What Artifacts/Treasures Have You Found Excavating

[tuney443]

In 2000, the youngest Mastodon so far on the planet was discovered in a homeowners pond in Hyde Park, NY. The entire skeleton was there minus the skull. I was there with my backhoe for doing logistical digging, NEVER for finding bones. That all changed when the scientific group PRI from Ithaca really needed to find the skull. They gave me a laborer with a shovel and very luckily I found it in 15 minutes. Thrill of a lifetime. The entire Mastodon is at Museum of the Earth in Ithaca.

 

[Willie B]

Rocks, rocks, more rocks, water sometimes. Now & again a horse skeleton from 200 years ago. I'm very good at finding wires & pipes the locators sent out by Dig Safe fail to mark.
I call it a good day when I don't find anything unexpected.

 

[Willie B]

We live where the plains Indians once roamed, sadly the early settlers dismantled most of the highly visible burial sites or later residents raided many of the ceremonial sites then destroyed much of the remaining evidence much of it inadvertently by farming the ground.
Our place was also terraced in the 1940s so any trace of previous lives was permanently eliminated.
Still can walk creek lines as a neighbor does and find a odd arrow or spear head where are sites along the river edges that settlement sites have been detected. Find carbon deposits from fires and broken pottery shards but much is trivial.

My tax preparer dug a pond by hand near the Creek a couple towns north. His collection of Indian artifacts is impressive! No evidence of any permanent Indian settlement here, but Otter Creek runs north, Battenkill runs southwest. Only portage would be 300 yards. Battenkill empties into the Hudson River, Otter Creek, into Lake Champlain, then Saint Lawrence Seaway. It'd be possible to travel by water round trip with only one short portage. I imagine pre European settlers, a journey overland would have been very difficult.

I find discarded boots, broken pieces of wagons, debris from burned down house.

I bought my home lot in two purchases from two different sellers. There were once two houses here. The second purchase was from an old man who left as a 12 year old child after the house burned down. Said he kept the property another 80 years because of a gold bar his mother had. He described it as big as a bar of soap.
Before excavating for the garage, I searched with a metal detector in vain. Tons of hardware, pottery, glass, and wagon parts. Only gold was a gold plated bracelet. The workmanship was excellent, but gold component is minimal.

 

[Willie B]

I did a demolition job somewhere around 2000. After I took down the house and buried it with the excavator, I used the Posi-Trac with a cutterhead to clean up the surrounding area of any loose debris and vegetation. I found out months later that I took the tops off of several mason jars filled with silver dollars somewhere in that yard. The owner found them and recovered them.

Other than finding some marijuana fields on government ground and lots & lots of logger's cables everywhere I've worked, no major treasures. Odd pieces of junk like tractor transmissions, wheels, tramp iron, RR parts - all hiding in the bushes and waiting to kill my teeth - lots of that crap always costing me money.

My father in law had a crude tennis court. He also had the foundation of a burned down barn. I spent a Sunday rooting around the barn foundation, threw all the wire debris various handymen had discarded of rusty chicken wire, and lots of barbed wire up onto the concrete floor.
A week later, I proceeded to Bush Hog the overgrown mess. Hadn't gone far when I wound a mass of wire up around the stump jumper. Had to cut most of it away, then remove the blade holder assembly to clear the rest of it. It needed 3 new seals for the gearbox. Brother in law had found time to throw all the wire mess back into the brush. I've never known whether malicious, or stupid.

 

[Willie B]

On a new site grabbing and getting things ready for the rest of the equipment when it shows. Since this site sets on Indian land, we have an Indian artifacts saver guy, a biologists an a geologist working with me. It's interesting what they find and flag off for further inspection. This interesting little specimen......I'm not sure what if any historical, biological or geological significance it has......but I went around it anyways . Figured I'd leave it for the grade checker to deal withView attachment 240144

Many years ago the site of a former Civilian Conservation Corps camp was repurposed as a Youth Conservation Camp. A new power line was needed. Local excavator was there, my father & I as electricians, and a dozen US Forest Service employees.

