Sedimentation rates should vary some due to flora, topography, etc. However, one site I found mentions “Sedimentation rates average about 0.3 m/1000 years.”
If it’s a garbage pile, lots of people dig holes to bury their garbage, or it could have been plowed or covered with fill, or been somebody else’s garden and the ground turned.
I doubt that metal would have lasted all that long, particularly the shearing pin type pieces.
Round here, farming has disturbed the soil so much that a lot of times, depth doesn’t really mean much…
Yeah, but a hole in the ‘midden’ argument is that we’re not seeing and depth to the find. It’s all occuring within one strata. I would assume that a midden or trash heap would show artifacts over a considerable depth.
You never did make your ‘shearing pin’ argument.
On the farming issue…
While there is farming around here there hasn’t been farming on our 2 acres as long as there have been european settlers in the area.
Our land has been a big house, a roadside inn and a smithy over the last 200 years. When a residence in the 1800s and early 1900s nearby land was farmed but not the area in question nor anywhere within 100 yards of the area in question.
I’m sorry, I thought it went without saying, but on second thought, it clearly doesn’t. O rings, shearing pins and files are the kind of things you would expect to find together.
On these gaskets and joints, you typically have to score the metal, and file out irregularities to get a clean seal.
If that’s the remains of a repair on an old truck or tractor, one would be pulling out and replacing shearing pins all over the place.
Those old tractors and trucks had hundreds if not thousands of shearing pins at every joint and juncture.
You can help me out with the gasket theory by telling me a little more about the O ring. Is it thin and flat, or rounded? If it’s rounded, does it have a flattened top and bottom, or is it curved on all surfaces?
A metal gasket will be thin and flat. If it’s for a flexible joint (like on a tractor, it will have a flat portion, top and bottom.
If it’s round all over, it could be anything.
I’m guessing it’s flat, because those protrusions are distinctly gasketlike, to me.
Jonathan said:
Unless your midden is in the fields, or in what looks like an old field we are talking 200 +/- 30 years.
Early settlers tended to bring everything with them, especially the homesteaders. Are you finding any beadwork? Could you post a pic of the hole? from the top and side? Close-up.
Lots of factors are involved. Sedimentation - is it close to a water source? Impacted leaves, tilled soil. Is the soil dark and smelly or light and earthy?
Rasa Per fundamental law of Public Archaeology -
Project Manager says, “Antiquarian and his team have unearthed viking material never before found in this region…”
CEO says, “So we are on schedule for opening day right?”
I know that law only too well…
Scylla - on closer inspection the top looks rounded and the bottom possibly flat. There are protrusions at 11 o’clock, 7 o’clock and 6. The rusting is extensive. I do not have much knowledge of early mechanical tractors, got a date range??
If you look here
that should bring you to a picture of a gasket with potrusions similar to yours (the tan one.) Yours being an older gasket, it will not have the holes machined into it.
From the size (I just saw the ruler) I’m guessing it’s an oil seal or water seal from the front of an old engine.
Looks to small to be from a flexible joint.
Feel free to come down and dig here. We’ve already put the patio on hold.
No pix until Lady Chance gets back from a business trip over the weekend.
The area is roughly 15-20 feet outside of a guest house that contains the foundation and one wall of the initial cabin on the land.
Nearest water source is a small stream maybe 50 yards away and downhill. The stream is maybe 3-5 feet wide and can dry up completely during droughts.
The find location is between the guest house and the big house (where we currently live). It exists in a triangle with another structure: a spring house. The spring house has been dry as long as anyone knows but the hand pump in there dates (in my estimate) from the 30s or so.
The round piece (I just noticed the question) is rounded all over as best we can tell. The rusting is extensive.
I’d love to come down and have a look, but I just got back from a three month stint on travel!! Our next project is in Ohio little far from where you are.
If it’s a midden, I’ll guestimate it was in use quite a while ago, long before the main house was in use. I say this only on close perusal of what you found…Bear claw, iron works, various sherds of early 19th century pottery… Period wise, these people lived off the land, what they had was most likely very valuable to them i.e if it ain’t broke don’t throw it away.
Rounded all over, that would rule out a gasket. My vote is either some sort of Hearth tool/instrument or a cooper’s tool.
One side rounded would still be a good candidate for a gasket, like in one of the bell type oil filters. The curved end goes into a rounded groove, and the bell bolts down over the gasket through a bolt on the top of the bell.
If that’s what it is then you should be able to see the imprint of the bell as a line running through the flat side of the metal.
The age range is tough, and will vary greatly with what the gasket was for.
The tang for the file suggests a wooden handle, and decent machining ability (not smithed.) If we assume they go together, that means we’re looking at a time when engines were in use, but hard rubber and heat resistant rubber like for gaskets and handles on tools was not around.
Early 1900s? Maybe up to 1920, 1930 on a stretch?
This is kind of fun. I’d really like to nail down that O ring.
Scylla - check out this it is a Hart-Parr tracter circa 1890. Scroll the pdf to page 5, shows you the internal gears. You may find what you are looking for there. I’ll look for another link.
Gee, when I dug in my yard, all I found was some sheetrock that the builder was too lazy to haul away…
Neat stuff, JC! This is a really educational thread!
Is the potrusion at seven oclock a real protusion like the other ones or just a bit of rust?
And one more question:
Is the ring thickest in the middle and sharp and thin on the inner and outer edges?
If you stood it on its edge, would it look like this: () ?
Unless you just stumble upon a midden, what’s the best way to try to locate one? Are they for instance usually downwind from a house?
Lieu - I think most will agree the best way to find a midden is the unexpecting way. Happening upon one and not knowing it it there is a wonderful way to spend a weekend, figuring out what you have, and developing a wont to find more.
From an archaeological point of view, if you are on a homestead or parcel of land known to be old, look for several things.
[ul]
[li]gardening areas, rear of old barns, patches of greener or off colored grass[/li][li]the non-property side of a stone wall.[/li][li]Under stone cairns[/li][/ul]
Not necessarily down wind, but also out of the way. In Jonathan’s case it is quite close to the house. A midden can hold any number of things, bones, nails, broken glass/ pottery. Many of the commonly discarded items of the times.
I agree this is a great thread…I have a long commute to Newton tonight so I’ll pick back up in the morning…
Scylla did you google search or see the link to Hart-Parr tractors circa 1890? You may find what you are looking for in the forums…
I was born too early… I think experimental archaeology is really REALLY REALLY cool! Wish I could do it…