Monday, October 03, 2011
Dig Day 16. We were supposed to finish today but the two outhouse pits are deeper than I expected and are filled with huge amounts of trash from the 1890s to early 1900s.
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Allen and Tyler's outhouse yielded some interesting items early in the morning- a hard rubber comb (the fine teeth suitable for removing lice and lice eggs) and a clay pipe. You don't find many of those in Tucson, most people smoked cigars and cigarettes.
Comb and pipe.
Comb and pipe.
The adjacent outhouse, where Barry and Chris worked, seemed like it wouldn't have much at first.
Barry cleaning off some bottles.
Barry cleaning off some bottles.
But all of a sudden there were a zillion bottles. My favorite is the one with purple ink still staining its interior, 100 years later.
Bottles from one eight-inch-thick (20 cm) level , there were many more broken ones.
Bottles from one eight-inch-thick (20 cm) level , there were many more broken ones.
Back in Tyler and Allen's outhouse, the number of bottles also dramatically increased.
Complete chamber pot.
Complete chamber pot.
Also found were a clock, a huge brass thingy, a corset, shoes, enema bags, a coin, dolls, figurines, a vaporizer, dishes, a glass pitcher, buttons, a hot water bottle, doll dishes, etc.
Bottles (I recommend clicking on the picture to see things better).
Also found, the skeletons of dozens of chickens and doves/pigeons. In some cases the dirt around them was stained brown from their decomposed bodies. Apparently some chicken disease struck a coop and the people just chucked them down the outhouse shaft. That must have been very smelly.
I can already tell that healthcare will be one of the topics my report focuses on. There are many prescription and proprietary medicine bottles, along with a large number of medical devices (we must have over a dozen enema devices).
