Posted on 09/26/2017 2:11:27 PM PDT by Red Badger
BOSTON (CBS) — Workers digging at the Paul Revere house in the city’s North End believe they may have found an archaeological jackpot that could give them a unique window into history–the Revere family outhouse.
The possible privy site was discovered Monday, and diggers were attempting to open it up Tuesday to investigate.
Archeological dig going on outside Paul Revere's House in the North End. What will they find? pic.twitter.com/1rBgv7hAL5
— Doug Cope (@dcopewbz) September 26, 2017
City Archaeologist Joe Bagley told WBZ NewsRadio 1030’s Doug Cope that a find like this is important because people back in the Colonial Era threw a lot of stuff in their privies–stuff that could give insight into their lives.
“You’d fill it up with you-know-what, and then also your household waste, because everyone threw their trash out into that,” Bagley said. “We’re hoping to find the individuals’ waste themselves, which, we can get seeds from what they were eating, we can find parasites, find out what their health was, but then everything else that they threw out from their house.”
He said the team found a four-by-six-foot brick rectangle–too small to be the foundation for a house or a shed.
Pouring over potential artifacts from 1700's at archeological dig on Revere family property in the North End. pic.twitter.com/ng2lehT79T
— Doug Cope (@dcopewbz) September 26, 2017
“Typically what you would do is you would dig a big pit, you’d line it with bricks,” Bagley said. “You typically would also line it with clay, because you didn’t want the contents to leach into your well.”
But the only way to confirm the true nature of the find was to dig into the potentially gross contents.
“We love finding privies,” said Bagley. “We think we have one. The only way to find out is to dig down into it and see if it has that nightsoil–that kind of smelly, dark soils which are now composted and not that bad, but they might have a stench still, a little bit.”
Digging in what might have been Revere family privy outside Paul Revere house in the North End. Pieces of coal found pic.twitter.com/DnP9IYvBk5
— Doug Cope (@dcopewbz) September 26, 2017
The archaeological team has already found the handle to a German-made beer stein from the 1700s, as well as pieces of coal.
“If we start finding thousands of artifacts, then we really know we’re in a really important feature,” Bagley said.
Piece of beer stein from the 1700's found at archeological dig outside Revere family property in the North End. pic.twitter.com/JN1tOhnvDB
— Doug Cope (@dcopewbz) September 26, 2017
Bagley said that there was a law in place in Boston starting in 1650 mandating that every household dig their privy at least six feet deep–but that doesn’t mean everyone followed the law.
“I expect that, at most, we’ll have to go down that full six feet,” Bagley said. “I hope it’s six feet deep, because that gives us the best opportunity to find a lot of things from multiple families.”
The home has been a fixture in the North End since around 1711.
This is simply digging up what has been similarly been dug up before.
It's all about money.
His neighbors used to hear him shouting “The British are coming! The British are coming!” from within the privy after big feasts.
This is simply digging up what has been similarly been dug up before.
= = =
But if it was Thomas Jefferson’s Privy, and they found condoms, they could check the DNA, or if they did not find condoms, maybe Thomas is the father.
See. This archeology is very beneficial. We need more of it.
LOL! Probably $25,000 for every pottery shard or piece of broken glass.
I have to disagree. IMHO, this is the kind of stuff universities should be researching. As an amateur genealogist, I have to be, by extension, a historian. It’s really upsetting how much of our history has been lost because people just didn’t care to preserve it, on top of all the wars where courthouses, etc., were burned to the ground. Did you know that just within the past 5 years, someone looked more closely at a map of coastal North Carolina from the mid-1500s and realized there was a patch on it...upon lifting the patch, they discovered a symbol of a fort? It had been a secret “right under their noses” for over 400 years. This has led them inland to the Chowan River, where they have discovered broken English pottery dating to the Elizabethan period. In other words, they may have found the Lost Colony.
Who knew that on the 2nd most important midnight ride of Paul Revere he got splinters?
it’s the little details - like outhouse building codes - that make history all that more interesting
Elizabethan period. In other words, they may have found the Lost Colony
****************
But...but...if they find the Lost Colony what will become of the Lost Colony Attraction in the Outer Banks? The great mystery will be over! ;)
Another thing to keep in mind is that these archaeological digs on historic sites may be governed by established laws.
Oh wait, it was probably more like the "Village of White Slavery," since the Coastal tribes were notorious slavers even long before the English came ashore.
Talk about blowing up a liberal narrative!
Here’s an article about some new discoveries in the last few years about the Roanoke Colony. I think they may be onto something with this.
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/11/science/the-roanoke-colonists-lost-and-found.html?mcubz=0
What a crappy job.
Coal ashes would have been used to kill the smell. In more “modern” times we used lime.
Having taken the tour, I can tell you that Abraham Lincoln's home in Springfield, Illinois has a `three-hole' outhouse. I asked Missus Dice, "Can't you just imagine Abe, Mary Todd and little Tad all taking their ease at the same time?"
Coal was hardly (if) ever used for smoking food. Almost any wood would have produced better-flavored smoked food...
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Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere.....  |
Have you ever wondered what they used before the Sears catalog? ;^) Thanks Red Badger.
Remains of 8th Century Flush Toilet Found in Gyeongju
http://world.kbs.co.kr/english/news/news_Cu_detail.htm?No=130466
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