7796/20737
Into the vegetable patch where I once found a prehistoric goddess statue/piece of melted plastic, this morning, to see what we could fine. We chose a corner of the fairly well dug over vegetable patch to begin excavations and I marked out a rough square to dig in. We found bits of glass and plate and a big cup handle and a Volvic water bottle cap. Ernie also found a weird blob a bit like the one I found. So this is probably where cavemen made their votive offerings. I opened up another trench a bit further over and there was more glass, but then very quickly I unearthed an almost complete bottle (and I fear that the only reason the top was broken was because I hit it with the spade. It was made of green glass with little bubbles in it and looked fairly old. I had not really anticipated finding anything from before 1980, aside from broken crockery, so this was a really surprising thing to find, so quickly and within such a small search area.
We washed out all the dirt and I took some photos and put it online and the general consensus was that this was some kind of generic (possibly medicine) bottle from the late 19th Century. What a find. There were whole weekends of Time Team where they didn't get as much as this and we'd done it in about 20 minutes. Not since they found Richard III as soon as they started digging has an archaeological dig been so successful.
It's really pretty glass and a lovely object to discover. Ernie also found a weird cylindrical stone which is probably from a caveman's table leg, so it was a pretty successful dig.
Phoebe came out too, but isn't as into this as Ernie, who is keen to dig up our own small garden when we get home. Though we might try his other grandparents' garden, which has a small wooded area where they have apparently found a few Roman remains.
It's nice that we have a shared interest and I've always been fascinated with digging up the past and did a couple of proper archaeological digs in the 80s (leading to my play Excavating Rita). Like Ernie I always wanted a metal detector as a kid. And also as an adult. But I realised today that I can now do anything I want because I am 56 and so I finally bought a metal detector. Why have I waited so long?
It's a dangerously nerdy hobby to get into and I spend enough time traipsing round fields moving around stones together. But if we can go out father and son, then maybe it won't be so bad. Maybe there might be a sitcom in the idea. Oh.
Luckily I have little ambition to write anything for TV any more so this is my retirement plan. I'm done. Looking for treasure is my new job. This isn't going to be a passing fad like jigsaws. This is it now. This is who I am.
