Some recent finds and preservation work from Byrnside’s Fort

Much of the fun of metal detecting – especially at an historic site – is cleaning up the items, figuring out what they are, preserving them, and then comparing them to everything else you’ve found. Together, they tell you a story of what happened there long ago.

A common result of digging in the yard around the fort:

Firearms related items, and there’s a lot more as well….. Lots of lead roundballs, many fired. Some broken gun flints, triggers, etc.

Some fired roundballs and broken gunflints
A “clipped” Liberty Cap large cent, 1790s.
Some finds preserved from nearby Elmwood
  • Knee buckle, when found
  • Note the buckle just below the knee. This is how these were used.
  • Knee buckle, post-preservation
18th century knee buckle
  • Padlocks with a key, before preservation, and as finished, below. They were highly corroded, but came out well.
  • Post preservation padlocks
Old padlocks and the key to one of them
19th century pocket knife, part of it anyways

Lots of blacksmith made tools, and other items:

  • Construction tools. A splitting wedge. Various small wedges of different widths, and a broken tang off of a hand auger, at lower right.
  • Broken tang off of a hand auger.
Various construction tools and related items
piece of a broken tobacco pipe, 18th century style
Ladle or pot handle, blacksmith made, with a hanger on the end.
A broken ladle or pot handle, the part where it attaches.
The blacksmith made handles cleaned up.
Blacksmith made “Suffolk Latch” blacksmith made, probably 18th century. This is about as early as it gets, as far as American door latches go.
Misc. other items recently found and cleaned up.

Some horse related stuff:

Horse related items and decorations. Note the bit in the horse’s mouth.
  • Figure 4: An assemblage of artifacts found together in a passageway at the Addison Plantation (18ST175). The iron buckles, saddle tree bracket, brass saddle nail, nearly complete curb bit, and small stirrup represent a side saddle left in place when the house was destroyed by fire ca. 1730.
Other fancy decorations from early colonial era saddles, as well as some identical matching cufflinks?

To be continued…..

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