the next weekend when I would hit the lottery.

I decided to hit up the right-hand side of the tree for this adventure. The only problem was there was a huge rock slab leaning near the tree and I wasn't strong enough to pull it away. I wanted to clear away the leaves and little rocks to get an easier place to sit and work next to the tree.



WELL LO AND BEHOLD! I literally looked down to where in between the big slab and another evil rock, there was something definitely resting. I got my hands around it, barely pulled and up came an intact bottle!! I turned it around in amazement, it was made of pretty thick glass and I didn't want to drop it. I turned it over to see if there was by any chance words on it. THERE WAS! "Blue Label Ketchup" ... hum, mustard jar, ketchup bottle, hints of a tea cup and its dish... sounds like a picnic to me!




But instead of telling you about every thing that I found, I'll just let the photos that I took speak for themselves. I also just happened to meet a woman a few weeks ago who works at the local historical society (I was there for a video I was shooting for work). So I definitely have more than few questions to ask her! Plus if anyone knows of an amazing glass glue or the easiest way to get decades of dirt off of glass and pottery without damaging them, especially the ceramics, that would be great. Because it's not as easy as it sounds. I will be getting out some old tooth brushes soon to continue cleaning the dirt off, since letting a few items soaked in water didn't really help, and using q-tips was kind of wastefully stupid.

Anyway, enjoy my finds! I certainly do!

Due to research, this piece of china came from Edwin M. Knowles China Company from West Virginia and was made in 1926, I believe the 2-1 means February 1st, but I could be wrong.

Due to research, I am pretty sure this Clorox bottle is from the 1930s.

I have more photos, let me know if you're interested in seeing what else I found.