By Rebecca O’Sullivan

It’s that time again archaeo-philes…..time for you to do my work for me! I’m still slogging through all the artifacts we found out at Driftwood last summer, and while the majority has been fairly easy to identify (lots of ceramics, glass, and building material) there has been the odd surprise now and then to keep me on my toes. So I submit to you once more gentle reader two puzzling items to ponder throughout the week.  Think outside the box, dig deep into your unconscious, or dip into your vast professional experience and help me figure out what these things are!

Artifact A was quite the surprise when we found it about 80 centimeters down in a shovel test along the shoreline of Big Bayou. Even though the hole was quickly filling with stinky bay water, our volunteer extraordinaire Thomas spotted something shiny in the muck at the bottom. Artifact A is oblong in shape with a narrow rectangular opening in the center. It also has a channel that runs along its circumference, and measures about 3.5 cm long by 1.5 cm wide. It’s very shiny but don’t get too excited, we brought Artifact A to USF’s own Dr. Robert Tykot for XRF analysis in order to find out what it was made of. Dr. Tykot’s analysis revealed that it was made of copper and zinc, also known as brass. Any thoughts on what this brass item could be? Just fyi….in this area of the neighborhood we were hoping to find evidence of a late 1800s post office run by the Bethell clan, could it be something related to the post office? Boaters that frequented the area? Or something else entirely?

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Artifact B flew under the radar a bit when it was uncovered as it was found in the shovel test that also intruded on an early 20^th century bottle dump.  The fragment of porcelain electrical tubing you guys so expertly identified last time was also from this feature. Upon closer inspection back at the lab however, this mystery item really started to pique my interest.  It seems to be made of pot metal or some other kind of base metal and has some writing on one of the tabs. The writing reads “PATENTED JULY. 16.07. FEB. 27. 17. MAR. 18. 19. PAT PEND” So what are your thoughts on this one? Is it some kind of building material related item? Part of a sonic screwdriver (extra points if you get that reference)? What do you think?

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There are no wrong answers, and I’d really like to hear what your guesses are! I have my ideas but what do you think? Check back on Friday to find out who is this week’s King or Queen of the lab, and I’ll let you know what my guesses are plus some other tantalizing tidbits!

***UPDATE***

Sorry I have taken so long to get back to you, but there have been some VERY exciting developments on the Artifact A front. So exciting in fact that I will be devoting an entire blog post to it, so check back for that one! I will give you a hint though, it involves a post office and the Smithsonian Museum!

As for Artifact B, seems like nobody had any guesses for this one. Can’t really blame you, it looks like the sort of thing you see all the time but completely ignore because it is part of something else. Lucky for me that this small component is marked with patent numbers!

If you haven’t already checked this out, I highly recommend wasting a few hours at work by checking out Google’s search-able database of patent information. I use it all the time in ID’ing artifacts and it is always super handy. Not only is it useful when you find a patent number inscribed on some random item, but I was even able to find design patents for specific bottle types that we found in a trash pit out at Driftwood.

Having patent information is great because it gives you a definite starting date for the production of an item (known to archaeologists as a TPQ or terminus post quem), meaning that artifact couldn’t have been deposited before its earliest production date. It’s also fun to see a bunch of crazy old inventions… here are a few of my personal favorites (ridiculous motorcycle, terrifying “nasal appliance”, finger puppet, and a spork).

After comparing the patent dates from Artifact B with patents I found using Google patents it appears that B is some part of a window screen or window sash. The patent dates (1907, 1917, and 1919) also fit with the time frame of the other artifacts we found from this trash dump.

Thanks for reading, and make sure to check back next time for some more exciting artifacts and the stories they tell about the past!