Historical digging is the pursuit of antique bottles and related objects while excavating defunct privy vaults, old town dumps, landfills and elsewhere. Objects being unearthed can include tableware, kitchenware, stoneware and crockery, telegraph insulators, decorative porcelain pot lids and bases used for pomades and skin creams, hard rubber combs and hair picks, marbles, buttons, bone and ivory toothbrushes, tobacco pipes, toy tea set pieces, china dolls and a variety of other objects, all of which are routinely found damaged or broken.
The term historical digging has been in use for decades, though it is not clear when it was first coined or who initiated its usage. It may apply to any form of privy digging, dump digging, metal detecting and scavenging specifically for older things (see book Past Objects), and even "sludging" depending on the age of the materials being encountered in a given location. (Sludging is digging and sifting through the sediment build up of municipal storm drains and old sewers in search of coins, jewelry, old metal badges, knives, marbles and other things.[1]) Historical digging was mentioned in two different articles written in the late 1990s, "Making It Work, Through Bottles, Darkly, Glimpses of the Past" (New York Times May 30, 1999) by Nina Siegal, which gives her rendition of a historical dig at the home of an heir to Johnson & Johnson, and “Excavating Tiny Treasures” (Dollhouse Miniatures, September 2000) by Eliza de Sola Mendez, where historical digging is referred to directly as a pursuit separate from conventional archaeology[2]
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When a rogue digger is observed excavating within national parks or active archaeological sites, from a legal perspective, they are in fact looters.[3]
Historical diggers emphasize that they apply their efforts to areas under development, locations where privies, dumps, landfills and residential backyards are in the process of being permanently altered or destroyed during a major re-development. Historical diggers may also appear to conduct their work after archaeologists have concluded their efforts.[4]
An average dig or investigation will be conducted on a property where an old home or business once stood. One of the most frequent spots to attempt to locate, is the defunct privy vault, particularly one dating to the mid 19th century as this is a key time in bottle manufacturing history. A privy vault is essentially a brick, stone, or woodlined hole in the ground which once supported an outhouse. While in use it was equivalent to today’s septic tank and was also a likely place to deposit empty bottles and other garbage from time to time. Since most of these holes were filled in a century or more ago they are often very difficult to locate.
Construction sites and old industrial areas, early landfill deposits[4] and shorelines are also potential areas where the remnants of glass, porcelain, pottery, leather, bone, wood and metal objects can sometimes be found.
An important time for glassmaking and bottle collecting is the middle 19th century, known among collectors as the ‘patent medicine period’ (bitters) or the ‘pontil medicine period’. During the 1840s, 1850s and 1860s a plethora of remarkable designs, colors, names and outlandish claims and promises became indelibly linked with medicinal glass containers. Many other striking bottles were being produced then as well, such as mineral waters (Excelsior Springs or Saratoga Springs), sodas and beers, inks and historical flasks.
The pontil rod, which leaves a distinct but variable scar on the base of a bottle, went out of general use around the time the Civil War ended (1865) and is inherently linked to serious historical digging. During the 1850s and 1860s assorted clamping mechanisms known as “snap cases” and similar devices began being used to grip the hot bottles once they were removed from their molds.[5] From then on the pontil rod was basically no longer needed for this maneuver and it quickly disappeared from commercial bottle manufacturing. Unprecedented examples of pontiled bottles of all types were made in the decades just prior to this important change in bottle making but they are very difficult to find, in any condition, underground. It can take years of persistent digging and searching to unearth just one intact example of a pontiled bottle worthy of a serious collector. In many places they are not found at all. Despite the very low odds, historical digging produces some fine examples of rare pontiled bottles each year. Rare embossed bottles in vibrant colors, those with raised lettering denoting contents, proprietor’s name, address and other marketing information, which date to about 1835-1865, are among the most sought after in the world; numerous reproductions of these kinds of bottles have flooded the retail market in recent decades.
Mouth-blown bottles without a pontil scar on their bottom are known as “smooth base” bottles. Early smooth base bottles from around 1855-1875 generally look identical to their pontiled predecessors. Lacking only the variable pontil scar on their bases they are not usually anywhere near as valuable as their earlier pontiled counterparts can sometimes be. Including examples blown in the same molds and produced in the same colors as their slightly older pontiled relatives.
Many bottles found on historical digs were still being mouth-blown and the lips formed by hand tooling devices as late as 1910-1915. These are considered late period smooth base bottles, still made by hand, and are collected around the world by bottle enthusiasts, artists and others. In most cases these late period smooth base bottles have a low monetary value but are relatively easy to find on most historical digs. Those produced between the 1880s and 1915 being the easiest to find as they were manufactured and subsequently discarded by the tens of millions annually. Like earlier pontiled bottles, an endless variety of shapes, sizes, colors and assorted embossing are known to exist and from time to time rare and valuable examples of these late period handmade bottles can still be found on historical digs and elsewhere. By 1903 the first fully automatic bottle machine, the Owens Automatic Bottle Machine, was patented. By the end of World War I (1918) almost all bottles being produced in the United States were made by some kind of machine. Machine made bottles, particularly screw top examples from about 1920-1950s, are among the easiest to find and generally much less valuable than their handmade cousins.
Demographically, historical diggers are a diverse mixture involving basically anyone who digs to find of old things. No matter how dedicated or prolific a particular individual or organization might be, historical diggers generally do not get paid for their digging, researching and documenting efforts; viable grants for this type of work are very rare. Reputable historical diggers and digging clubs have mission statements which focus on education as well as ethical conduct within the field.[6]
Historical digging has been exceptionally popular in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia. By definition historical diggers are not professional archaeologists, but operate as small scale independent investigators. Their work has things in common with treasure hunting and garbology but is none of these exclusively. Actual treasure is rarely found excavating in this manner, and digging through garbage is only one aspect of the process.
Though compelling to outsiders and newcomers, and of concern to archaeologists and other academics, most discoveries of significant or valuable items are the result of long hours of active searching through many channels. The vast majority of things discovered while historical digging do not have a high value in the antiques market or anywhere else. Moreover, many historical diggers give important objects to museums[7], historical societies and other places. Some rebury caches of incidental things that are exceedingly common or too damaged to warrant storing them indefinitely. Only a very small percentage of diggers attempt to make a living solely off the things they have excavated in privies, dumps, metal detecting and the restorations and artwork resulting from pieces unearthed on their sites (New York Artifact Art).
Many clubs fall under the umbrella of historical digging. By 1970, over 100 bottle clubs with thousands of members had been formed. Members of these clubs make their efforts (research, digging, salvaging, preserving) available to the general public during annual bottle and artifact shows, and share for educational and recreational purposes through article writing[8], lectures, photography, books, films and websites (The Manhattan Well Diggers).
Documentation of this type of work can be found at the various free online websites, through coast-to-coast historical digging and bottle collecting clubs and elsewhere. Historical digging clubs and magazines (Antique Bottle & Glass Collector Magazine) have been responsible for helping form and maintain bottle museums (National Bottle Museum) and provide other services which are readily available to the general public. These organizations (see Federation of Historical Bottle Collectors) strive to elevate awareness of items of interest that are discovered around construction projects, major renovations and during backyard digs each year. They also raise awareness of what is being lost to development or otherwise overlooked. Historical digging clubs have antique-glass experts and other knowledgeable historians among their ranks and overall a wealth of information can be accessed through them.