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Five years of solo excavating my yard

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  • Five years of solo excavating my yard

    I’m posting this again. New member and struggling with site navigation & use. (Last post was under odd topic and I don’t think it got many viewers) Points, preforms, scrapers, pot shards, and musket ball! Cape Cod, marsh / creek side, near bay. Late Archaic through Woodland and Colonial stuff found in my dig.
    Attached Files

  • #2
    Cool finds, I like your determination. Do you have more plans for digging? How did you decide where to dig in the first place?
    South Carolina

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    • GreatMarsh
      GreatMarsh commented
      Editing a comment
      Visited a publicized professional dig nearby. Exact same geology as my 7.5 marsh/creek side property. I found tons of flakes, CFR and a quartz Squibnocket stemmed point in first test pit. The rest is history. Five years solo digging. I’ve dug 33 4’-6” square x average 24” deep pits since April. Most yet. (Kind of obsessed...🥴) I’ve concluded that I’ve the 8,000 plus years that Native Americans have lived on Cape Cod, they lived on every great river, creek, shore front potential campsite. Often the same place for thousands of years. Think about it....”thousands” of years.

  • #3
    Nice assortment of artifacts, looks like a good way to locate artifact hot spots
    South East Ga. Twin City

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    • #4


      Today, 06:59 PM
      #2.1
      GreatMarsh commented
      Today, 06:59 PM
      Visited a publicized professional dig nearby. Exact same geology as my 7.5 marsh/creek side property. I found tons of flakes, CFR and a quartz Squibnocket stemmed point in first test pit. The rest is history. Five years solo digging. I’ve dug 33 4’-6” square x average 24” deep pits since April. Most yet. (Kind of obsessed...🥴) I’ve concluded that I’ve the 8,000 plus years that Native Americans have lived on Cape Cod, they lived on every great river, creek, shore front potential campsite. Often the same place for thousands of years. Think about it....”thousands” of years.

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      • #5
        Welcome from Connecticut....that's awesome being able to do that in your yard! ...nice artifacts
        SW Connecticut

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        • #6
          Thanks for the photos. You have some interesting finds in there. The piece that was being drilled split in half...WOW.
          Michigan Yooper
          If You Don’t Stand for Something, You’ll Fall for Anything

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          • #7
            Originally posted by GreatMarsh View Post
            I’m posting this again. New member and struggling with site navigation & use. (Last post was under odd topic and I don’t think it got many viewers) Points, preforms, scrapers, pot shards, and musket ball! Cape Cod, marsh / creek side, near bay. Late Archaic through Woodland and Colonial stuff found in my dig.
            Hi GreatMarsh. Thanks for posting your finds. If I may make a suggestion Please. If you are not documenting your finds, you should. Take Pictures in Situ. Take notes.Measure depth of the finds. Document Document Document! As an Archaeologist I will tell everybody that excavation is the destruction of a site! Professionally done we can actually put the site back together back in the Lab. We map every find. That way we can save the site for others in the future. I really can't stress this enough. Now don't take me wrong. I'm not criticizing you in any way. It's your property. And I encourage you to make the best of it. Posting it in a way also saves it for future use. Thanks. Kim
            Knowledge is about how and where to find more Knowledge. Snyder County Pa.

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            • GreatMarsh
              GreatMarsh commented
              Editing a comment
              I map carefully. I bag and label pit number, date and depth 2”-4”, 4”-6”, 6”-9”, etc., box and save every flake (!) pottery shard, bone fragments, charcoal, points, etc. I’m well aware of controversy of “non-professionally” excavating...destroying / disrupting history! Think about it all the time. Conclusion I reach is that I don’t personally like or trust a bunch of young, self righteous, know-it-all, academic types, on my property. I dreamed my whole life of finding Indian artifacts. I worked my tail off for over 40 years, 50 to 60 hours a week, sacrificing to a major extent, family activities, hobbies, social life, etc. I guess I look at it as having earned my freedom for the “final period” of my life. This is not to mention the reality of what happens to a site like mine.... Vast majority of the time, they get undiscovered, or unappreciated, bulldozed over and developed. My whole coastline is a continuum of ancient sites, all under million dollar homes. My excavation is a godsend by comparison. In fact, my documented and framed artifacts will be more valuable to real people in the future as they stay with the property after I’m gone. By comparison, the “professional logging, documenting and summarizing” results in locking the history away in darkness- no one ever sees it. Kind of like the scene in Indiana Jones movie. It’s good that it occurs, but the true result, is far less than perfect. I know a few professional archaeologists, too, who share my view. Putting their professional “dictum” aside, they laud my effort and point out that it beats the “professional approach” that results in ludicrous red tape, regulation and ultimate “lock up” of the info. and treasures for all time....or, the bulldozer fate. I understand and respect your view. But this, carefully considered, is mine. Peace.

          • #8
            Nice collection of artifacts and really cool that they all came from your yard. Personally, my wife would not be pleased if I was digging up our yard. ... "really honey, it's going to be a garden."
            Thanks for sharing, fldwlkr
            Headwaters of the Little Miami, Ohio

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            • GreatMarsh
              GreatMarsh commented
              Editing a comment
              We have 7.5 acres. It’s not all Scott’s lawn. We don’t dig on that part. The wonderful thing is that my wife works 7 hours a day in our yard and is such a supporter of my hobby that she helps fill in my holes. In fact as I found today’s point in a new pit, she filled in the last two. 4’ x 4’ x 24” deep...deeper in spots. Best foxhole buddy ever.

          • #9
            Nice collection and dig. It's always fun when you can find artifacts on your property!
            Near the PA/Ohio state line

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            • #10
              I remember Dr Brown teaching proper digging grids and still have my trowel. It was all very tedious ... My hat is off to you Sir , do your thing ! I’ll be watching for your posts !
              Lubbock County Tx

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              • Cecilia
                Cecilia commented
                Editing a comment
                Gosh, yes....very impressive!
                (I am a wild, undisciplined digger. I try not to wear my glasses outside, coz always looking at the ground, and even if just take out garbage, might see spot need to sit down right then and start digging!

            • #11
              Nice site collection keep up the good work its yours to enjoy .

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              • #12
                Thank you GreatMarsh good Job! I do agree about the professionals. On the other hand, Many a time I go to the State Museum and ask to see this object or that collection, and so on. I just need a good reason to view or study their collections, and they open the doors for me. Once I asked for a loan of some site material to display at a local Museum in another County. A Few questions and some loan agreements and I was our the door with what I needed. It's all about cooperation. I think you know this, they would be nowhere without the Amature. I help them they help me. I think your doing a wonderful job. You know GreatMarsh I treat every find with a kind of reverence for those that lived here before we arrived. Kim
                Knowledge is about how and where to find more Knowledge. Snyder County Pa.

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                • #13
                  Marsh, welcome! You are gonna be well-liked in this forum, I can already tell! I spent a lot of time in Montauk, and I always imagined Cape Cod’s beaches and ocean waves to be similar. Your dig-site is very impressive, especially to another digger (whose activity appears not far removed from that of a squirrel’s!).
                  Digging in GA, ‘bout a mile from the Savannah River

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