A car approached. It was a Federal archeologist. She had documents that no digging could proceed until she had examined looking for artifacts. The job was a sealed bid project, so nobody was happy about a one day job taking 4 while this nut job sifted through the dirt.

 

[DMiller]

OK so this from the last employment site. One of our Radwaste techs was Chief Joseph's great grandson(Nez Perce), Terry, nice guy defined as Native American by appearance, has since left this Earth from lung Cancer(Smoked a pack and half a day EVERY Day for seeming ever) since he was 10.

Anyhow I had a event on the Night Shift in Radwaste, was changing the turbine building drains discharge filters("Clean" water) when I saw a shadow move down the filter row aisle about 45 feet away. The aisleway has doors to valve and equipment rooms that be design were nasty hot either by the liquid flow heat or from Nuke Zoomies HOWEVER were kept open to minimize the need to open them as were missile shield doors(Solid 2" steel and had little effect on rad levels. It was on the furthest door I saw said shadow move.
Finished my filter swap and placed back online then went looking for the Funny Fkr that was trying to stir me up. Nobody around, only two stairways and both visible from the filter skid so no one came up or left. Looked for lamp glare or a bad Sodium lamp bulb(tend to swim and flicker, NADA so went back to duties, cleaned up filters area and trash and saw that shadow move on that damn door again, walked down the aisle, NO WAY SHAPE OF FORM was there any lamps that could cast a shadow from any component in that area and that particular valve room the lamps were all burnt out. Mentioned to Terry, he stated FLATLY that while he was there during construct of the plant excavation workers had found a Indian Burial site, right where the RW Building was to be situated, so on the quiet all the materials were moved to a debris site and covered up(Still there as he knew), he had similar events as a NON Hostile spirit roamed the building halls, caused shadows, lights would fail(not bulb failures) or bangs or clicks from rooms with no machinery in them.

Saw that shadow one other time, and after never again before retired.

 

[Willie B]

OK so this from the last employment site. One of our Radwaste techs was Chief Joseph's great grandson(Nez Perce), Terry, nice guy defined as Native American by appearance, has since left this Earth from lung Cancer(Smoked a pack and half a day EVERY Day for seeming ever) since he was 10.

Anyhow I had a event on the Night Shift in Radwaste, was changing the turbine building drains discharge filters("Clean" water) when I saw a shadow move down the filter row aisle about 45 feet away. The aisleway has doors to valve and equipment rooms that be design were nasty hot either by the liquid flow heat or from Nuke Zoomies HOWEVER were kept open to minimize the need to open them as were missile shield doors(Solid 2" steel and had little effect on rad levels. It was on the furthest door I saw said shadow move.
Finished my filter swap and placed back online then went looking for the Funny Fkr that was trying to stir me up. Nobody around, only two stairways and both visible from the filter skid so no one came up or left. Looked for lamp glare or a bad Sodium lamp bulb(tend to swim and flicker, NADA so went back to duties, cleaned up filters area and trash and saw that shadow move on that damn door again, walked down the aisle, NO WAY SHAPE OF FORM was there any lamps that could cast a shadow from any component in that area and that particular valve room the lamps were all burnt out. Mentioned to Terry, he stated FLATLY that while he was there during construct of the plant excavation workers had found a Indian Burial site, right where the RW Building was to be situated, so on the quiet all the materials were moved to a debris site and covered up(Still there as he knew), he had similar events as a NON Hostile spirit roamed the building halls, caused shadows, lights would fail(not bulb failures) or bangs or clicks from rooms with no machinery in them.

Saw that shadow one other time, and after never again before retired.

