Dirt Nuker
Elite Member
So last week I was in Virginia at the Montpelier plantation of President James Madison as part of their archaeological program. Pretty cool week. Learned quite a bit. Who would pass on a free chance to detect the grounds of a former President even if you didn't get to keep anything?
Anyway, I was chasing probably my 25th nail. They love nails there. It tells quite a bit about when the land was used and can give them an idea on what the land was used for by the head and shape of the nail. So I hit another run-of-the-mill nail signal. I dig a simple plug in the god-awful Virginia soil and popped it up. On the side of the plug I see a glimpse of green. It was glass. I knelt down and picked it up and saw there was some writing on it. Took a look, fell back on my ass and said "Ho---ly sh*t!". One of the archaeologists comes over and I told him "You're not going to believe this" and I handed it over. His eyes popped out huge and he shouted "NO F***ING WAY!". Well, that drew a bit of a crowd in no time.
What I pulled was a wine bottle seal from the personal collection of President Madison. If it wasn't his, it belonged to his father but the staff seemed pretty sure it was President Madison's bottle.
Easily the best find I've ever found, even if it wasn't metal and was 100% pure luck. Doubt it will ever be on display since it's not intact but it's still pretty cool. Maybe one day the rest of the site will be excavated and more of the bottle will be found. I attached a pic of one that is in one piece.
Here's one that's intact.
Here's a better pic of what the bottle looks like:
Anyway, I was chasing probably my 25th nail. They love nails there. It tells quite a bit about when the land was used and can give them an idea on what the land was used for by the head and shape of the nail. So I hit another run-of-the-mill nail signal. I dig a simple plug in the god-awful Virginia soil and popped it up. On the side of the plug I see a glimpse of green. It was glass. I knelt down and picked it up and saw there was some writing on it. Took a look, fell back on my ass and said "Ho---ly sh*t!". One of the archaeologists comes over and I told him "You're not going to believe this" and I handed it over. His eyes popped out huge and he shouted "NO F***ING WAY!". Well, that drew a bit of a crowd in no time.
What I pulled was a wine bottle seal from the personal collection of President Madison. If it wasn't his, it belonged to his father but the staff seemed pretty sure it was President Madison's bottle.
Easily the best find I've ever found, even if it wasn't metal and was 100% pure luck. Doubt it will ever be on display since it's not intact but it's still pretty cool. Maybe one day the rest of the site will be excavated and more of the bottle will be found. I attached a pic of one that is in one piece.
Here's one that's intact.
Here's a better pic of what the bottle looks like:
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