Likely periodic and singular drops,
Dave. Also, all of those deformed buckshots (with offset halves) were most
likely "dumped" right after being seen. I used to be surprised by how
many perfectly good lead balls were being left behind, but it is like that in
every military and Indian site I've ever hunted, so folks were just incredibly
wasteful when it came to lead.
Greg Shipleys notes
Here are
the recoveries made during our two day Phase1 investigation, on Nov 3rd & 4th
(2023). I'm still working on preserving the iron artifacts, which are mainly
harness buckles and hand-forged nails, but all of the lead, brass, pewter, and
non metallic artifacts have been cleaned and cataloged, now. I wanted to begin
excavations on this new site in an area that David Johnson's research and
published information indicated was in close proximity to where the US military
fort had stood, so that was the reasoning for our initial 40'x40' farm field
grid units being established where they were.
Four of the eight total Phase1 units were opened and completed, with five
fire pit/trash midden features being located, excavated, and GPS position
tagged. Being just outside of the Ft Amanda stockade area, we encountered a
steady scatter of discarded and/or lost fort period materials, as shown in
these photos. As this Auglaize County outpost was constructed by KY militia
and, later on, manned by Ohio militia, the 30 button recoveries are civilian
clothing types: flat brass w/ soldered on eyelets, molded and lathe turned
tombacs w/ brass eyelets, and a couple of partial cast pewter types. Also, 2
brass cuff-link buttons were recovered, with one example bearing an
"A" or "H" monogram. Also, 3 gunflints (2 prismoidal &
1 spall), 3 brass tacks, 5 small pieces of Indian trade silver, several
sheet brass scraps, and fragments of English china and bottle glass (from the
pit features) + the complete forged-iron "make do" table fork, all
being representative examples of what the militia soldiers manning Ft Amanda
had with them, while stationed at this Ohio frontier outpost.
Along with masses of burnt and marrowed animal bones, from daily garrison
meals, which we recovered from the 5 sub plow-zone features, the most prolific
period artifact type recovered during our investigation was "lead".
578 total lead artifacts were recovered and cataloged during our two day dig
project: lead musket and rifle balls (.62 caliber down to .36 caliber) = 83,
buckshots (many with offset mold cavity alignment deforms) = 224, and lead
scraps (including cut mold sprues, slag, molten drips, etc) = 271.
Note: the 1780 Spanish silver 1Reale coin and an 1843 Large Cent (from
three decades after the fort period) recoveries are not pictured in this relics
composite, as they were found outside of grid units 1, 3, 4, & 5. A few
lead recoveries were detected north the outside of our excavated area, during a
detecting recon for future excavations planning purposes, and these items are
cataloged as " N" (for north of our grid units).
Obviously, this much material being recovered from plowed ground and on a site that has seen much surface hunting and some metal detecting activities done, is an indication that there is tremendous opportunity to locate more War of 1812 era materials and to locate important deep features related to the Ft Amanda structure and outlying buildings. This initial activity was a success and, thanks to the property owner, Mr David Kriegel, and historian/author, Mr David Johnson, I'm excited with this new opportunity to investigate another Ohio frontier era site, which has been neglected for far too long.
Greg Shipley's Notes
After Doug Penhorwood had finished dozing our
Fort Amanda site excavation area back in and our group members had handworked
everything, nice and level, we did some field surface metal detecting in areas
I'll want to excavate, next year. One very good detector signal ended up being
this 1780 Spanish silver 1Reale coin, which I dug from only six inches of depth
in the disturbed plow-zone layer of this farm field. Both sides of this 243
year old coin exhibit scars from being churned around by agricultural tillage
activities but it is always a thrill to find a coin, from Spain's colonial
period, on an Ohio historical site. This is the first fort period coin to be
recovered during our Wayne's Legion Research Group activities on this War of
1812 site but, hopefully, more will come to light, during future excavations,
here