TECTONATOR
Senior Member
Last week, my son and I are detecting in a public park. Way in the back, I get a .50 signal. I dig my plug...target is not there. Now it says it is deeper. I dig down to about 7" and hit a steel plate. I find the edges and realize is is a round lid. I only uncovered a portion of it. It was dark and cold and I didn't bring a shovel, so I decide to leave it. Plus, I didn't want to disturb anything that was part of the city sewer system or something.
Well, curiosity got the best of us and we went back a couple days ago with a spade and uncover the whole lid. Further inspection showed it to be a very old 5 gallon steel bucket firmly packed in the earth. I pop the lid off, leaving the drum in the ground. Nothin' but dirt. I dig down a little more and find black asphalt about 2" from the top. I wasn't in the mood to dig out a whole 5gal bucket filled with asphalt, so we threw the lid away and covered it back up.
Okay...now curiosity is getting to me again. Who buries an upright bucket full of asphalt DEEP into the ground? Considering the location, it was obviously something that they didn't want others to find. At first, I thought it was buried just to get rid of the asphalt. But...that would take a lot of digging to bury something like that! Maybe it was buried during some construction (back fill), but it was sitting perfectly upright at least 50' from any building.
If there is something in the asphalt, it would think it would be perfectly preserved. What would you do...go back and dig it up again or leave it alone?
Well, curiosity got the best of us and we went back a couple days ago with a spade and uncover the whole lid. Further inspection showed it to be a very old 5 gallon steel bucket firmly packed in the earth. I pop the lid off, leaving the drum in the ground. Nothin' but dirt. I dig down a little more and find black asphalt about 2" from the top. I wasn't in the mood to dig out a whole 5gal bucket filled with asphalt, so we threw the lid away and covered it back up.
Okay...now curiosity is getting to me again. Who buries an upright bucket full of asphalt DEEP into the ground? Considering the location, it was obviously something that they didn't want others to find. At first, I thought it was buried just to get rid of the asphalt. But...that would take a lot of digging to bury something like that! Maybe it was buried during some construction (back fill), but it was sitting perfectly upright at least 50' from any building.
If there is something in the asphalt, it would think it would be perfectly preserved. What would you do...go back and dig it up again or leave it alone?