Our local school (it seems) has been cursed since before its construction in 1966. The couple who donated it, Steven Currier & Audrey Bruce Currier (Andrew Mellon's granddaughter) (she inherited about $900,000,000 in 1959), disappeared 1967. No remnant of them has been found. A multitude of smaller tragedies has befallen the school since.
In a conversation about why, MRS. B replied, "It was built on an ancient Indian burial ground."
She thought it was a flippant remark, had no basis in truth. That rumor spread & has come back to her a number of times.

 

[Allan M]

OK so this from the last employment site. One of our Radwaste techs was Chief Joseph's great grandson(Nez Perce), Terry, nice guy defined as Native American by appearance, has since left this Earth from lung Cancer(Smoked a pack and half a day EVERY Day for seeming ever) since he was 10.

Anyhow I had a event on the Night Shift in Radwaste, was changing the turbine building drains discharge filters("Clean" water) when I saw a shadow move down the filter row aisle about 45 feet away. The aisleway has doors to valve and equipment rooms that be design were nasty hot either by the liquid flow heat or from Nuke Zoomies HOWEVER were kept open to minimize the need to open them as were missile shield doors(Solid 2" steel and had little effect on rad levels. It was on the furthest door I saw said shadow move.
Finished my filter swap and placed back online then went looking for the Funny Fkr that was trying to stir me up. Nobody around, only two stairways and both visible from the filter skid so no one came up or left. Looked for lamp glare or a bad Sodium lamp bulb(tend to swim and flicker, NADA so went back to duties, cleaned up filters area and trash and saw that shadow move on that damn door again, walked down the aisle, NO WAY SHAPE OF FORM was there any lamps that could cast a shadow from any component in that area and that particular valve room the lamps were all burnt out. Mentioned to Terry, he stated FLATLY that while he was there during construct of the plant excavation workers had found a Indian Burial site, right where the RW Building was to be situated, so on the quiet all the materials were moved to a debris site and covered up(Still there as he knew), he had similar events as a NON Hostile spirit roamed the building halls, caused shadows, lights would fail(not bulb failures) or bangs or clicks from rooms with no machinery in them.

Saw that shadow one other time, and after never again before retired.

I can see that you're a Harley guy (me too) so I know that you're not BSing. I think I'll keep my distance from your neck of the woods. Best, A

 

[CM1995]

Dug this boiler up last year.





The boiler came from this area right next to an arena that was built in the '70's. Nobody alive remembered it was there.



Might have been the chimney/flue but who knows. The hole was a 90 bend full of bricks and other debris.

 

[Bumpsteer]

A few horseshoes while repairing field tile.....best one, l was digging a basement under an old farmhouse (a house moving company lifted it). Took a bucket full with the Bobcat and a hibernating woodchuck came sliding down the bank. As he was trying to figure out wtf just happened, l thumped him in the head with a shovel.

Ed

 

[donkey doctor]

Why?????

 

[DMiller]

Destructive little digging machines!!

 

[Coaldust]

I was trying to keep a spread of 10-wheelers and a old Komatsu PC400-2 running on a sub-division job on Prince of Wales Island. Found some Hudson Bay trading beads on the beach. May have been Russian-American Co. beads. IDK.
There was an old cannery site nearby.

 

[tuney443]

Found the skull to this big guy, a 12K year young Mastodon that was in a homeowner's pond in Hyde Park, NY in 2000.

 

[Tinkerer]

Found the skull to this big guy, a 12K year young Mastodon that was in a homeowner's pond in Hyde Park, NY in 2000.

Quite an amazing discovery !
https://hudsonvalleygeologist.blogspot.com/2013/07/hyde-park-mastodon-in-ithaca.html

 

[Tinkerer]

I uncovered and had to remove a beautiful arched brick brewery tunnel in the early 1970's.
I had to punch a hole in the arch to begin removing it. It was amazing how strong that arch was.
I have forgotten how long the tunnel was. It was interconnected with more tunnels. About 2 feet of dirt covered the floor of it. Unfortunately there were no artifacts in it.