Laboratory |
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A trailer-laboratory set up on one of the targeted
city blocks received the flow of artifacts from the
field and provided rapid identification and dating
of various items. This system aided excavators in
dating subsurface features such as walls and cisterns
and in identifying areas requiring more extensive
testing.
In
order to expedite artifact processing, lab technicians
sorted and classified artifacts in the trailer.
While many significant and unique items were saved
for later curation at the Texas Archeological Research
Laboratory, other items such as rusted metal and
non-diagnostic ceramic and glass sherds were reburied
at the site after they had been counted, classified,
and carefully documented.
Among
the many interesting artifacts found were cosmetic
jars and French perfume bottles, buttons, jewelry,
a quantity of wine, champagne, and other liquor
bottles, medicine and chemical bottles, and a variety
of ceramic tableware ranging from English transfer-printed
wares to soft paste earthenware brought in from
Mexico.
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| Excavators
found in one privy a strikingly disparate array of
highly personal items, among many: an enamelware chamberpot,
a spittoon, a celluloid vaginal syringe, the remains
of a douche bag, porcelain Frozen Charlotte dolls,
ceramic and glass marbles, buttons, beads, and a sherd
of a dainty handpainted porcelain cup inscribed with
the poignant motif, "A Think of Me." Other
artifacts encountered were a spur, amber snuff bottles,
a kaolin pipe bowl, a bone playing die, a blue poker
chip marked with a crescent moon and club, and an
English transfer-printed lid to a tooth powder jar.
The latter, dating to the 1840s and 1850s, is one
of the earliest artifacts recovered. |
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