Bottle Dumps

TheCoilist

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Aug 16, 2010
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Virginia
So, along the river where I know an old ferry used to be, I found a large cut in the (now) 20+ foot high ridge. In this ridge a lot of modern trash has been dumped but just on the other side in this cut were TONS of bottles and the layers kept going down and down. I pulled some 25 or more bottles from the early to mid 1900's from this location already with hopes that the rain will soften the dirt more to get to the older bottles.

But being my first bottle dump find can anyone give me some pointers on what to look for, how to excavate, and maybe the history behind bottle dumps? I mean why would they dump bottles in these areas?
 
Look for some depressions in the ground, visible trash or bottles on the surface, and check the seams. Probe the area if you believe there would be a privy somewhere around there. To dig the dumps, go around the area marking where it ends and start digging. The history of bottle dumps is pretty simple. People wanted somewhere to put there trash so they dumped it just about anywhere. They didn't have sanitary systems going. The farmers sometimes dumped trash to reduce soil erosion. Check ridges, ravines, and creeks for bottles, those would get their trash very out of sight. Normally the older bottles are near the bottom of those types of dumps.
 
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