Posted on 07/04/2016 4:15:31 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Excavating toilets might not seem like glamorous work.
But this team of archaeologists were not complaining when they unearthed 87,000 artifacts dating back to the American Revolution while digging up 250-year-old outhouses in Philadelphia.
The Commonwealth Heritage Group made the fascinating find on a dig at the site of the new Museum of the American Revolution, which opens next year.
Twelve of the brick bathrooms were uncovered during the dig just two blocks away from Philadelphia's Independence Hall, the Huffington Post reported.
Intricate crockery, finely detailed jugs, wig curlers and an array of beads were found during the excavation....
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
They’re gonna need a bigger museum.
Ping!
ROFL
coprolites. How wonderful
:) loved that movie! Happy 4th !!
I know people who search for and dig out old outhouse pits looking mostly for old bottles, some of which (rarely) can be worth thousands. They claim that the "stuff" in those pits is now just harmless dirt, but occasionally the contents can still be pretty nasty after 150 years or so.
The pictures of the round brick shafts brought back some memories.
Dug quite a few outhouses in Philly back in the day for old bottles. We were looking for the ones filled in from around 1840-1870 since those had the best chance of having intact glass and pottery (in earlier privies, everything tends to be broken while the later ones usually were just filled with clinker ash). In the pictures, you are only seeing a portion of the shaft, they go down anywhere from 10-30 feet from the surface. The deepest one I dug was 14 feet.
Found many interesting things over the years.
ORIGINAL PUNCH BOWL OWNER
George Washington probably dined in that tavern.
I seem to recall that a dig in York, England recovered an intact Viking era turd which is now preserved in a museum as the Lloyds Bank Turd
Why? Now my whole day is ruined.
(going for the eye bleach)
***can still be pretty nasty after 150 years or so.***
Years ago I read of the excavation of an ancient Roman era pit toilet. After 2000 years, the smell was so bad it still drew thousands of flies to torment the excavators.
Several years back, the AMERICAN RIFLEMAN had an article of a toilet excavation in (i think) St Louis. In it they found an old percussion cap pistol in good shape. In the handle was a small embedded wood chip with a label, “Chip from the USS Constitution”.
Somebody threw a punchbowl in the turd?
while digging up 250-year-old outhouses in PhiladelphiaI'm not drinkin' any of that punch.
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