Accidental Archaeologist

I can’t remember the first time I thought it would be cool to be an archaeologist. I know it was by time I was in junior high school, because that’s when Lucy was found in Ethiopia. The fact that people and buildings and whole villages were buried beneath the ground we were walking around on interested me immensely. The fact that archaeologists could look at fragments found at these sites and tell stories about what those people looked like and ate and used for tools was even more interesting to me. I never became an archaeologist, but was interested enough to take several years of courses at university.

The other day, I was digging a hole so I could move the baptisia, and came across this nail. It’s round and about 6 inches long. I’ve seen similar nails in Norway, but not here in the US. The nails I found in Norway were from a construction about a century earlier than my house.



A few years ago, I did some research on my house and know it was built in 1916. But, I don’t know anything about construction materials that would have been used at that time. Could a nail like this have been used in the construction of my house?! I guess my next research project is going to be about early 20th century construction materials!

Have you found anything interesting or surprising in your gardens? Post a comment and share your story!