Garden “Archeology”

Discussion in 'The Village Square' started by Sjoerd, Jun 30, 2025 at 3:56 PM.

  1. Sjoerd

    Sjoerd Mighty Oak

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    We have been gardening on this same plot for twenty-five years and every year we find new artefacts. Some old and some not so old. Some things I just leave in the soil if it was found in the flower garden.

    Apparently back in the day, where our gardens are was once a great reed bed outside the village and a common place for the inhabitants to toss broken pipes, pottery and some iron things. There are also various types of stone that appear from time to time.

    Some of the more interesting bits we place on the windowsill of out garden shed. I am now going to show you them from outside the window and inside the window.

    Will begin with the outside looking in aspect:
    IMG_0776.jpeg

    Then from the inside looking out:
    IMG_0780.jpeg

    I do this so that you can see the objects from two different angles.

    I am showing these, but if you have any idea what items two and three from the left are, tell me what you think. I suspect that at least one of them may be a meteorite. The smaller of the two. It is dark and quite heavy, considering its size.

    Article number four (from the left) is half of a smooth sphere. It is a bit large, but I get he idea that it may have been fired from a muzzle or perhaps used as a weight…I don’t know. Any and all ideas are welcome.

    If I think about these questions too long, I form opinions and develop a sort of tunnel vision. Here is my tunnel:
    IMG_0814.jpeg
     
    Last edited: Jul 1, 2025 at 12:30 PM
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  3. Daniel W

    Daniel W Hardy Maple

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    Those are indeed interesting things, @Sjoerd. You live amongst such a long history, with settlements, domestic life, war and violence, industry, agriculture. I find it all very compelling.

    I have no idea what those objects might be!

    One day you might find golden coins. Maybe a trove from a Roman legionnaire, a Viking hoard, or a neolithic priestess. Maybe a saber tooth tiger's tooth, or a wooly mammoth's molar.
     
  4. Zigs

    Zigs Young Pine

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    Sjoerd, you are a kindred spirit :D

    I have a shelf like that and all sorts of things that I've dug up here. I have 3 meteorites, 2 that I've bought and one that I found in the veg garden. I would like to see your one closer.

    I've found items here that are from every period since the ice retreated, there has always been someone here in the village. I have mesolithic tools, Celtic Bronze, Roman glass and pottery, Saxon and Medieval pottery and then later musket balls and hand made nails.

    I found Medieval floor tiles inlaid with lighter coloured slip, usually from important buildings but more likely they were dumped here when the Victorians "restored" the church :rolleyes:

    I'm currently metal detecting the campsite, finding many tent pegs, but also money and rings :)

    DSC01478.jpg
     
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  5. Zigs

    Zigs Young Pine

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    I have a Roman penny and a Boar's Tusk Daniel :D
     



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  6. Daniel W

    Daniel W Hardy Maple

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    Zigs, I've thought many times about doing that. I expect I would only find nails and screws, but you never know.
     
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  7. Zigs

    Zigs Young Pine

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    I've had detectors on and off since 1975 Daniel :) Found a lot of nails, silver paper, coke can rings etc. but also some pre first world war artillery shells, Celtic lead tokens and lots of coins from the 1600's onwards. Tetters gave me the current detector for my birthday and it took me 10 minutes to find a gold wedding ring, halmarked Birmingham, 1969 :eek:
     
  8. Doghouse Riley

    Doghouse Riley Hardy Maple

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    When I was digging out my koi pool in 1986, I discovered an 1800s glazed earthenware 1 pint beer bottle, with the brewer's name in black lettering on the side. It was completely intact. I washed it out and took it indoors and put it on a kitchen window sill. I forgot about it for a few days. When I went to find it, I found it had disappeared. My wife told me, "I wasn't having that dirty old thing in my kitchen I put it in the bin!"
    Our house is built on what was always farmland until the mid 1960s.
     
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  9. Sjoerd

    Sjoerd Mighty Oak

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    Daniel—Thanks for your reaction. It is always interesting to dig up something whilst working in the soil.

    Zigs— That is nice that you actively look for interesting things. I could do it for a living. Haha. No, but it is fun and very interesting to discover something.
    I am not going out to the lottie today because of the heat; however, I will go tomorrow and try to make a couple of better fotos to show you.

    I recall on here that you were talking about flint. I don’t recall if it was about flint pieces in the soil or typical Norfolk flint and brick dwellings.
    So, until I can get a better shot of those stones, I will show you some flints of my own:
    IMG_0823.jpeg
     
  10. Zigs

    Zigs Young Pine

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    Blimey Sjoerd, those are excellent arrowheads :)

    I found a small one while I was metal detecting the other day, it wasn't finished on both sides, I wonder if it had pinged off and was lost by the bloke making it?

    DSC01573.jpg

    If I was talking about flints before it could have been either. I collect antiquities and I also worked on old flint buildings, including Clarendon Palace, which was all flint :D
     
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  11. Zigs

    Zigs Young Pine

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    Found this lead bag seal yesterday...

    DSC01587.jpg
     
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  12. Pacnorwest

    Pacnorwest Strong Ash

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    Some really good finds you all have found in your gardens . Nothing exciting found in my garden it was a rain forest.

    When I was a volunteer for an archeological dig in Colorado, way before a major highway was put across that area. … and yeap I’m old, 78 last week and still kickin . And while on that dig we put what was found onto a wood framed screen shaker. Then would slowly scrape off the clay soil with a small pallet knife and carefully wash off with water. A archeologist professor managing miles and miles of the dig would inspect items found and sometimes I found arrowheads , small tools made from petrified wood or pieces of pottery from American Indian settlements. I have some arrowheads somewhere… along with some old marbles dug up along the way.
     
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  13. Anniekay

    Anniekay Shovel Kicker

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    :smt026 HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY @Pacnorwest !! :smt026
    I would give you birthday whacks but I'm afraid I'd sprain my hand !! :p.
     
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  14. Daniel W

    Daniel W Hardy Maple

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    Happy B-day Pac!
     
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  15. Jersey Devil

    Jersey Devil Garden Pest

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    I constantly find old dirt which I believe is millions of years old , if not older. ;)
     
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  16. Sjoerd

    Sjoerd Mighty Oak

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    Zigs— nice find! Always a surprise there.
    Thanks for liking my flints. There is a hoe and a scraper in that lot.
    I found these in the u.s. when we lived and worked there a number of years ago.
    BTW— that is a nice-looking point you have.
     
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