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Hey fellow archaeo-philes, want to help me out with some artifact identification (and do some of the work for me *wink)? I’ve been slaving away in the lab trying to identify the artifacts we excavated from our survey in Driftwood this past summer, and while I’ve had some luck with most of them a few still remain a bit of a mystery. Artifact identification is always kind of tricky, but when it comes to artifacts from the recent past (late 19th to early 20th century) it can be challenging. While there might be better documentary evidence from this time, the sheer number of new technologies and styles that appeared with the advent of our current consumer culture is staggering!

Both of the artifacts pictured above are from the historic Driftwood neighborhood in southern Pinellas county. Artifact A was found in a trash dump near a historic house along with lots of bottles, household garbage, and building materials that probably date to the mid to late 1930′s. It looks to be made of unglazed porcelain (although it doesn’t look very fancy) and is a piece of what might have been a hollow tubular object.

Artifact B was also found in one of our Driftwood shovel tests, but this one was located along the shore of the bayou. It has the dimensions of a stick of sidewalk chalk, but this artifact is definitely not made for writing with!

I need your help! What could these items have been used for by the past residents of Driftwood? Don’t be shy, think outside of the box and let me know what your guesses are!

Check back on Friday I’ll let you know my guess for Artifact A…. I’m still in the dark on B!

**UPDATE**

Well, Lucy is Queen of the lab for this week for being the first to get it right (although that doesn’t surprise me as she is a professional at all this!) But thank you all for your comments and ideas! Check back next time for some more mysterious artifacts, and you too might be king or queen of the lab.

Artifact A is indeed part of a tube for knob and tube wiring. According to this article from SHA, knob and tube was a popular wiring method from around 1890 to 1930. The tubes were used to protect wires as they went through beams (and to stop those wires from touching flammable building materials and then setting your house ablaze). It was a popular method of wiring because it was cheap…..although it did have some drawbacks….

The cheapest form of concealed wiring is the knob and tube system… The system is used chiefly in frame buildings, where a cheap piece of work is desired… With this system, the wires are not protected from mechanical injury, and there is always the possibility that they may be damaged by workmen during construction or by rats after the house is in use. The wires may sag against beams, lath, etc., or they may be covered by shavings or other flammable material during construction so that an overheating of the wires or a short circuit might start a fire (Cook 1917).

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Moral of the story, knob and tube will probably set your house on fire so the best place to find it is probably in the archaeological record. Surprising that we still don’t use it today…

As for B I’m going to go with Lucy’s suggestion of a carbon rod for a battery, although that was probably one big battery.

Thanks again for your help and suggestions! For me, artifact identification is one of the most fun parts of “doing archaeology”. You get to put all the little clues together to paint a picture of what was going on at a certain time in the past.

Cook, Arthur

1917          Electric Wiring for Lighting and Power Installations. John Wiley &  Sons, New York, NY.

Myers, Adrian T.

2010        Telling Time for the Electrified: An Introduction to Porcelain Insulators and the Electrification of the American Home. Technical Briefs in Historical Archaeology 5:31-42.